Swindon: “What will history say?”
Burgoyne: “History, sir, will tell lies as usual.”
George Bernard Shaw, The Devil’s Disciple
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
It seems that many Glibs have at least a passing interest in history as well as how it is currently practiced professionally in the U.S. As such, I thought an account from inside the belly of the beast may be of interest. At first, some years ago, I had thought to write a single piece on history and postmodernism in order to provide food for thought. However, I decided that a whole piece on that topic might be too arcane even for this group. Thus, this broader overview. And, even if there isn’t much interest, it might be used by TPTB to fill some space (they’re even letting me do links once every other week for God’s sake).
So, this series will be a more general look at the history of history. We’ll be skipping over tens of thousands of years in the first couple of installments. Once I get to the late nineteenth century, I’ll slow things down a little. At some point in this series, I’ll probably throw in more personal experiences and observations where appropriate. I don’t know how many pieces this series will consist of. It’s also entirely possible that it won’t last much longer than what is probably the shortest TV broadcast run in history. That said, let us start in the beginning…
Part the First: Providential History
History is a story written by the finger of God.
C.S. Lewis
God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
Samuel Butler
There have been historians at least as long as there have been human beings and probably much longer than that. It seems likely that at least some cave art was a type of storytelling. And, storytelling is, often, a type of history. Not a grand sweeping history, but a history of a particular group of people. However, barring the development of time travel, we’re never going to know for sure.
Fast forward ten of thousands of years, and we find Leto II Atreides ruling the universe the emergence of multiple stories attempting to teach the history of the world and of mankind. In almost all cases, these accounts blur, if not obliterate, the line between human and providence so we can call these accounts providential history. All these types of history have a political and/or moral goal. One of the oldest such accounts is the Sumerian King List which purports to record the reign of all the kings of Sumer.
(Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)
The oldest surviving version dates to about 2100 B.C.E., but almost certainly this version was based on even older tablets. Some aspects of the history are clearly not literal (the first king was supposed to have reigned for 30,000 years). Now, I don’t specialize in anything approaching ancient history, so my conclusions are drawn from reading accounts by those far more qualified. Based on those, I conclude that most historians who study this period believe the basics of the list are probably correct and that it was first compiled to legitimize the ruling class of the time. If this interpretation is accurate, then both Gilgamesh (of Epic fame) and Enmerkar (credited with the invention of writing) were real people, Gilgamesh lived around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E. and Enmerkar around the late fourth millennium B.C.E. Whether the details of either of their lives were even vaguely related to those in the epic poems is unknown.
A similar kind of history is the Legend of the Suns, compiled by the Nahua/Mexica (f.k.a. Aztecs) peoples. It is on this account that historians of Latin America base their idea that the Mexica believed in a cyclical universe ruled by the gods. According to this understanding, when the Spanish arrived in central America, the entire world was in the time of the Fifth Sun.
(Vatican Library)
The source of the information for this history has its own fascinating history. It is largely taken from the Codex Chimalpopoca. Based on oral histories and archaeological studies, the original source for the Codex was a Mexica pictograph which was destroyed on the orders of the Mexica rulers in the first half of the fifteenth century for “errors” and “blasphemy.” Before being destroyed, scribes were ordered to rewrite the history in script – presumably with the errors corrected. The re-written manuscripts were destroyed by the Spanish as works of the devil. However, some form of copy or revision or re-write was made, presumably from memory and/or oral tradition. The surviving manuscript is still listed in the catalog of the National Institute of History and Anthropology in Mexico City, but has been missing since the middle of the twentieth century.
A third history of this type is the one that many of us would be familiar with – the Judeo-Christian testaments. Here I’d like to look at the first six books of today’s bible, Genesis through Joshua. I find this particularly interesting because of the evolution in our understanding of the origins of these books. For centuries, of course, even the most highly educated believed these books to be accurate historical accounts. Archaeologists claimed to have found proof that the Earth had stood still as explained in Joshua 10 (some Christians still support this view and so do some other, umm, original thinkers) . The ages of men like Methuselah (died at age 969) were taken to be true and the subsequent decline in ages a consequence of original sin. The authors were taken as claimed in the bible: Moses wrote the first five books (although most conceded that someone added Deuteronomy 34) and Joshua wrote the eponymous book.
