History in the Future 2013

   History in the Future.

     What is history? I admit, at first glance that seems to be a strange question. However, please consider the following. On planet earth at any given moment there are trillions, upon trillions of things happening simultaneously, at the same time. These acts and events are interconnected in two dimensions, space and time. Space because they are occurring on planet earth and time because they are only happening in the present moment. There are 7 billion human beings on planet earth today. Who and how do we decide what will be remembered as "history" and what will be forgotten? To begin answering this question, I claim that history is a process of documenting events, experiences and interpretations of meaning. This is done with the use of narratives and discourses which are articulated by the witnesses, culprits and activists of history. 
   Historicization, is the mode or processes by which content is being documented in time and space. The result is the emergence of narratives, which frame an event in context, assign meaning and explain the connections to the rest of society. I first became aware of this concept when I read Edward Said's "Culture and Imperialism" in graduate school. In this critical analysis, he brings forth the concept of historicization. Edward Said was a scholar of literature and thus his primary focus was on the classic European literature that discussed the experiences of empire and colonization. In "Culture and Imperialism " Edward Said wrote,

"The appropriation of history, the historicization of the past, the narrativization of society, all of which give the novel its force, include the accumulation and differentiation of social space, space to be used for social purposes." (Said, pg. 78 1993)
   
    It recently occurred to me that these processes have been radically transformed by technology beginning with Gutenberg's press all the way to today's smart phones. Before the advent of radio and television, the only ways to capture peoples' experiences were in writing, speaking or  other cultural artifacts. Consequently, general analysis of the past is limited to these traditional forms and sources of information. One could argue that the further back in time we look, the fewer sources and information we have available to represent that time. Considering peoples' ability to document today, future historians will have the opportunity to construct more diverse and perhaps more comprehensive accounts of today.

     Consider what it was like to live in the year 1729? The only accounts we have from this time are either written, verbal or cultural artifacts such as theater and music etc...The emergence of modern audio, film, Internet and mobile technology will allow historical analysis of the future to expand on traditional methodologies. Technology is renegotiating the notion of what a legitimate or authentic historical source is. For example, recall the film footage of the Allied Forces liberating Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II. The footage helped to comprehend, process and, in the end, prosecute Nazi Germany. Even today the footage stands as a chilling testimony as well as historical artifact to the terrors of the Third Reich. The act of seeing and hearing the horrors first hand, with your own eyes and ears, helps to put the unimaginable into context and maintain a record or  remembrance to urge the lessons learned. The contemporary digital, mobil and electronic computing revolution has led to information duplication and dissemination like never before. It highlights the importance of technology when societies relate to historical events.  

   As a hyper documented species today, we can witness how the power and ability to preserve and spread information that will shapes our reality of tomorrow. The ability to communicate and document information is so powerful and important because it provides opportunity to express one's individual as well as collective perspectives. In all artifacts we can find historical discourses that create meaning, identity or actions. The study of modern history is at a point at which understanding historical events as comprehensively as possible will most likely mean the analysis of vast pools of data and content. Going forward, it is conceivable that the discipline of history has to renegotiate what a comprehensive analysis of an historical event could entail. Content recorded in the here and now represents a vast pool of data capturing a particular moment during in a particular space. A sample can be vast, quantitative as well as qualitative in nature. Just because of the shear size of a sample the investigation of history will be in need of a new kind of digital anthropology and archeology. A future discipline born to the marriage of historical inquisition and contextualization of archived, digital data. The content captured today, will be a multi media, digital "mosaic" of synthesized information and perspectives for the people of tomorrow. 

Ralf Hugger

Spectacle

      Alexis de Tocqueville was a French scholar. An important one in the realm of political philosophy and thought. Alexis lived during the 19th century and went on to become widely known for his original work “Democracy in America” written in the year 1835. A fascinating description of a young American democracy, an account composed by him after traveling much of the United States. He was particularly interested in the participatory and representative aspects of American governance. Some of his observations and insights of his sill influence works in the field of political science today. I write down my observations of the social and political dimensions. Similar to Tocqueville, I observe and analyze American culture and its political landscape. America in the year 2012 is politically in a grid lock. The Republican and Democratic parties are utterly polarized in their fundamental premises, values, how they define the role of government and unfortunately the way they see reality itself. Freshly re-elected, the Republican House of Representatives, a Democratic Senate and the re elected Barack Obama forced at last by the hand of the  looming "fiscal cliff". A political moment of truth, which no matter what, will reveal what US politics in 2012 is made of. 

