Yeah, the Romans won. And then they lost, albeit it a slow degradation, withering into a fraction of their former glory and subject to "Biggus Dickus" jokes. (::grin::)
I find it frustrating that people can watch a sports team go from Super Bowl to 1 and 15 and get it, yet don't realize that cultures can do the same thing. "Winning" is a matter of circumstance, not some magical properties. History is an important field of study for that reason; the study of people and culture and what happened can only help to clear away the ideas that winners are always winners, losers are always losers, and that "the times long gone" are either good ol' days or bad ol' days. (They're just days.) If you learn anything about history, especially from first-hand sources, you find that it's a series of grey areas and variations and changes and people doing what people are always doing.
(The Mongols are pretty friggin awesome. I, too, love me some early-early time periods and AD "barbarian" cultures, but no matter how much I love their art there's no way in hell I'm living there, either. Which is why, I suppose, I appreciate doing early period reenactment and experimental archaeology stuff so much; I can know that it's not really the way it was, but can choose to swim within the context as I'm comfortable. The people who believe that the reenactments are true-to-life are, I'm afraid to say, barmy. As barmy as those who believe that the American 1950s were a bastion of peaceful home life and moral certitude. :))
Which is why I thank the teachers and professors that urged me to question everything and House who will always serve as a reminder that 'everybody lies'.
I had one of those. He was a fantastic teacher. I was in my first semester of some pretty science-based study, and I came away from his paleontology class with an almost knee-jerk response to question everything.
"Everybody lies", though, I learned a year or two before when doing some translations of the Venerable Bede. He made all sorts of shit up so that the people on the British island would seem like Crazy Pants-wearing Freaks to the civilized empire. "Venerable", indeed.
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"Even babies lie, and the stars don't cry."
Date: 2008-01-05 11:51 pm (UTC)I find it frustrating that people can watch a sports team go from Super Bowl to 1 and 15 and get it, yet don't realize that cultures can do the same thing. "Winning" is a matter of circumstance, not some magical properties. History is an important field of study for that reason; the study of people and culture and what happened can only help to clear away the ideas that winners are always winners, losers are always losers, and that "the times long gone" are either good ol' days or bad ol' days. (They're just days.) If you learn anything about history, especially from first-hand sources, you find that it's a series of grey areas and variations and changes and people doing what people are always doing.
(The Mongols are pretty friggin awesome. I, too, love me some early-early time periods and AD "barbarian" cultures, but no matter how much I love their art there's no way in hell I'm living there, either. Which is why, I suppose, I appreciate doing early period reenactment and experimental archaeology stuff so much; I can know that it's not really the way it was, but can choose to swim within the context as I'm comfortable. The people who believe that the reenactments are true-to-life are, I'm afraid to say, barmy. As barmy as those who believe that the American 1950s were a bastion of peaceful home life and moral certitude. :))
I had one of those. He was a fantastic teacher. I was in my first semester of some pretty science-based study, and I came away from his paleontology class with an almost knee-jerk response to question everything.
"Everybody lies", though, I learned a year or two before when doing some translations of the Venerable Bede. He made all sorts of shit up so that the people on the British island would seem like Crazy Pants-wearing Freaks to the civilized empire. "Venerable", indeed.