However, the emergence of more objective scholarship challenged these beliefs (I’m not discussing here whether the bible is divinely inspired or not, or even if it is precisely accurate. I’m concerned here with the ways historians analyze it). Based on language, style, and some of the content, it is now accepted that the written versions of the books we have were created long after the events they describe. They were also written to advance a certain message. And, I should note, that not all such interpretations came in more recent times. John Calvin declared that the idea that Joshua wrote the book of Joshua “rest[s] on weak and insufficient grounds.”
(Israel Museum)
That said, I think it worthwhile to also consider it likely that the stories in these biblical books almost certainly existed as oral histories for centuries, if not millennia, before they were reduced to written form (as was also the case with other histories we’ll meet in subsequent installments).
None of the above are objective histories seeking an accurate, dispassionate account of the past. But they are most definitely histories in the broadest sense of the word.
The next installment will deal with the emergence of the first efforts to write “true” history.
You lost me at BCE, what era? What event created the new era, hmmmm.
And it is historical
Before Christian Era?
When the PC police came the AD and BC we all learned become CE and BCE.
Common Era and Before Common Era.
The first time I saw that was in East Germany, no shit.
Totally makes sense to me that commies would have developed it.
My personal favorite is the required CE mark for European electrical goods and the China Export mark.
Funny how it makes it possible to mistake one for the other…
https://www.kimuagroup.com/news/differences-between-ce-and-china-export-markings/
Yeah, I know. But when I write (professionally) that’s the standard.
And I don’t think anybody will fault you for it.
I do chuckle when it’s used discussing historical Christianity, however.
Sensei: yeah, it’s totally hilarious because how does one define the “common era” and what event marks its beginning?
It’s rather telling that they keep the dating system, but feel compelled to change the name.
Don’t get me started. . .
That’s what I thought the first time I encountered it some years ago.
From the link:
So bestiality in the current era is A-OK, but fat jokes are a bridge too far. Great story, however.
probably the shortest TV broadcast run in history
8 minutes longer than Heil Honey, I’m Home. Although that was the entire first episode and not cut halfway through.
Wow, never heard of this. Worked better for Cleese.
I have the Heil Honey I’m Home episode somewhere.
Here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9jJx0NSjw
Still on YouTube.
+1 Jerry
Should have gone with the butler!
I can actually stay on the history topic. I usually watch most of the new anime shows usually watching the first and sometimes second episodes before I cut down to around 10 shows.
Allow me to present what I assumed was going to a typical show about high school after school clubs. In this case it was bowling. I assumed it was just going to the usual formulaic crap. I was wrong.
Turkey! Time to Strike
Instead they lose a bowling match, get pissed of with each other, and time travel to the Sengoku Period.
I’m willing to still give it a chance until they rescue a samurai being held by bandits with, naturally, their bowling balls. OK, I’m out…
Now the Sengoku Period is really interesting. It doesn’t get enough coverage in the study of history in the west. Highly recommended reading.
All I know about Japan’s history I learned from Mishima’s Sea of Fertility.
Good stuff, if you haven’t read it.
Don’t use Shogun!
IIRC, Kurosawa’s Kagemusha is set during the Sengoku Period.
FKA Aztecs? If they aren’t going by that name anymore, a whole lot of lowriders are gonna have to change their tattoos.
Great piece, RN.
Yeah, I don’t understand all the linguistics, but I think Mexica are kind of like a subset of the Aztecs and the Mexica led the migration and establishment of the empire.
Kind of like saying “Europeans settled Virginia.” Technically correct (the best kind), but you can be more specific.
Without knowing any of the details I would just guess that it had something to do with political correctness. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Seconded. I really enjoyed this.
This is a lot of fun. My unoriginal thoughts on the Bible’s historical ‘truth’ is based on the oral tradition part of it. I personally don’t believe *a* Jesus existed, but he (He?) is a useful collage of different folks’ (perhaps intertwined) tales. Street ‘prophets’ in town become popular, along with their their ideas. Put a few of ’em together with their experiences and teachings, mix in Pilate and crucifixion, (add several hundred years of talk and lore) and you’ve got yourself a coherent religious story.
