"But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in... I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all -- it is very tiresome" --
Catherine Morland in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1817)
I've never liked history. In high school, history was a total bore. I guess the way it was taught was not properly thought of, since we saw history as remembering dates of events that happened so long ago, it scarcely bears significance today.
Now though, I see history differently. I see it from the human perspective, the people who changed the course of human endeavour. And from this perpective, history is exciting... almost as good as a Dickensian novel (and way better than a Naipaul).
The more I look back at the way things were, and look upon the way things are, I am convinced the human endeavour is weak, and that we are sliding backward, not only in terms of accomplishment, but also in the journey.
There are people in history whose lives are inspirational, not because they deliberately set out to be that way. It was just the way they lived, when life meant being and giving your best, at all times possible.
So men like George Washington, Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, Churchill, Abe Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Booker T Washington, Thomas Edison etc fascinate me. I'm not forgetting the women either, women such as Marie Curie, Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, et al are equally interesting.
One observation I made though is that when America was young, barely putting roots into the world so to speak, the leaders were men larger than life, men whose words were every bit as awe-inspiring as their deeds. Great leaders all, despite setbacks.
Then fast forward a few generations in the future and we have Bill 'did not have sexual relations' Clinton, and George 'Dubya' Bush... what a let down.
And in Trinidad we've watered down from men like Selvon, Butler and Rudy Capildeo to imitations of the ilk of Pa-trick and Panday.
I wonder that I've been born at the wrong time.
Now though, I see history differently. I see it from the human perspective, the people who changed the course of human endeavour. And from this perpective, history is exciting... almost as good as a Dickensian novel (and way better than a Naipaul).
The more I look back at the way things were, and look upon the way things are, I am convinced the human endeavour is weak, and that we are sliding backward, not only in terms of accomplishment, but also in the journey.
There are people in history whose lives are inspirational, not because they deliberately set out to be that way. It was just the way they lived, when life meant being and giving your best, at all times possible.
So men like George Washington, Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, Churchill, Abe Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Booker T Washington, Thomas Edison etc fascinate me. I'm not forgetting the women either, women such as Marie Curie, Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, et al are equally interesting.
One observation I made though is that when America was young, barely putting roots into the world so to speak, the leaders were men larger than life, men whose words were every bit as awe-inspiring as their deeds. Great leaders all, despite setbacks.
Then fast forward a few generations in the future and we have Bill 'did not have sexual relations' Clinton, and George 'Dubya' Bush... what a let down.
And in Trinidad we've watered down from men like Selvon, Butler and Rudy Capildeo to imitations of the ilk of Pa-trick and Panday.
I wonder that I've been born at the wrong time.
