Questioning History

Dear future historian,

I missed you.

Lots of stuff since our last 'talk.'

Finished uni exams (still waiting for results,) went to Greece for 5 days, to visit family and friends, and today I fought the dragon of Chaos in my front yard.

It was full of thorns (berry bushes) up to my height and I had to go fully in to cut them. How do they grow so fast?

Today I do not know how to interpret the new information I got lately. Weirdly (but as usually) from different sources, for unrelated reasons, in just a couple of weeks I heard that:

1. The Sahara Desert is not a natural phenomenon. It was the first human made climate catastrophe, created by the excessive agricultural deeds of our ancestors.

2. Plato was one of the first that argued in favour of totalitarianism and racism.

3. Machiavelli, some argue, did not write in favour of totalitarianism, a guide for dictators, but instead a textbook for the people to recognise the tricks that tyrants use.

I am reading Carl Popper’s, The Open Society and Its Enemies. (I highly recommend Popper’s book.)

Apparently, Plato is mostly to blame. He took Socrates humanitarian ideas and used him to promote his racist and authoritarian doctrine, that influenced the western civilisation till our days. 

That is similar to Paul, who spread (after he distorted first) Jesus’s message.

First conclusion, write your own message, do not allow disciples to mess it up.

Second conclusion, both Plato and Paul, it seems, led to the inquisition. In a way, both Socrates and Jesus led to the inquisition.

I have told you before about my fear of how you will interpret my thoughts. Or, how my texts will be interpreted before you.

I want to trust you, my dear future historian, I want to trust Life. I am by nature (or by decision) an optimist.

Popper says that the complicated way Kant wrote his philosophy was also miss interpreted. What if I am too random and complicated to convey my humanitarian and freedom ideas?

And, I have another thought bothering me last weeks. Historically, slavery probably started after the agricultural revolution. After animal farming. After the idea that you can feed and shelter someone, only to exploit them.

Some say that it was someone neurodiverse that found out how to control fire.

I say, it must have been a narcissist that came up with animal exploitation. (I’m not prejudice, why would you say that?) :-p

Whoever started it, it planted the seed in people’s minds that you can exploit other beings using deception. At least hunting has an honesty in its brutality.

I am surprised no multidisciplinary research hasn’t been done, by history and psychology scholars, into how animal farming promoted the idea of slavery.

Today animals that end up in our plates have even more cruel conditions. More like concentration camps than slaves (or even hell-like.) Did they start before the concentration camps, or did they take their efficiency ideas from them? (Note to self: check that.) 

What twisted ideas will get in peoples heads with the current treatment of animals? (I don't want to know. I want to prevent it. How?)

I read my poems again today. ‘The Moon hanging from a Tree, or something’ and ‘The Wolf Made Me Jung.’

For starters, they don’t really look like a poem. Plus, they don’t really describe my supposedly positive views. How do I hope to not be misunderstood?

They don’t fully represent my views, but they do represent my bad days. And, I did try to have a positive ending.

I’m not even sure what my views are. I do believe that everyone should be equal, that everyone should be supported without being suppressed (as long as they don’t use their freedom to suppress others.) I do believe in the unconditional freedom of speech. 

Yet, I know all this could be misinterpreted.

I do believe in Love.

I’m mostly using you to keep sane here. Not really to convey a message.

I’d like to have words of wisdom that will save the world.

For now, my dear future historian, I just want to thank you for helping me save myself.

PS. I turned 41.