I think all religions are 1) ways to calm the soul for the unknowing uncertainty that awaits after life; 2) stories to keep groups of people in check, to add punishment for daily and universal crimes. (And ‘blasphemy’ for when heretical People speak ill of the Powers That Were.)
The eco-religious have such an easy transition for their God, for Sky Daddy to frown on them from the clouds. (I really hate how damn religious people are about that shit. And the blatant “Indulgences” people buy to offset their s̵i̵n̵s̵ carbon footprint. And their fucking ‘Scientific’ clergy. *many frustrated grrrrgle noises* NEWSFLASH: Humans remain human. News at.. well that *is* the news. Always and ongoing.)
This video from 6 years ago showing Israeli soldiers doing an obstacle course says a lot about where their priorities are (social media flame wars) vs where they should be (basic infantry skills):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz8_v59F778
In contrast, here’s what elite American infantry (Army Rangers) do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtzO7AR0N0
The above is overkill, but it does separate the sheep from the goats.
For comparison, here are the US Army obstacle courses everyone has to do in basic training:
Combat Conditioning Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_XWfBdHgr0
Confidence Obstacle Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKevTcQKic
There’s also the rappelling tower. You climb up, rappel down, climb up again via rope bridge than back down via cargo net.
Ah, Treadwell Tower at Fort Sill. Treadwell was a baller.
***
By March 18, 1945 was serving as a first lieutenant in command of Company F, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. During a battle on that day, near Nieder-Wurzbach in Germany, Treadwell single-handedly captured six German bunkers. He was subsequently promoted to captain and, on September 14, 1945, awarded the Medal of Honor. Treadwell was wounded in March 1945, and after hospitalization, he returned to duty with the Infantry School at Fort Benning in March 1946.[3]
According to Signal Corps photo 210821, Treadwell received his MOH from President Truman on 23 August 1945. [4]
***
I often daydream about owning a large piece of rural land (someday!) where I can built a running path with obstacles like that along the way. Every day I’ll run it and do monkeybars, rope swings, the tires on the ground that you jump through, the low thingy that you crawl under, the climbing wall thingamajig… Seems like excellent whole-body fitness.
For Moses’ sake, how hard is it to find some yahoos willing to do extra guard duty on Simchat Torah? Isn’t that basically the Jewish version of Groundhog Day?
Oh yeah, and make sure the tank and sentry guns can point *up* in case of drones or someone trying to fly over the wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5vPfqtJBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XILraSBqC8k
Here is the “Nasty Nick” from Camp Mackall. It is required for all SF wanna be students at SFAS.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/u-s-navy-sailor-i-tried-the-special-forces-program-and-it-broke-me/vi-AA1zYfIx?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6875e3f1fe2b4ac5848d21adf36d4b7f&ei=135
Holy shit I am getting old. I knew that LTC in the video when he was a kid playing with my kids.
There’s the reason I was a “leg”.
I didn’t have any stinkin’ badges
What the fuck is that pussy bullshit? Goddamn. I came along in the wrong generation.
In perhaps unrelated news, IDF suicides are way up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxwcO21FIw
I always told myself and others “I cannot self-terminate”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2wHj-emwI
Do we have any British Glibs?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmvvy2d9p4o
I wonder if that is the same cat that was supposedly prowling around my hometown the other day.
Rawr!
suggested music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LLb8EBU9nQ
“limey” has been very sparse around here, which makes me sad.
I was fascinated with history as a kid almost as much as science. There were many books in my house about both due to my father and mother’s text books and my parents getting books from the local library sales and gifts from my large extended family.
Pre-recorded history still interests me, like buildings, the only recorded history still around in the modern era was either made of stone or found in arid areas. What was around in the 100’s to 20 of thousands of years of pre-history is still largely a mystery after a few ice ages and post flooding.
What would NYC or CHI look like after an ice age and a few hundred let alone a thousand years. Lots of metal oxides, concretions, and rotting wood buried under meters of rock, dirt, and or water.
What would NYC or CHI look like after an ice age and a few hundred let alone a thousand years. Lots of metal oxides, concretions, and rotting wood buried under meters of rock, dirt, and or water.
You forgot the legions of fossilized homeless people and their bodily waste left on the sidewalk.
I promise to stop doing free ads for the Army after this comment.
