#when they say ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” they def also mean your own life and family history

[hussyknee]

The fact is that an unscrupulous tyrant mobilizes the suppressed fears and anxieties of those who were beaten as children but have never been able to accuse their own fathers of doing so. Their loyalty to these fathers is unswerving, despite the torments suffered at their hands. Every tyrant symbolizes such a father, the figure whom the abused children remain attached to with every fiber of their being, hoping that one day they will be able to transform him into a loving parent by remaining blind.

This hope may have been what prompted the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church to demonstrate their compassion for Hussein. In 2002, I turned to a number of cardinals for support when I presented the Vatican with material on the delayed effects of spanking and asked the authorities there to do what they could to enlighten young parents on this subject. As I have said, not one of the cardinals I approached with this request showed the slightest interest in the universally ignored but crucially important issue of physically abused children. Nor did I come across the slightest indication of Christian charity or compassion in connection with this issue. Today, however, those same representatives are eager to show that they are indeed capable of compassion. Significantly, however, this compassion is lavished not on maltreated children or on Saddam’s victims but on Saddam himself, on the unscrupulous father figure that the feared despot symbolizes.

As a rule, beaten, tormented, and humiliated children who have never received support from a helping witness later develop a high degree of tolerance for the cruelties perpetrated by parent figures and a remarkable indifference to the sufferings borne by children exposed to inhumane treatment. The last thing they wish to be told is that they themselves once belonged to the same group. Indifference is a way of preserving them from opening their eyes to reality. In this way they become advocates of evil, however convinced they may be of their humane intentions. From an early age they were forced to suppress and ignore their true feelings. They were forced to put their trust not in those feelings but solely in the regulations imposed on them by their parents, their teachers, and the church authorities. Now the tasks facing them in their adult lives leave them no time to perceive their own feelings, unless those feelings happen to fit in precisely with the patriarchal value system in which they live and which prescribes compassion for the father, however destructive and dangerous he may be. The more comprehensive a tyrant’s catalogue of crimes is, the more he can count on tolerance, provided his admirers are hermetically closed off from access to the sufferings of their own childhood.

(Source: The Body Never Lies by Alice Miller)

#parts of this book are frustrating because she pronounces these sweeping psychoanalytic theories as fact #much in the same way as Freud‚ ironically‚ considering she broke with his school of thought‚ and later psychoanalysis itself #and sometimes the way she ascribes the illnesses and character of historical public figures feels invasive #and more confirmation bias than anything #but it's a highly fascinating read because 1) she's one of first public figures in mental health to reject the need to forgive abusers #and 2) she was an abusive mother herself and formulated these theories only after her children were grown #3) her son's own healing journey involved understanding his mother's violence by studying the effects of the Shoah on its survivors #intergenerational abuse is so real y'all #when they say ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” they def also mean your own life and family history #abuse #child abuse #parental abuse #corporal punishment #violence #authoritarianism #fascism #xtianity #patriarchy #psychology #cycles of abuse #intergenerational trauma #intergenerational abuse #colonialism #alice miller #knee of huss

[darkspace7]

Y'all...

Now just a moment here, while I'm usually an exceedingly stubborn proponent of looking on the lighter side of things and that with all the bad that seems to exist in the world there's at least a smidgen of things that make it worth saving.

It's a list of which seems to be growing smaller every single day unfortunately.

Once more I'm genuinely beginning to wonder if anything this god forsaken timeline really is worth saving or if y'all are just aching for the absolution of utter destruction.

Is the call of the void so strong that you all are just hellbent on having everything destroyed by some rancid flavour wannabe Villain-of-the Week preaching 'Peace and Order' while holding a cocked-gun right at your head?

(Most of them don't even have a sense of style for frick's sake.)

This shit's beyond parody at this point and it's kind of pissing me off.

And I swear, if another thing happens (and no I am not actively tempting fate here, because I have a more than healthy respect for the cycle of karma and my own place within this already tenuous balance as well as the sword of Damocles hanging over our collective head) I'm gonna yeet Apollo's Dodgeball of Prophecy back at your fucking asses.

