Meta History: Passivity in History!
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2024
- A somewhat rambling video about passivity in history and not looking at certain minor actors or factors in history as being passive and only attributing activeness to the “powerful” actor & factors in history.
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This video is part of the meta history series: • Metahistory
And can also be seen in the all history playlist: • All history
#metahistory #history #passivity #historicaltheory #theory
I hope you liked this video rambling about passivity in history. Please, don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also, please like, subscribe & push the bell icon as those actions do help this channel to grow!
a seminar i took in grad school touched upon some of the goofy revolutionary types who thought that they had to help trigger historical processes, lots of Revolutions and Terrorists seem to fall into this too, it was also kinda shocking to see how some people saw The Terror in Revolutionary France as inspirational and used them for later inspiration 👀 it also seems many modern people think that if they "get ideas out there" or change material conditions to "wake people up" also sorta believe this........ as though clicking LIKE or 👍 or protesting or rallying will be the straw that breaks the camels back and pushes history forward 😋
@@beepboop204 It oft en is caused by a world view that is very centered upon oneself, which does make other seem as "passive props" where oneself becomes the center of action and since you are the "actor" & your actions are the only ones with meaning "props" can be sacrificed.
Though this is not to say that all activists are people like that, and some political actions can be actually productive, and the revolutionary favor that the first French revolution caused did also, despite all its terror, arguably lead to better things in the future. But, yes twitter like politics and lone-man, or small circle, terrorism do not really lead to meaningful change.
@@theculturedjinni the sort of "great man theory" stuff is like that too, its interesting how some of those debates go way back to the Greeks and the nature of political organization
@@beepboop204 Yes one actor, and everyone else are reduced to passive props around him and yes debates about political agency and the like have a long history where the discussion about people and elites and their agency visa a vie their passivity has been a reoccurring subject of discussion.
@@theculturedjinni seems like a system of bullies and sycophants doesnt it
Great topic. History, the stories we tell ourselves about the past, is not passive, it is actively creating the present and future. That was my first thought when I saw the title but you have given me new food for thought. Thank you.
Thanks for the nice comment!👍
Yes regarding history creating the present & future, that is also very much an important point too, history is in a way a creation and what we include in it is very much an active act that shapes our understanding of our own present & future and hence influences it. Hence, considering the passivity of various actors here is a rather important point. And I am glad I have given you food for thought!👍
@@theculturedjinni Nice follow up. Well said.
Very good video. It's too often that we hear people saying things like "If this event had not taken place then it would have been different". However this thing happened for a reason, an agenda and you cannot exclude that from history for convenience.
This is very much true and in this you must take into account also the smaller actors and factors which also contributed to history playing out as it did, because history is not the result of just one thing.👍
Excellent example on the Maronites of Lebanon. Another similar group is the Alawites of Syria.
And a lot of other groups have done similarly elsewhere too. But yes, I could have mentioned the french mandate territory of the Alawites too, and even there you also had resistance by people such as Saalih al-3ali who organized the first great uprising against the French in the area.
Good video as always, can you make a video about misconceptions about history?, like for example "history is written by Victors" which makes me angry since individuals like timur lenk defeated all of his enemies but still, he is cursed by the history and his raids and massacres are well known
👍
I am glad you found the video good and yes I can make videos about common misconceptions such as your mentioned "how history is always written by the victors" which is sometimes wrong due to various reasons. Consider it written up on the to do list! (which honestly is quite long, but I will get to it)
@theculturedjinni thanks
ive read a lot of Heidegger and continental/existentialist people and i think the whole "end of history" business is fascinating. doesnt seem very many modern people ask questions about what history is, what our part in it is, where we are going, etc. maybe they are good questions to consider. Heidegger of course thinks that we need to start off thinking about what should be thought 😉
There is a very heavy meta-discussion about how we define history and how we have lost touch with our place in a greater historical context where we have begun to think that we are separate from it, and that it no longer affects us or that we are also not limited by our own historical context and situation. It is a sort modern hubris in a way, where we think we are beyond reality, because that is the opposite of what history is i.e. trying to seek how past reality is connected to us in present reality on a greater meta-level.
Though I personally reject Heidegger and some of his claims of phenomenology, I do agree with the statement that we need to think about what we think about and re-prioritize a lot.
@@theculturedjinni my favorites are Heidegger and Wittgenstein, and i think there are lots of fascinating similarities. Wilfrid Sellars would be the most mainstream guy i obsessed over in grad school 😂
@@beepboop204 Wilfrid Sellars is a guy I have wanted to get into but never got the time to read (might need to correct that)
@@theculturedjinni give into peer pressure, all the cool kids are doing it 😁
Thank you for addressing how many historical narratives shared are over simplified.
History like you say is a lot more complex. You mention a lot of actors that are proactive.
Also Muhammad was from one of the elite clans of the Quraysh, the Bani Hashim clan. Abu Talib was his protector while his followers were unsafe. This showed the class system in place.
Many overlook why he went to Medinah. That is because his Mother and Grandfather had a connection to that city. On top of that the Awz and Khazraj tribes wanted someone as a mediator.
I actually smiled when you mentioned Omar Mukhtar, the one who revealed against Italian occupation of Libya. In the film it's portrayed that it was the Italians alone who captured him. I didn't know that it was local Libyan allies of the Italians who caught Omar Mukhtar.
👍 Yes, it is true that in the case of Mohammed he was from an elite clan, but still considering just how far he went it is still very impressive. And yes Omar Mukhtar was caught due to aid from local allies to the Italians and it showcases the complexity of how colonial powers interacted with various people and utilized tactics of divide and rule.
@@theculturedjinni oh yes and also we have to see that Bani Hashim's status did diminish after the death of Abdul Muttalib. Abu Sufyan became a more prominent figure.
Yes even in Indian history, it was deals with local rulers that helped the British occupy the Indian subcontinent. Technically they didn't even rule all of ancient India, but only half the states/provinces. Hence why the partition was a very reckless move on part of Britain.
@@Mustafa70116 Yes, the British empire would never have been able to control the Indian sub-continent if it was not for at least some support from the local men of power. And yes the partition and the entire deal with Indian independence was a very reckless move that despite all the bad things happening from it could have ended a lot worse too (seriously it could have been way more bloody then it was).
7:13 Yemen: the Graveyard of invaders.
Indeed, the Ottomans were not the first to suffer from trying to take over Yemen, before them you had for example Saladin who tried to take it over, and spent considerably more resources doing so than he ever did against the crusaders, only to temporarily occupy a small part of Yemen. He more or less bankrupted the Ayyubid dynasty trying to take it over.
Do you have any further reading or books you would recommend on this topic. Also, I would be interested if you would make a video on books you would recommend people to read. And would you be up to talking about your video on why you shouldn't moralize history? I strongly disagree but there are parts where I agree with you, and there are a couple of questions I want to ask. I would ask about the original video, but I'm not sure that you would see them.
👍On the topic of this video, it was mostly based upon my own experience regarding history, what I learned studying history and from various professors and from what I, myself, see as a reoccurring issue. It is also that a lot of the material that I read regarding this back in the day was mostly in Swedish, but David A. Chappell is someone in English that also has written about this regarding indigenous pacific people and has problematized the aspects regarding activeness and passiveness in history & the complexities that exist with regard to this.
Regarding recommending books in a video, I have considered doing a video where I list the various important culturally significant works that I think people should read in order to be "cultured" and also as an aid to greater understanding of both European Christian civilization and the Islamicate Arab world. Like a literary canon of both in 2 videos. But I guess you talk more specifically about history?
Also I am 100% open to questions regarding my older videos, if you comment on them I will respond to the comments. But you can ask here too about my video about not moralizing history.
@@theculturedjinni "But I guess you talk more specifically about history?" I was referring to that, but I think that would also be great. As for my thoughts on not moralizing history, I will write it here, since it's easier for me, but it might take a while for me to collect my thoughts/write them all out. Kanak Awakening and Double Ghosts seem very interesting, so thank you for bringing them to my attention, I'll share my thoughts if or when I decide to read them. Also, one aspect of history that I enjoy is learning about other people's perspectives/how people thought and viewed things in the past. Do you have any interesting books regarding that?
@@triplex3007👍 Please take your time, I will answer when you put forward your questions.
This aspect of difference in worldview is very enjoyable. Going into history I have also had liking for understanding how differently people thought differently in the past & I know a lot of books like that. But, you will have to be a bit more specific as many works about history deals with this and it very much depends upon the specific area and subject discussed.
Though, sometimes even more interesting than people being different in the past is just how similar they are in certain respects too. It does not matter if you are a farmer in the medieval Arabic world working within a waqf agreement or on a dihqan estate or a modern person in the western world hired for a job, you still want to ensure your fair due of the work and that you have food & a roof over your head. In these regards most of humanity are very similar. It should also be noted that what at first appear very different can in fact be rather similar too, sharia and the fiqh (jurisprudence) traditions around it in legal matters rather than ritual matters is in the end mostly a law system rather similar to other systems (most law is about property rights, trade regulation and such stuff) and has served the same function as other law systems too, keeping order in society.
@@theculturedjinni For specific stuff, I would say the questions I have now are
1. How people thought about chivalry or honour and how did they practice it? What happens if a person is highly honourable in one respect, but is not very honourable in another?
2. What did people think was a good general in the medieval era? What qualities did a general need and how did people think battles/wars were won? Charisma, being a good tactician/strategist, cohesion, religiosity and piety, logistics, or bravery; did people think these were important, what other things did they consider, and what emphasis was placed on each factor?
3. How people thought about marriage and love, I read an interesting article on it (origins.osu.edu/article/real-marriage-revolution) and I would like to hear your thoughts, considering reading Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage.
4. How people thought about democracy/republics in the pre-modern world, maybe Venice and the Roman Republic specifically?
5. How people thought about the Roman Republic/Empire after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and before the Early Modern Period?
6. How people thought about wage laborers/merchants in the pre-modern world, I've read that wage laborers weren't well respected, as well as merchants?
7. How the nobility/elite saw the peasantry and how the peasants saw the nobility/elite in a society? In the High/Late Middle Ages, but any time/place could do.
8. What was the role of music in society? Maybe focusing on Italy in the High Middle Ages, but any place time/place in the medieval era would do.
9. How did people justify slavery in the pre-modern world, and how did people feel about slavery? This question also applies to other kinds of forced labour such as serfdom.
I feel like I haven't reduce the vagueness in some respects, but I this is mainly because I don't know the difference between how people thought (for ex.) about wage laborers in, let's say, the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century, compared to France in the 13th century, so any request about a specific time/location is somewhat random, so feel free to focus on any time period/place specifically. In addition, do you know any books that are a good introduction for the medieval era for Europe as well as the Middle East. I also read your other comment about Saladin failing to conquer Yemen and the expense incurred, I would like to learn more about that.
I asked quite a few questions, so feel free to respond to my questions in parts, and if your question doesn't exactly fit the time period/place then that's also fine.
Edit: Add some trouble with links, and the comment not showing up, so I had to reply multiple times.
@@theculturedjinni I think for some reason my replies are being deleted?
My replies aren't showing up, so I'm going to test if a comment works.
Test
@@triplex3007 Well, they showed up for me when I looked now c.11 hours later and I have answered your post with all the questions!
I do not know what happened, these comments were visible to me and they were not in the spam filter, so it is probably just UA-cam being weird.