Treadwell Tower:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2EsGTCjLwk
suggested music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTL6phNdU7U
The GI Joe stuff was cool. When the battalion commander came around for final inspection, he asked me how I liked basic training. I said it was easier and more fun than I expected. Good times.
A proper harness and a Figure 8? WTF happened to s Swiss seat and one wrap around a steel snaplink? The Army continues to get soft.
Yeah!
*pats gut*
I think I should just shut up and go to bed. Those military training videos kinda threw me off. That is really something. I am not sure what to say about it.
Local hippie supermarket chain just unionized but they’re bummed that it’s still not a “living wage” – defined as the ability for a worker with no particular skills beyond “show up on time” to live a comfortable life in a town where the cost of living is sky-high due to deliberate policies set by the political party they support.
Whee!
Wait, did you move to my hometown? No, you are in NY state…
Stupidity is the new normal.
I console myself by realizing that it’s the same shit everywhere.
Which will they enjoy more, the shortened store hours of fewer people per shift?
I’m just wondering how much MORE expensive it can be (I visit only because it is occasionally convenient).
I ask myself the same thing on my very infrequent visits to Whole Foods… and then I find out.
While Israeli female soldiers were dancing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKr2CGKYqG0
Hamas got ready:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoIoyu3VCA8
The main lesson of history is that people don’t learn from history.
It’s best to learn from the mistakes of others. No one is lucky enough to survive making every mistake.
What point are you trying to make with all these videos?
FWIW I do not click on yootoob links without good reason – so I have no idea what’s going on with this series.
The IDF fucked up because most of those female intel soldiers on the border with Gaza had NO assigned weapon. When the HAMAS attack came, all they could do was lock the doors and hope a relief force arrived. That is beyond fucked up. Especially since some of those same intel units were warning, in vain, that an attack was coming- then that the attack was imminent. I will some credit to the IDF in their AARs of 07Oct23 have been critical of the organization, and unlike the US, senior people lost their positions.
Based on reports from the IDF on casualties those gee whiz sniper weapons haven’t been seeing much use. Plus I have trained multiple arab armies and overall their marksmanship skills would need to vastly improve to say they suck. That is not to say that there are not individual marksmen, but they are as rare as loveable SF characters.
They made some weapons and ammunition but just looking at the video I would trust a Friday afternoon made, authentic Soviet weapon found under the floor of some Vietnamese house. Same with the ammunition. Notice the video left unsaid and unshown how far away those snipers were engaging those targets.
I get your basic point that HAMAS prepared for the attacks of 07Oct23 while ISR suffered from a lack of vision, and a willful disregard of the information provided by their own units.
In the long run, Israel will lose to Hamas for the same reason the UK lost to the IRA.
There, I said it.
No amount of moral high ground can compensate for strategic flaws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYcvkrhCiR0
What exactly does defeat for Israel look like at the hands of Hamas again? Do you really think Hamas is overrunning Israel anytime soon? It’s not happening.
The only thing Hamas can do is try to survive.
A friend of mine likes to say, “The IDF is the Boise State of militaries. They’re on the top of the weakest division in the field.”
compare and contrast
Chinese kids make a movie about the last civil war there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkVsqTNkhpw
American student and mom chastised for cupcakes with toy soldiers on them
https://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/toy-soldier-cupcake-banned/2013/03/08/id/493880/
Yup, totally made by kids. Not at all propaganda by the CCP.
From the geniuses at The Atlantic:
How Intelligence Leads to Stereotyping.
A new study complicates the trope of the stupid bigot.
It’s called pattern recognition. And underneath that there’s a whole shit ton of statistics that prove stereotypes have some basis in reality.
From what I could read, the study itself sounds stupid. They showed people pictures of colored aliens and basically asked people to identify patterns based on that.
Most of the people in the study are probably so brainwashed that they consciously try to avoid doing the same thing with people of different colors even when there’s validity to it.
Cool link, bro!
Stereotypes are just heuristics and a useful ones at that. Be mindful of that and don’t judge all individuals based on them but disregard at your own peril.
I’m considering an article on my armchair archeology about Exodus. To me, it makes complete historical sense that Akhenaten could be the son of the Pharaoh of Exodus. A lot of aspects line up, however both the Biblical Scholars and any traditional historians get caught up in dating based on Biblical lineages, which we know don’t correlate to historical norms.
