What is History?

[Fishy]

what's the problem?

 

[SatiSuicune]

Cartoons - not really, but...

what is "the past?" Is it really something "we have?" Does the past even really exist?

Hipmonlee - er, that might quit thing was there for a while even though I didn't feel like quitting months ago... and that's very irrelevant.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Okay, legitimate question: how high are you right now? Because if you are, I guarantee this is just sounding really stupid instead of really profound.

 

[Crux]

How many roads must a man walk down, before he can call himself a man?

 

[SatiSuicune]

No seriously, what is "the past?" Is it really something "we have?" Does the past even really exist?

 

[Nastyjungle]

this is like one of those awful group exercises where they give you a single word to define like
'what is working'
and you would naturally say 'doing a job'
and then it would be 'what is a job'
and by the end of it everybody is at everybody else's throats about what is what

 

[SatiSuicune]

And that happens because ramblin wreck is fooling around, just like almost everyone else. Maybe if you answered my question we could get somewhere...

 

[Demoness]

It's something that happened before the present. I do not see what the fucking question is here, unless your suggesting that the universe is constantly disppearing and reappearing.

And that happens because ramblin wreck is fooling around, just like almost everyone else.

That's because you're being a fucking retard.

 

[Tobes]

what is love

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

But, am I fooling around? Is fooling around even really a thing? What if I don't even exist

 

[Hipmonlee]

I'm thinking it is maybe a galapagos turtle that Darwin saw, but that is a pretty sad effort considering most of the planet is covered in water.. There must be a better sea animal from some point in history..

 

[zorbees]

But didn't the past used to be the future?

 

[SatiSuicune]

I'm just saying but the past is something we don't have anymore, gone forever. It can't change and won't we something we can know everything about. That is definitely different from what history is...

 

[popemobile]

 

[Lemonade]

History is: every viewpoint possible combined into one truth. Since getting every viewpoint is impossible because some people don't talk or are dead, history is more conveniently the past that has been recorded.

 

[capefeather]

History is something that you will never, ever need, despite what some people may say.

"Need" isn't sufficient for living life. I find the 1870s-1970s period fascinating because of all the paradigm shifts that happened during that time.

things occurring now are present

There is no present.

But what makes all of these events history?
What do they have all in common?

Each of those events is connected to me by a closed timelike curve that is oriented so that I am "later" than the event.

Look, I'm guessing you were looking for some kind of philosophical thing about how history is written by the winners or our memories are malleable, but really your OP is just so vague that we don't really know what to tell you...

 

[Kinneas]

Kind of reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJlV49RDlLE#t=0m54s

 

[SatiSuicune]

But history must be something we have now and can study.

 

[verbatim]

You failed philosophy didn't you.

 

[Hipmonlee]

Well I tried.. I was let down by the fact that no sea creature has ever done anything interesting.

The best we could come up with is the ray that killed steve irwin. That's a pretty sad effort creatures of the sea, I am greatly disappointed in you.

 

[monkfish]

HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

Of Roman history, great Niebuhr's shown
'Tis nine-tenths lying. Faith, I wish 'twere known,
Ere we accept great Niebuhr as a guide,
Wherein he blundered and how much he lied.
—Salder Bupp

 

[Glen]

This Thread Is Really Deep...Yep Lets Just Say Theres A Reason History Rhymes With Mystery~