Failing Students of History
I was watching The Crown the other night, and while I'm still torn if I like it or not as a show, something did strike me. In one episode there is this fog that envelopes London for 4 days in the 1950's brought on by coal emissions. During the episode people are sick from this fog, someone gets hit by a bus that can't see her, but overall most people aren't that worried about it and more annoyed than anything. At the end of the episode is mentions that its estimated 12,000 people died, DIED, because of this four day smog. 12,000 people died! Can you imagine if something like happened today? One child stubs there toe wrong and everyone hears about it on social media, its all over the news, laws are enacted, monuments are put up, and mass hysteria ensues. Or in this case, 12,000 people die, and this if the first I've ever heard of it. To put it in perspective, that's four times as many as on 9/11. I'm not quite sure if this is a commentary on how bleak the past was, the difference between the British and Americans, or what, but I found it staggering either way.
On the show the Americans(excellent by the way), they commented how 27 million Russians died during World War 2. 27 MILLION. That is a number almost too big to comprehend. I had no idea it was that many. Once when I was watching Call the Midwife, a character commented how children were surviving childhood more now and she wasn't sure if they were valued more because they were surviving, or surviving because they were valued. Walk through any old graveyard and the amount of child gravestones is sobering, compared with modern day. In Chernobyl, officially 31 people died but unofficially the number is in the 1000's who died directly or indirectly. That HBO mini series is fascinating by the way.
I consider myself fairly historically literate, but several of these things I didn't realize or had forgotten. I think this part of the benefit of reading and watching good shows, is it reminds us of things we knew, or things we forgot we knew, or helps teach something we hadn't realized we didn't know. Anyone who knows me, knows how annoyed I get over Hitler or Nazi comparisons being used to modern day politicians or situations. No president has ever been Hitler-esque, regardless or party or belief system. No active power in the US is like the Nazi's, and its an insult to the memories of the innocent who died to say it, but because so many are so naive in history they make these comparisons without understanding what they are comparing it too. We make statements without really understanding the past, what it meant then, and what we are saying now. You know who was the closest to the Nazi's in modern times? ISIS, but rarely do/did we see that comparison despite the mass exterminations and enslavement based on ethnic or religious group. Or situations such as in Kenya where whole villages are eliminated because they are on the wrong side of a old tribal war. Or in Rwanda, where nearly 1.1 million people were killed for being born of the wrong blood line. Those are accurate comparisons, not someone who is on the opposite side of your political or ideological divide.
What is my point here? The past, present, and no doubt future is full of death but so often we fail to realize or come to the wrong conclusion on it. When was the last time you heard anyone invoke London smog as a warning against bad environmental policies? You'd think something that killed 10,000 would be referenced once in a while in that regard. Instead of jumping to easy comparisons that most often are not apt, perhaps our time would be better spent, studying history and the lessons already learned.
On the show the Americans(excellent by the way), they commented how 27 million Russians died during World War 2. 27 MILLION. That is a number almost too big to comprehend. I had no idea it was that many. Once when I was watching Call the Midwife, a character commented how children were surviving childhood more now and she wasn't sure if they were valued more because they were surviving, or surviving because they were valued. Walk through any old graveyard and the amount of child gravestones is sobering, compared with modern day. In Chernobyl, officially 31 people died but unofficially the number is in the 1000's who died directly or indirectly. That HBO mini series is fascinating by the way.
I consider myself fairly historically literate, but several of these things I didn't realize or had forgotten. I think this part of the benefit of reading and watching good shows, is it reminds us of things we knew, or things we forgot we knew, or helps teach something we hadn't realized we didn't know. Anyone who knows me, knows how annoyed I get over Hitler or Nazi comparisons being used to modern day politicians or situations. No president has ever been Hitler-esque, regardless or party or belief system. No active power in the US is like the Nazi's, and its an insult to the memories of the innocent who died to say it, but because so many are so naive in history they make these comparisons without understanding what they are comparing it too. We make statements without really understanding the past, what it meant then, and what we are saying now. You know who was the closest to the Nazi's in modern times? ISIS, but rarely do/did we see that comparison despite the mass exterminations and enslavement based on ethnic or religious group. Or situations such as in Kenya where whole villages are eliminated because they are on the wrong side of a old tribal war. Or in Rwanda, where nearly 1.1 million people were killed for being born of the wrong blood line. Those are accurate comparisons, not someone who is on the opposite side of your political or ideological divide.
What is my point here? The past, present, and no doubt future is full of death but so often we fail to realize or come to the wrong conclusion on it. When was the last time you heard anyone invoke London smog as a warning against bad environmental policies? You'd think something that killed 10,000 would be referenced once in a while in that regard. Instead of jumping to easy comparisons that most often are not apt, perhaps our time would be better spent, studying history and the lessons already learned.
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