     There are some realties and trends that surely are here to stay. Here are a few noteworthy ones. “Obamacare”, the President’s affordable healthcare act will remain the law of the land. The military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq are coming to an end and job by job, house by house, the American economy seems to be slowly recovering. Furthermore, the 2012 elections transformed the judicial landscape in the US. Chosen from a vast sea of proposals, voters gave local, state as well as federal government a new direction and mandate to fulfill. A mandate that now requires to transform discourses and create new relationships to Marijuana, campaign finance, the election process itself and gay marriage. This election cycle dramatically highlighted the role of media, television ads, the internet and technology in general has on the process and the political "sea-change" they brought. That  being said, it was truly astonishing to witness how candidates managed to keep climate change, global warming or the acute loss of bio diversity off their political platforms. In addition, I would also argue that the time for a public investigation and re-assessment of the astronomic increases of sums of money required and spend on running for a public office. The shear price tag, roughly 8 billion dollars, has made the political process highly exclusive seemingly making the attempt to run for office, impossible. Although, I am sure that even during de Tocqueville's times it required money to run for any political position, however, I proclaim he would probably turn in his grave if he saw to what kind of degree politics have become professionalized today and how much money it requires to be part of it. Perhaps these contemporary conditions and state of affairs would remind him of the ones which ruled France during his lifetime.

Ralf Hugger

October Surprises

   Three days after super storm Sandy, a 1000 square mile hot-cold, bi polar tempered hurricane violently slammed into the American East Coast. New York City found itself once again responding to a monolithic crisis. The aftermath of the Atlantic Ocean washing over the Big Apple is characterized by prolonged power black outs, food shortages, fires, a crippled infrastructure and public transportation system. On day three after the storm's eye passed, the few subway lines, shuttles and buses that have been repaired to be able to operate seemed to burst at their seems, highly strained under the onslaught of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers scrambling frantically to re establish a sense of normalcy. A mega city filled with beached vehicles like whales laying lifeless, masses of people reminiscent of ants attempting to rebuild their devastated home and in the process seem to aimlessly shoot from here to there. The chaotic results transformed New York into a powerful exclamation mark to the effects of a society addicted to cars, technology and energy. In the wake of Sandy with no electricity, no cellphone towers and  public services practically at a still stand left with people with no communication or mobility. Thus peoples' lives were suspended in a nightmarish state which surely will take years to recover from. It is times like these, during crises and extraordinary circumstances when the potential to cultivate the best as well as the worst in people could go either way. The scene was one of food scarcity surrounded by flooded darkness and the eery absence of the ability to receive help from police or loved ones.  A manifesto and tribute to the absolute importance of human acts of compassion and kindness. Left at the mercy of peoples' patience, hope and love, only the following months will show what direction New Yorkers have taken amid this latest integrity test.
     The liver lining with Sandy was the cultivation of the more positive human attributes in society as well as a break from the political storm raging in the U.S. It provided a moment of reflection and stillness from what had been a very exhausting, expensive and discourse driven American Presidential Election. THE 21st century political super spectacle. Today, this is a show fueled by money, complex political interests, super packs, campaign adds and plenty of personal debate attacks. The contest has evolved into its own kind of super storm. Sandy the hurricane achieved to establish what almost nothing or no one else had before, a temporary truce between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. For a brief moment our planet reminded all living things that we ought to relish and honor our existence here. Urging us to keep in mind that all people, even Americans, are always facing the messy toil of the human condition with its inevitable fatality called death. In the end, the truth is that at any moment the energy of life could be extinguished. Death and destruction by natural forces can therefore serve as powerful reminders that partisan politics, trillions of dollars, military and technology can not match the power of Gaia. The ability to recognize and accept this fact would propel cooperation and a united human effort to increase our ability to prepare for such devastating forces, so that we may increase our odds of survival. Internalizing this truth is the definition of what it means to be human in the 21st century. A way of life described by a fierce fire, a sense of urgency and drive for living in the moment while swimming in an unconditional acceptance of change as well as death. An evolution headed into the direction of a humanity characterized by an individual and collective identity somewhere beyond ego and national citizenship. Until we arrive on that mountain top, we have to believe that with the arrival of every new second, enthused by hope, humanity has the potential to give birth to a new kind of consciousness and reality. Regardless as to how exactly this will manifest itself into existence, it surely it must be driven by ferocious love for life, peace, prosperity for all perceived through a union between constructive awareness, death the ability to cultivate compassion, love and kindness.
Ralf Hugger