Y
YoungTradCath
Guest
CNS yesterday put out a little documentary on the First World War called 1914-2014: Echoes of the Great War. I found it quite fascinating and it fits well with my understanding of history and my outlook on the world today.
Why is this in a Catholic forum? Because the video contains material from Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV, as well as Francis, that are eerily similar despite the difference in era.
Here is the link: youtube.com/watch?v=HfYuOxUWyC0
One of my major personal beliefs is that people are fundamentally the same everywhere and across all time. The Church agrees with this, rational thinking (think substance of humans, human nature) agrees with this. People are the same today as they were 100 years ago. People are the same today as they were 5000 years ago.
I think one of the major fallacies today is a sort of cryptic assumption that we today are better than people who lived earlier in history, whether that be 50 years ago or 1000 years ago. I don’t think many people consciously think, “Wow those people who lived a long time ago were subhuman,” or whatever, but I do think people seriously conflate advances in technology with somehow “being” better than earlier people. iPhones don’t make us human, being human makes us human. When you think of it like that it seems really stupid. Well, that’s because it is. But, as I said, I do think we moderns have that subconscious tendency in our thought.
Circumstances change, yes, but people remain fundamentally the same. I think this truth has some interesting logical consequences, but I will leave others to ponder that topic on their own.
What does this mean? On a practical level, I think it means that we know far less about everything than we think we do. I think it means that we are not really wise at all. I think it means that we are living in a dead West, or at least one stuck on a ventilator. I think it means that history repeats itself, pardon the cliche.
I am not a war-monger, I don’t want war. However, I think the video offers some interesting insights into parallels between events today and a century ago.
Why is this in a Catholic forum? Because the video contains material from Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV, as well as Francis, that are eerily similar despite the difference in era.
Here is the link: youtube.com/watch?v=HfYuOxUWyC0
One of my major personal beliefs is that people are fundamentally the same everywhere and across all time. The Church agrees with this, rational thinking (think substance of humans, human nature) agrees with this. People are the same today as they were 100 years ago. People are the same today as they were 5000 years ago.
I think one of the major fallacies today is a sort of cryptic assumption that we today are better than people who lived earlier in history, whether that be 50 years ago or 1000 years ago. I don’t think many people consciously think, “Wow those people who lived a long time ago were subhuman,” or whatever, but I do think people seriously conflate advances in technology with somehow “being” better than earlier people. iPhones don’t make us human, being human makes us human. When you think of it like that it seems really stupid. Well, that’s because it is. But, as I said, I do think we moderns have that subconscious tendency in our thought.
Circumstances change, yes, but people remain fundamentally the same. I think this truth has some interesting logical consequences, but I will leave others to ponder that topic on their own.
What does this mean? On a practical level, I think it means that we know far less about everything than we think we do. I think it means that we are not really wise at all. I think it means that we are living in a dead West, or at least one stuck on a ventilator. I think it means that history repeats itself, pardon the cliche.
I am not a war-monger, I don’t want war. However, I think the video offers some interesting insights into parallels between events today and a century ago.