But that article would be a lot of work. Probably won’t do it.
It’s the thought that counts, or something…🤷🏼
John Kiriakou: Israel’s negative influence on the U.S. national security state
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5B-fzDvyO8
HE MUSS HATE DE JOOS A BLOO BLOO BLOO!
𝔾𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔾𝕝𝕚𝕓-𝕠-𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕤!
🤔🥒🌠
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFPi-kNheE
🎶🎶
https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/burger-king-worker-mom-of-3-nykia-hamilton-forced-to-run-south-carolina-store-by-herself-when-co-worker-quits/
That’s a rough looking 25 yo.
Something tells me there’s more to the story that we’re never going to get.
That we need more illegals?
Someone on her shift got fed up and quit with short/no notice? I’ve never heard of that happening at a fast food restaurant before.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pinoy/s/UKVWKmf75o
🤔
They need more meat and guns?
Dining at 7-11 has gone down hill.
Don’t bring a portable radio to a table fight.
Morning, people.
Morning Slac….shoot I over slept, I never over sleep.
Welcome to the party, pal.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey, Teh Hype, U, Ted’S., Sean…and maybe Derpy!
How goes?
Very well, thanks! The Board meeting is over for the month, so the main things I have to do today are to give final approval to payroll and order some catering for a lunch tomorrow. We’ve had some rain, so maybe it won’t be so beastly hot today.
How are you?
My pepper plant has gotten so big it’s shading my other plants, and I’m fretting over how to rearrange things to keep them well-illuminated. Had I not screwed up the radishes they might have been ready to harvest by now, but I expect if I try digging them up I won’t find anything worth the effort.
I haven’t gotten anything useful done because I got drawn back into Rimworld again. Man is that game a time sink… Which of course means I’m mad at myself for having spent all that time playing a video game.
It’s better to play a video game than to buy it and then never play it.
Sorry. That’s as close as I can come to words of wisdom before I get some more coffee in me. 🥱
☕
Mornin’, reprobates!
Good morning, ‘patzie!
RESULTS: Trayon White wins back Ward 8 DC Council seat in special election caused by his expulsion
Skipping past the bribery charge, he won with 29.7% of the vote. Plurality elections need to end.
Indeed, in order to win an election, you should have to get a minimum of 50% +1 of those eligable to vote in it, not just those who show up.
Oh dear, you’re getting dangerously close to suggesting preferential voting that so many here think is worse than Hitler.
Way to steal several bases in jumping to conclusions there.
Pilfered honey packet results in gun display in Stafford
What is the security situation at the Honey Harvest?
What’s the Honey Harvest position on paywalls?
The Honey Harvest allows script blocking.
Glibs provide security, I’m guessing there’s plenty of heat available
This AM’s WSJ. I doubt it is going to satisfy anyone.
The Inside Scoop on Jeffrey Epstein
I was his lawyer. I know things that court orders won’t allow me to disclose.
By Alan Dershowitz
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-inside-scoop-on-jeffrey-epstein-b0da1cbe?st=jnqeaE&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Especially the Jooos angle folks.
Ive settled into the fact it is part true, mostly signal noise on purpose, and we ain’t part of the big club to know what really is the truth.
Alan: “I know secret stuff”
Us: “Cool. Tell us.”
Alan: “I cant tell you. It’s secret.”
Us: “If you cant tell us why did you even open your mouth?”
Alan: “You are paying attention to me again aren’t you?”
Us: “Go away Alan.”
The feud reveals the complexity of modern Republican politics in a place where Donald Trump won 75% of the vote in 2024. Both sides invoke conservative principles. An anti-moratorium sign at a local meeting read: “Vote like a conservative! Less government. Less rules. Less regulations. Lower taxes.”
A pro-moratorium group responded in a post that, “Historically, conservatism has emphasized order, prudence, stewardship, and a deep respect for heritage…It’s about preserving traditional values and communities—not selling them off for short-term gain.”
After a Mayor’s Mysterious Death, a Land Dispute Divides Republicans in Tennessee
A development battle is splitting a deep-red county over what it means to be conservative
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/after-a-mayors-mysterious-death-a-land-dispute-divides-republicans-in-tennessee-c40d5709?st=W68rLD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink