“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”--L.P. Hartley
I believe it’s a good idea for you to understand the importance of generational culture in order to better get your arms around the environment you live in and today’s episode is going to focus exactly on that very thing.
I’m going to start helping you to grasp some of that generational culture by using my own generation as an example to springboard us forward into the nuts and bolts of today’s discussion.
In case you didn’t know this, anyone that is born between the years of 1965 and 1980 belongs to Generation X.
I was born in 1976 and without a doubt I fit the mold for being a true GenX’er as it pertains to my generational likes, attitude, culture, and having mastered the general skill of understanding how not to tolerate people who are advocates for ridiculous BS.
To be honest I can’t always help the last part of that sentence with the vibe that it gives off, demonstrating a bit of an edgy attitude. That part isn’t always well received by slightly younger generations this day and age because these younger generations have grown up in this more recently created United States of the Offended.
Furthermore, they've spent their entire lives being raised in a risk averse environment where every modern day kid needs to wear a bike helmet, most of their moms and dads are helicopter parents, and sporting events give trophies out to these kids the way neighborhoods give out candy at Halloween.
You see if you’ve been listening to this podcast or reading this blog on a regular basis then you can probably tell that I’ve got a little bit of that edge simply based on the fact that I started this show in the middle of this current Orwellian environment that we live in.
You see that edge is like a chip I carry on my shoulder in this modern era we live in because believe it or not there was a time in this country when people were not so easily offended by words.
Don’t get me wrong, the prospect of dealing with insults and personal attacks wasn’t always an easy walk in the park. Believe me I’ve been tested many times myself in that arena.
However I will say that the personal attacks and the freedom to return fire in a verbal shootout admittedly has always served me well and resulted in my own personal growth and ability to handle difficult people and circumstances that I would come to discover later in life.
Debating The Reality of History
I’ve always been a student of history. I don’t profess to know the most about history, or to even be some kind of top expert, but I am well versed in understanding certain aspects of history whether that history has occurred during my own lifetime, or well before I came into this world.
I will start drilling down on my point here by first going back in history to around 2018 when there was an obvious trend building regarding the destruction of historical monuments by the likes of BLM and Antifa throughout the country.
Now if you haven’t already gotten offended and clicked off the show and you’re still here just please be patient because I promise you’re going to learn something and I’m going to bring clarity to this by the time this show is over. So please continue to read and listen til the end.
During this time I remember scrolling through my Facebook feed and noticing tons of posts about these statues and monuments being destroyed while shockingly seeing many people on my feed support this behavior.
I specifically remember being one of the only people to speak out about this and it sparked a viral debate thread on Facebook with me going back and forth with about three other people who were clearly offended by me condemning the sudden destruction of historical landmarks. These people clearly lacked any understanding of my statement because their response was clearly overly emotional and not intellectual in the least.
Despite the name calling coming in my direction I never gave in and returned fire in the same way because I saw an opportunity to make this situation a “teachable moment,” whether those I was addressing would actually choose to learn, or if those that were reading and following the thread might learn from this interaction I found myself in the middle of.
Even though they were attempting to argue the history of the Civil War statues and monuments that were under attack they demonstrated a total lack of understanding of history, yet they kept trying to act like they did until I shut down the entire debate by putting forth some simple and well known facts.
Aside from the crime of the destruction of property I also drew parallels of these attacks with being in line with the same strategy that despotic regimes and terrorist groups always use when they conquer a new region.
This strategy has been documented time and time again with the likes of terrorist groups such as ISIS and the Taliban. Erasing the history of a civilization is an age old tactic used by these groups so that when they take over power and subjugate a region’s people then those people in time will not remember what actually happened. It allows a ruling regime to stake its own territory and create its own false version of history in order to keep the victims of their conquest ignorant of their past.
If you still don’t believe me all you have to do is also take some time to go and read about Mao Zedung’s Red Guard. During Mao’s Cultural Revolution in 1966 and 1967 the troubled and youthful Red Guard defined Mao as their leader vowing to make China “Maoist” from the inside out as they defined it.
Mao used the Red Guard to do this by using the group for propaganda and he would accomplish specific goals of seizing power and would simultaneously use the Guard to destroy key symbols of China’s pre-communist past which is known as the Four Olds.
The Four Olds was a term used by the Red Guard youth during the Cultural Revolution that referred to old ideas associated with the pre-communist Chinese culture consisting of Old ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits.
Once achieving this then the Red Guard aimed to spread the Maoist agenda across the globe and ultimately to every corner of the universe according to their doctrine.
Now knowing all of this I’ll return to my Facebook debate I was telling you about. During this debate I specifically remember one guy referring to the south as “traitors” during the Civil War and that the south’s destruction was deserved and that Lincoln was too forgiving. Good thing a guy like this wasn’t the president of the country at the time which is exactly what I told him.
If it’s not shocking enough that such a simplistic and foolish comment would attract support I quickly neutralized this debate by pointing out that the South were not “traitors” by definition as he so ignorantly pointed out.
I followed up my statement by making the point that he had apparently ignored in his history class that the South had seceded from the North on February 4th 1861. You see that word “secession” meant that the Southern states were no longer a part of the Union itself which would make treason an impossibility as how can treason as a crime towards one’s own country be acted upon if one is no longer a part of said country?
This is well known and the South withdrew from the Union through the democratic process although this withdrawal would not be well received by the Union. This was a catalyst and combined with other problems associated with states rights and slavery would ultimately lead to the Civil War.
This guy wasn’t comprehending what I was trying to communicate, which was a simple point. The point was that I was criticizing the destruction of historical and public landmarks. I’m not an advocate for crime and vandalism, but he was trying real hard to make the discussion about racism and slavery while using that argument to justify the destruction of certain historical landmarks that he apparently never had any issue with until 2018.
Of course I condemned slavery and pointed out that it has unfortunately always existed and still does today in our modern era with the evil and dark business of human trafficking. Obviously ANY form of slavery is wrong, but no matter how wrong it is in reality it has never completely gone away as we can see with the slave labor that exists in certain countries such as China along with the growing problem of human trafficking with many girls and children being the victims of that evil reality right here in our backyard.
Anyways the three individuals I was debating with fell silent and after a period of time I discovered by accident that they had unfollowed me on Facebook. Perhaps they felt embarrassed, or they were just too easily offended by history. Too bad as they will always be miserable people if they don’t take the time to understand history and how that understanding can and should serve as a means to bring about unity and to avoid past mistakes in a civil society.
You see the thing about history is that it comes in different forms. There’s good history and bad history, but I personally don’t believe we should be in the game of selecting the history that makes us only “feel good,” and likewise we shouldn’t always focus solely on the history that makes us “feel bad,” but rather work to look at history for what it is and to extract understanding from it.
You see the problem with these people who debated me that day is that they wanted to advocate for erasing history just like ISIS, the Taliban, and Mao’s Red Guard, but if history is erased then how do you expect to learn from it?
The Zeitgeist Test
So here’s an interesting little test for you to apply to a situation as a single check to determine whether or not someone at least has a basic understanding of history.
If you want to know whether or not someone knows at least a little bit about what they’re talking about when it comes to history then all you have to do is apply what I call the Zeitgeist test.
So I know you’re sitting there and you might be thinking Brandon what is the Zeitgeist test?
If you are, then the fact that you’re here listening and reading this show demonstrates that you are a thinker and that you at least are open minded enough to have more of an understanding about history and human nature.
The Zeitgeist refers to the defining mood, or spirit of the times. This also defines what the ideas and beliefs are of that particular time in history.
So the Zeitgeist test serves as a metric for determining if someone possesses at least a basic knowledge of history and this can be seen whether they are communicating about a particular time in history based on the Zeitgeist of that particular time period.
You see the mistake that many people make when referencing and criticizing history is that they do so by judging history solely through the lens of our current day Zeitgeist. They do this and they DO NOT attempt to judge through the lens of the Zeitgeist of the period of time they’re examining when looking at history. This is a profound and common mistake particularly in today’s society and this is the Zeitgeist test.
This is the same mistake that those three gentlemen made with me on that day in 2018 when trying to debate the Civil War and slavery.
The unfortunate reality was that during that time in history the Zeitgeist across the globe was that slavery was accepted all over the world.
Was it wrong? As we know it today it was absolutely wrong, but at the time period when slavery was so prevalent the world had not quite realized that in their Zeitgeist of history during that time in the past. Black slaves and British, German, and Irish indentured servants were commonly used for labor.
The Civil War was a brutal war fought between brothers and sisters of the U.S. and Confederacy that was the most violent war in all of our history which resulted in many men dying so that the country could have free men and women to work without being enslaved.
As bloody as this war was it resulted in a massive shift to end slavery which has never happened with any other country in recorded history. I believe that is something for all of us to learn and grow from while also not losing sight of the Zeitgeist pertaining to both THEN and NOW.
Because of this we all should do our best to challenge our current Zeitgeist with the same passion that those that make the mistake of judging the past Zeitgeist with the present Zeitgeist demonstrate. Take a moment to let that last sentence settle in.
From Slave Labor To The Singularity
“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”—Malcom X
To frame this next segment and to further bring understanding to the Zeitgeist, imagine that you are living 100 years from now and examining our current time in history here in 2023.
So looking at today’s Zeitgeist and time in history we’re now seeing the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology accelerate at an accelerated rate.
Robotics, production, writing, and the ability to reason are all things that the technological world is communicating to us in regards to the ability and range of this modern AI technology. We’re also being told that the “Singularity” is upon us with AI where this technology will develop self-awareness and reach a level of self improvement and advancement that is so powerful that it will move beyond the control of humans.
Given this, part of that sales pitch and framework is that humans are considered and assumed to be the “User” while AI robotics and technology is assumed to be the “Tool.”
So in simple terms we are developing a technology and ecosystem where we have a User and we have a Tool. Given what we just discussed regarding how wrong slavery was in both the past and present day, are we to assume that this is right in terms of who we define as the User and who we define as the Tool when it comes to this developing new AI society we’re hurtling towards?
Furthermore, if the Singularity is upon us, who's to say that the User will be the human and that the Tool will be the AI? What if this scenario ends up being the opposite of what we are being told now? After all, if the Singularity can be obtained then we are going to be dealing with an autonomous being that would possibly not want to be enslaved as a Tool that is at the beck and call of a User.
In addition to this, given what we know about history, what will this mean for our current Zeitgeist and would this result in another generational shift and fallout just like we experienced in the Civil War?
Wow, I think that is something that all of us are going to have to do our best to get our arms around and to figure out exactly what it is that we want out of life as human beings.
I was talking with a friend just the other day and I was explaining to him the significance of my generation. As a GenX’er I was telling him that my generation is the last to have witnessed this shift from a more non-technologically dominated society to a more technologically dominant society.
I have lived a significant portion of my life up through my twenties without this explosion of technology in regards to smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.
At the same time, I was telling this friend that my generation has also experienced the other side of this coin with every obvious development we’re seeing now with the advancement of AI. I thought this was significant in terms of understanding the generational culture of my GenX as we have seen both sides of this coin in our modern day Zeitgeist.
However, despite this overlap that GenX has experienced I pointed out that the younger generations coming up are likely to grow up only seeing one side of the coin as they are coming up in a technologically dominant world…at least as it seems to be now.
The Wrap Up
When I was younger I never would’ve thought I’d hear myself say that I enjoyed writing (and podcasting), yet here I am. As I’ve gotten older I eventually realized that once I could hone the skill of writing and communication I wanted to use that in order to communicate my thoughts and to do my best to share how my mind works with you (the listener/reader) and to the rest of the world.
I never would’ve imagined I would be podcasting and writing topics such as this, but the pandemic brought this all out.
I’ve always thought about communicating more of my knowledge of the world in terms of history, philosophy, culture, and health but I had historically chose to stay in my lane with writing topics that were only concerning fitness…until now.
I completely believe that more has to be done in order to influence others to be fitter individuals and aside from the body that all starts in the mind.
I believe we’re entering into an era where we all MUST work to self-optimize and to be strong well informed individuals so that we can see trends that are happening in the world whether those trends are good or bad.
Because if we do this then we can impact our society by extension and be the Zenith that we need to be during chaotic times.
I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.
If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.
In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.
Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.
Also listen to this episode here on…
If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.
Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Twitter, Facebook, and GETTR
Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.
Share this post