#DS7's Log #I mean in all honesty I was planning on becoming a 'Dark Lord' either way #but /jfc/ #When the supposed “evil” of your world takes one look around at all the shit here and says: “Fuck man are y'all for real?” #And then has to go and /fix/ the things the so-called “heroes” are hell bent on enshittifying? #Just how /bad do you think things are/? #And enough of this “I'm just gonna wait for a happy ending with society recognizing the rights and wrongs and we can all live together :)” #It ain't gonna happen unless you /make it happen/ #So #I'm gonna get in there #and /make/ my own happy ending. #Because those who don't learn from history are doomed to endlessly repeat it. #And if I -like so many others have gone before their time- then this world will probably go with me. #Just saying.

[hiddenbeks]

so many thoughts abt how schewpid the jedi council is in kotor but also not sure if i should write abt any of them before i finish the game because it's entirely possible that i'm still missing some critical information,

#el plays kotor #blease blacklist that tag if u dont wanna see kotor spoiler stuff from me as i play the game #feels silly to warn abt spoilers for such an old game but. i only found out abt [redacted] a couple yrs ago #completely by accident. it didnt ruin my desire to finish the game and see how the story goes #but still. it did change the whole experience. and what if there r others out there who dont know yet. so. KOTOR SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! #so anyway i was thinking. why would the jedi council send revan to find the star maps. when they strongly suspect that #the search for the maps was what corrupted revan and malak in the first place??? #im assuming they want their new totally-not-revan padawan to succeed and stop malak???? #and yet?? they didnt think to consider the possibility of revan falling to the dark side Again during this quest???? #love how the jedi archivist/historian says the 'those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it' thing #and im just thinking. so true bestie. you should take your own advice maybe. lol. lmao even #like yes they've brainwashed revan but what makes them so confident that amnesiac revan won't go down the same path as before #wouldn't that be more likely even. because. revan does not remember their history. #and since they don't remember their history... they have nothing to learn from... and thus... could repeat their mistakes... #ok wait i just remembered that the historian gives amnesiac revan a lecture abt what revan and malak did #so yes they do get a history lesson to keep in mind and to learn something from. #but its still so...... the council has no way of being certain their master plan will succeed... they are taking a huge gamble here... #and sure capturing revan without wiping their mind was probably not an option to the council #bc revan would have simply refused to cooperate i guess. much easier to mold an empty mind :) #wow wow wow i hate the jedi order actually. yes the sith do these things too and also their color scheme is dark and thus they r Evil #but when the jedi with their light earthy tones do it its ok. because they are servants of the light. guardians of justice or whatev. sigh #also the council repeatedly warns revan abt the dangers of the dark side n how the force is so strong in revan n they need to be careful #and that they are 'willful and headstrong'. qualities that are potentially dangerous for a jedi to have. because Emotion Bad #and still the council just goes 'the warning signs are there but we have elected to ignore them :) surely it will be fine this time :)' ??? #i think i need to stop thinking abt this its giving me psychic damage #there Must be something later down the line that makes this decision make sense. they cant be this stupif

[tatisources]

- 𝐖𝐄𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑

❝ Being your friend should come with a warning label. ❞

❝ It’s amateurs like you who give kidnapping a bad game. ❞

❝ Are you mansplaining my power? ❞

❝ Emotion isn’t exactly your strong suit. ❞

❝ I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but I do believe in revenge. ❞

❝ Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. ❞

❝ There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being proven right. ❞

❝  Because trust and cooperation have always been the hallmarks of our relationship. ❞

❝  Anytime I grow nauseous at the sight of a rainbow or hear a pop song that makes my ears bleed, I’ll think of you. ❞

❝ I’ve learned so much from you. Part of it is admittedly criminal behavior. ❞

❝ Not hugging is kind of our thing. ❞

❝ When the dance floor calls, you gotta answer. ❞

❝ Typically I have great admiration for well-executed revenge plots, but yours was a bit extreme, even for my high standards.  ❞

❝ Except I won’t cry and whine like a child. ❞

❝ I can’t believe you were in a secret society and didn’t tell me. ❞

❝ You brought a gun to a sword fight. Probably the first smart decision you’ve made today. ❞

❝ Emotion equals weakness. ❞

❝ I find social media to be a soul sucking void of meaningless affirmation. ❞

❝ These are all traits of great writers. And serial killers. ❞

❝ Sometimes I act like I don’t care if people like me. Deep down, I secretly enjoy it. ❞

❝ I like to win. Is that so wrong? ❞

❝ For the record, I don't believe that I'm better than everyone else, just that I'm better than you. ❞

❝ Use the words 'little' and 'girl' to address me again and I can't guarantee your safety. ❞

❝ If he breaks your heart, I'll nail gun his. ❞

❝ You guys are making me nauseous. Not in a good way. ❞

❝ When I look at you, the following emojis come to mind: rope, shovel, hole. ❞

❝ You know the old saying, never bring a knife to a sword fight. Unless it’s concealed. ❞

❝ Secrets are like zombies, they never truly die. ❞

❝ Tears don’t fix anything. So I vowed to never do it again. ❞

❝ Please, flattery will get you nowhere. ❞

❝ I’m not friend material, let alone more-than-friend material. I will ignore you, stomp on your heart, and always put my needs and interests first. ❞

❝ Every day is all about me. This one just comes with cake and a bad song. ❞

❝ Emotions are a gateway trait. They lead to feelings, which trigger tears. I don’t do tears.❞

❝ It’s either they write our story or we do. You can’t have it both ways. ❞

❝ I don’t need your help or your pity. I already have a mother and a therapist. That’s enough torture, even for me. ❞

❝ I don’t bury hatchets. I sharpen them. ❞

❝ Friends are a liability and can be exploited. That makes them weaknesses. ❞

#rp meme #rp memes #sentence starters #rph #indie help #indie rph #rp prompts #roleplay meme #*rp meme

[ziskeyt]

Christie Pits

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Christie Pits Riot. The largest race riot in Canada. Christie Pits is a park in Toronto, Ontario. It's pretty large, and these days is a very active park in the summer and a place for sledding and ice skating in the winter. On this day in 1933 the tensions between the Jews who lived in the neighbourhood around the Christie Pits park and the white Canadians who wished to ally with the nazis, who made up what they called Swasitka Clubs, came to a head during a baseball game. The Jews were joined in the fight by their immigrant neighbours, primarily Italians, who also had come head to head with the white nazis before. These hate-filled Canadians wished to restrict Jews from jobs, education, going to the beaches, owning property, and really, given their alignment with the nazis and proudly waving the swastika flag, we can be pretty sure they wanted us dead as well.

The Toronto Star paper noted that there were ten thousand people who ended up joining the fight.

This is the only photo that exists:

(ID in alt) Christie Pits resulted in one of the first prohibitions against hate speech with the Mayor of the time saying that he would prosecute any future displays of the swastika. If you'd like to read more, Jamie Michaels, who wrote the graphic novel Christie Pits published an article today about the riots:

There was an event today in the park to commemorate the anniversary. As well as a few in May and June, Jewish and Italian heritage months respectively. While I don't know the best way to commemorate a fight like this, remembering that it happened, and why it happened is incredibly important. We're in a time that is very reminiscent to what people were dealing with then; from money seemingly meaning less while everything costs more, to the wealthy flaunting their great discrepancy from the majority, to people walking off work to strike for better conditions. Times of turmoil are times when people will often turn to trying to find a reason for their uncertainty, and as history has taught us, this often leads people to explaining their misfortune by finding a scapegoat -- and that scapegoat is usually Jews. In today's world, there are those who are virulently antisemitic with their whole chests, and those people are easy to point to and say they are what they are. But, we're also in a time where there is a lot of coded antisemitism around, from age-old conspiracy theories, to various racist tropes finding rebirths in memes and "jokes", to character types and appropriation of Jewish culture to make something seem exotic and mystical. You as an individual have the responsibility to educate yourself about racist dogwhistles and coding so you don't go around parroting things you don't believe, and eventually find yourself falling down the rabbit hole of white supremacist rhetoric. They say those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, but doom makes it sound like something that people aren't able to do anything about it. Learn history. Learn what hatred has looked like in the past and morphed into today. Learn history. You are not doomed and you are not helpless. You too can take part in stopping rising fascism by learning what it looks and sounds like. You have a responsibility to yourself and to the future to learn about where we came from to get to where we are today.

#antisemitism #history of antisemitism #christie pits riot #toronto history #canadian history #today in history #jumblr

[ivorydice]

Writing Meme: First Line Patterns

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

I was tagged for this by @amiyade and @avianscribe a little while ago, thank you!! <333

Without further ado:

Noctis walks through the Citadel corridors until he reaches the heart, then he slows his pace. | crystalline

He shouldn’t be out here in the city. | neon lights

A flash of red, and the world spins. | redshift

He should have seen it coming a mile away. | Fade

They say those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. | when the stars collide

Ardyn had the same dream he had been having for two millennia. | The Memory of You

“When's your birthday?” | i'm longing to linger till dawn, dear

The house seemed to have every cliche Noctis could think of, and he wasn’t sure if it was something to be impressed by while simply carrying on with their job, or if they should actually follow Prompto’s paranoid rambling advice and turn around to leave. | Flesh Damage

It was ridiculous. | And Dream of Sheep

They’re dealing with a sudden ambush at Wennath Riverhead when everything goes to hell. | Pins and Needles

Some of these are so old, I'm cringing (affectionately) lmao. But I think my first line pattern is I just try to sound as mysterious and interesting as possible haha - definitely in more recent years anyway. I know I've been very conscious of writing advice posts/articles that go on about how the first line is an important hook. So I do try to make it as interesting as possible and try to get the vibes of the fic across immediately lol.

I have no idea who has been tagged for this, but I'm gonna give no pressure tagging to: @wrencatte @kaelinaloveslomaris @omgfloofy @zanarkandfayth @marmolita @every-lemon and anyone else who wants to do it!

#tag game

[gingus-doon]

omfg i always manage to mistakingly think there is nothing left to Know that will shock me and make me reconsider concerning feminist and queer histories but oh my mother fuckin god yall DID YALL KNOW..ALISON BECHDEL SUPPORTED BI LESBIANS

like i just hhn i wouldve had no idea i would not have even known the concept EXISTED and i, here, stand on neither side as i don't know enough about anything to make a firm point (i lean against but hearing ppl say trans women are facing the brunt of anti bi-lesbian sentiment & the strange insistence on Lesbians Cannot Like Men when trans men in lesbian history, right there-- [how can you say this without undermining trans men's manhood? i don't think you can. hence im content to describe lesbian relationships as those without cis men {though not all relationships without cis men are lesbian relationships, for ex trans gay guys or straight trans relationships} & im not one to brush aside the queer history of transmasc lesboys so easily when i know. So many very lesbian tguys] makes me reconsider)

ITS SO FUCKING NUTS TO REMEMBER THAT FEMINIST AND QUEER PPL BEFORE US ALREADY HAD THESE DISCUSSIONS ALREADY SPOKE WHAT NEEDED TO BE SPOKEN IN MANY CASES AND FORGOING THE ADVICE OF OUR FEMALE AND TRANSSEXUAL FOREBEARERS JUST LEADS US TO HAVE THE SAME POINTLESS DISCOURSES ON TUMBLR DOT COM AGAIN AND SEVER COMMUNITY OVER IT AGAIN AND AGAIN OH MY GOD ITS LIKE A CURSE ITS LIKE WE'RE SISYPHUS ALIENATED FROM OUR TEACHERS CONDEMNED TO ROLL THE SAME BOULDER UP THAT HILL

im just going fucking nuts bcauae it's always like this i will cry ahahhh like

LESLIE FEINBERG. HIR PROPHETIC STATEMENT

AND ITS HAPPENINGGGG ITS HAPPENING THERE ARE TERFS AND THE SEX ABOLITIONIST RADICALLY QUEER RADICAL FEMINISM OF OUR FOREMOTHERS HAS BEEN ABANDONED AND NOW NO ONE LOOKS TO THAT ESTEEMED TRADITION BESIDES A FEW BECAUSE EVERYONE HATES TERFS (rightfully so) BUT DONT KNWO THE EXTENT OF RADICAL FEMINISM UGHDHHHG OOHghhuhh OuhchhHHhn SHAKING .

AND I JUST LEARNED ABOUT RIKI WILCHINS AND THEY WERE A TRANSSEXUAL LESBIAN FEMINST!!!!! TRANSSEXUAL LESBIAN FEMINIST A BEAUTIFUL PHRASE AND NOW WERE IN AN AGE WHERE QUEER NON-LESBIANS ARE LESPHOBIC AND DAMN THE ENTIRETY OF LESBIAN FEMINISM WHILE TERFS DAMN THE ENTIRETY OF QUEERNESS AS IF LESBIANISM CAN EXIST WITHOUT IT OR TRANSNESS AND I JUST.........IDK im crying im rocking back and forth i am holding my temples those who do not know their history will be doomed to repeat it truly

#vOmignting. trhowijg UP #queer history #feminist history #transgender history #leslie feinberg #alison bechdel #lesbian history #bi lesbian #lesbian feminism #radical feminism #transfeminism #i did queer history and i didntn eveb know the daughters of bilitis im a terirble woman lover. i will be better #abourb to start sobbing just syraight up sobbing #til #my ppl are lost frfr #i am so unwell! #this is why non-white transsexual lesbians are the smartest people ever. they know what's up #they know the history because it concerns them deeply

[jessequinones]

Writing Lesson: Remembering the Past

I moved from the United States of America to Australia and since then I’ve tried to rewatch some cartoons from my childhood, mainly ones from either Cartoon Network or Boomerang and I can't find them. They're not on any streaming services and I can’t buy physical copies because they’re extremely expensive. Sure Tubi might have some old cartoons such as Popeye or the original Superman, but I didn’t grow up with them. I wanted to rewatch cartoons from the 60s-early 2000s, shows such as The Jetsons, Flintstones, Yogi Bear, the original Animaniacs, Dexters Laboratory, you get the picture.

So why am I bringing all of this up when it comes to writing? Well it got me thinking that yes, while these shows were racist, and aged like milk being left out in the sun, I would argue that it’s still important to rewatch them. Not just for nostalgia shake but as a writer it’s a good idea to remember the past so we don’t repeat it.

I know, “if you don’t remember the past you’ll be doomed to repeat it” but the thing about that saying is, it’s not actually wrong, but I think it get’s overused so no one understands why we say it.

Stories change and evolve over time. The stories we read and were told as kids, might not be the same ones we tell our children because it doesn’t work for them and that’s ok. Stories are supposed to evolve over the years because they show that we as humans are evolving as well. However, if we start to no longer show the past what lessons can we learn to improve?

You see history is a funny thing, if we know our history and the lessons it brings we can do stuff to avoid making the same mistakes as the previous generations. However, if the previous generation's mistakes are lost in time, how can we avoid them if we don’t know what those mistakes are to begin with?

That’s what the saying means. Remember the mistakes our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on so we don’t make those same mistakes. This is one of the reasons why every couple of generations society seems to go backwards since the mistakes of the past are being forgotten or ignored and we do them again.

Now I’m not one of those people who think we should stay in the past, life was better back in the old days because let’s be honest, it wasn’t. We were just kids and didn’t understand how the world works. I think we should be able to tell new stories while also not wiping the old ones from existence just because the old ones no longer make money. Of course, they aren’t going to make money the people who like old things are old and there'll always be fewer old people compared to younger ones.

All I'm saying is that if we could keep the old stuff available for as long as possible, we should try and do so. Is the past embarrassing and racist? Yes, but so are we. As a society, many stories are being told that I already know aren’t going to age well in the next couple of decades but we shouldn’t forget about them. Keep learning, keep improving, keep being better.

If you want to reread some old books as a bit of a history project I got some for you. "The Giving Tree", "Gone with the Wind", "Lolita" (my god is that a bad story, why was that ever popular?) "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "Stranger in a Strange Land". I could go on but those are some classic stories that it would be best not to forget about them. It’s important to understand why they were popular and what newer lessons we can get from them.

I also understand history for most people is kind of a boring subject, and while I don’t have advice on how to make learning fun. Perhaps if you’re a writer, and don’t want to read some old books in the genre you writing in, there might be a Youtube video you could put on or something? I’m not asking anyone to do a ten-page history report, just to try and remember some of the mistakes that were being taught in the old days so we could create new and more progressive ones instead of just repeating the same mistakes and never moving forward.

#writing #writeblr #book #books #history #writers of tumblr #authors of tumblr #bookblr #the giving tree #Stranger in a strange land #gone with the wind #The adventures of Huckleberry Finn #mark twain #writing lessons #the jetsons #the flintstones #dexters laboratory #yogi bear #animaniacs

[mazm-imagines]

Erik, why you hold so tightly to your "made up stories hold no value” claim? When I believe you coudl see yourself as to for example Creature from Mary Shelley book called Frankenstein

"Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded."

The infamous quote from the Creature struck a few chords within Erik. One of the few fictional stories he let himself read.

"Yes, I am familiar with the Modern Prometheus. While I may relate to Frankenstein's Monster, I must say: there is no use for empathy. What good will it do me?"

Erik buried down his heart a long time ago. Even if he yearned to enjoy his humanity, he didn't see the point.

"Even then... when I do pick up a book, it is bound by the author's feeble knowledge of the world. It makes me yawn. At least with reality, there are many wonders to be uncovered."

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. I would much rather not be doomed."

#mazm #mazm phantom of the opera #Erik #Answered ask

[thepowerisyouth]

"History is doomed to repeat itself". It always didnt sit right to me. Time to ask myself why and walk through my thoughts

The concept of time really confuses people (as it should), and any science fiction that is showing things like time travel arent really helpful.

Time is fluid in a sense, yes. But its important to note that while we are all stuck on a firey, warming hellscape known as colonizer Earth-- for all intents and purposes for the next 50 years on mortal, warming earth, time is extremely fixed +/- 1 second/yr nuance for really big heavy things on earth

When I'm talking about us mortals stuck on mortal earth-- No, I'm not talking about "Rich men shoot off to space and watch us from their ships" type people. Because 1) I dont count them as a real, feeling human beings while they dont treat me as one (fairness). Those people are monsters trying to abandon the poor in sake of something for only themselves. And 2) time will start behaving differently in space than on Earth, and those differences in technical maths can be a distraction for real Earth issues

What do I mean it can be a distraction? Well.. science that promotes ignorance & bliss under capitalism is mostly the science that gets propogated is what I'm saying. Like trying to convince people a wormhole 5ft wide could appear in front of them and watching people fail to understand time from that confusing, none realistic lens

Time is 1 second. If its been a minute thats an accumulation of 60 seconds. A year is ~525,600 minutes. 100 years is literally 50 million minutes. One after another and only in that direction. During that time, every single person on this Earth felt the effects of that minute the same we do today

There are a measurable, estimatable amount of collected minutes that this earth has been around. As hard as that is to grasp fully since it would be a DAMN lot of minutes. Imagine the 1990s cell bill Earth would get

Likewise, I get frustrated a lot by the mentality that "history repeats itself". I really think people confuse feedback-effect cycling with time accumulation effects and its not at all the same thing

Political idealogical cycles represent a feedback effect. It plays into my argument about "self-destructive vs self-promoting" behavior.

The place where time comes into the argument is only for the trendline of the cycle. This trendline, time, represents an accumulation of all collective learning which has ever happened in history.

Once a collective learns something, there is no going back on that science unless all the believers of it are murdered in cold blood by genociding colonizers

This is your friendly reminder that it is defeatest, self-destructive mentality to say "history is doomed to repeat itself".

Nope. You just love being a negative nelly who votes against progressive change and is observing the world devolving from those actions on a much smaller timeframe than human development has trended these social concepts exponentially upward

"Narrow minded" I guess is fitting here

#time #physics #earth #anti capitalism

[jasminemetaylor]

What is History For?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve caught yourself a few times staring at the clock, watching the sluggish tick-tick-ticking as you wait for history class to end. Sometimes it feels like 75 minutes of the Peanuts teacher monotonously repeating “names and dates and names and dates and names” like an alarm clock you just can’t shut off. But there must be a reason we learn history, right?

… right?

Learning from our mistakes:

As we look back on our past, we can all agree that for thousands of years, people have been making poor decisions that have ended in death and destruction. If you ask a history teacher why we learn about our past, perhaps the most common answer is that we need to understand the mistakes we’ve made in order to not make them again. You know what they say: those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. But does that mean those who do learn it won’t repeat it? Is educating people on past events a foolproof method?

As a society we are horrible at learning from our mistakes. In 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the Great War was finally over (names and dates and names and dates and names). The mass destruction seen throughout WWI did not stop a second one from occurring only decades later. This may have been because not enough time had passed after the first world war to fully comprehend the how’s and why’s enough to learn from the situation. However, more recent events have shown that perhaps even thousands of years is not long enough.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Though we have had countless plagues and pandemics throughout history, the entire world was turned on its side as leaders and healthcare professionals scrambled to come up with solutions. If we have seen these exact events repeatedly in the past, shouldn’t we have had an idea of how to better handle the situation?

Identity - are we getting better at learning from the past?

History helps to provide us with a sense of identity. When people look back on past events that their culture has been involved with, they can understand how they fit within a bigger historical context, and how this affects them to this day. Stories of the past give a basis to establish or cement values associated with certain cultures or nations. Acknowledging our history can also provide a voice for those who may not have had one before. Putting the stories that were never shared in the past on the forefront gives those people room to share their own stories as we learn to move forward and become more culturally aware. Though we cannot always avoid making the same mistakes we have made in the past, perhaps as we learn more about history, we are getting a little better at acknowledging our mistakes, and doing our best to learn from them.

#theory of knowledge #history #what is history for? #identity #culture #past #mistakes

[inquisimer]

❛ i can’t do this without you. ❜ for surana and anders PLEASE (and thank you if you decide to indulge me) PS happy friday :D

I think you're the one indulging ME, letting me write my angst Circle friends🥺🥰 wc: 1326

for @dadrunkwriting

~~~

The sixth time they brought Anders back to the tower, she didn’t see him for a year.

They all knew about the cells in the basement, dank and dark and fitted with manacles that they kept clamped around your extremities all hours of the day. But she’d always thought it was a warning, a legend, told to apprentices without any real evidence, just to keep them in line.

Until Anders came back, looking more like a bundle of toothpicks than a person. There were bruises around his wrists and ankles and his cheeks were so sunken, she could see every bone in his face. When he first reappeared, Neria froze, unblinking and disbelieving. She lifted a hand to brush at his mottled face, but he caught her arm and yanked it back to her side.

“Not here,” he hissed. “The back closet, upstairs, half a bell past supper.”

So that was where she went.

The closet was filled with robes, ceremonial, she surmised, from the various gilded accoutrements and the plastic casing that protected them from mothballs and general wear. There was hardly room to breathe, but she slipped between the hangers with some confusion, until a hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked her to the floor.

There was next to no lighting in this space, but it didn’t matter. The image of bruises blossoming across Anders’ jaw was seared in her memory, whether she was seeing it in real time or not. She wasn’t as successful in taming her outraged, anguished expression either, based on how Anders pursed his lips and avoided her gaze.

“It’s hardly unexpected,” he muttered. “Six times? I’m luck I haven’t gone under the brand yet. Greagoir’s influence, I suppose, or Sol.”

“Or both.” Neria cupped one hand against his jaw, giving him a moment to refuse. When he didn’t, she summoned the healing magic; hardly her specialty, but she knew enough to ease this particular ache. The blood vessels calmed and his skin returned to its usual alabaster shade. Anders sighed, catching her hand before it could fall and tracing the lines of her palm almost absentmindedly.

“I’m going to try again.”

She wished she could say she was surprised. But those who didn’t learn from history were doomed to repeat it, and Anders was nothing if not an ostrich with his head buried in the sand. She flipped their hands so she was tracing his palm instead, and sighed.

“Of course you are. Don’t you ever worry about what will happen when you’re caught? Cause you know they will. Unless you can destroy your phylactery before you go.”

“Seems like that would only draw attention. And I’m sure they’ve got mine in some super special vault at this point.” Anders scoffed. “There has to be a way to get far enough that their tracking spell won’t register.”

“You’d have to go to the Marches, at least. Or Tevinter.”

“Tough trek to make alone,” said Anders, and if it had been anyone else she might have missed the catch in his voice. But she knew what Anders sounded like when he was causal, and this was faked, at best.

What was he playing at?

“Might be easier with a plan. Or an extra set of eyes.”

Oh. That’s what he was getting at.

“That is a spectacularly awful idea. Possibly the worst you’ve ever had. And that’s saying something.”

“Please Ria. I…don’t think I can do this without some help. Without you.”

His voice was scraped raw, desperate with the years spent caged and the brief glimpses of freedom he’d stolen. The stories he’d told her of life outside the Circle tugged at her heartstrings; but she’d spent so much time balancing his extremism with Solona’s loyalism. This would be like choosing sides, like choosing one friend over the other, something she’d managed to avoid all these years. And…

“This tower is all I know,” she said softly, not meeting his eyes. “It is one thing to listen to your stories, to read about places and adventures in books. Living them out is something else entirely—Maker’s sake, I’ve never even been off this island, Anders.”

He opened his mouth, and then closed it, thinking on what she’d said. However dim and tainted with bitterness, Anders had memories of a life before the Circle. He remembered his parents and the small cottage they’d shared, the children he used to entertain in the village square, walking barefoot through the rolling farmland that surrounded it, and so many other sensations that Neria couldn’t even imagine.

She knew nothing more than the cold stone and drafty corridors of Kinloch Hold. And if you believed the Templars, she never should.

Anders grabbed both of her wrists, sliding his hands down to intertwine with her fingers. His were bony and raw from his time in chains, and they dwarfed hers as they always had. He squeezed, firm and steady.

“There’s people out there who will help us. Not everyone agrees with the Chantry and the Templars, no matter what they say. Enough of the network knows me now—we could get halfway to Amaranthine before the search party hits the mainland.”

He brushed his thumbs lightly over her knuckles. “Think about it, Ria. Freedom, real freedom with no walls or guards intruding on your privacy. Freedom to choose where to go and what to do whenever you want. Freedom to…wear pants, and eat properly seasoned food.”

A snicker slipped past Neria’s pressed lips, but she couldn’t deny the temptation to sit cross-legged outside the confines of their bedroom.

Anders released her hands and moved his back up her arms, clasping her shoulders with pressure enough that she finally looked at him again. His eyes glowed with anticipation and yearning and unrestrained pleading, even sunken as they were, and an undeniable note of sincerity lined his voice when he spoke.

“You won’t be alone,” he promised.

Her heart stuttered, for he’d touched on the fear she couldn’t voice. She’d never been alone, not in all of her memories, because no mage was ever alone in the Circle. But all the space and freedom that made the outside world enticing, also meant the space and freedom to fail. And out there didn’t have a safety net of Templars or senior enchanters when things went awry. Plus, she might not be alone, but—

“What about Solona?”

“You can’t tell her,” he said immediately, straightening up and pressing a finger to Neria’s lips when she started to protest. “You know she’d go straight to Irving, and he’d go straight to Greagoir. What would be the point, anyway? It’s not like she’d go with us.”

“I know, it’s just….” Just that Solona was the closest thing she had to family. Could she walk away without notice from the person she’d shared nearly every memory with for over a decade?

“Please Neria.” His voice cracked and shattered like a window under an escaped force blast. “You deserve so much more than this stone prison and I have to go—I’ll break if I stay here. And there is no one else I trust enough to go with me. Please.”

Neria bit her lip and looked down again.

There is no one else I trust.

Solona might be her dearest friend, but Anders held a piece of her heart as well—and his escapades had made him a pariah among most of their peers. Solona would be angry and disappointed if Neria left her….but Anders would be dead, or worse.

Cold, steely resolve tightened around the fear in her throat, drawing it down until the anticipation and excitement hiding underneath rose to the forefront. It must have shown on her face, for Anders’ uncertainty vanished and a triumphant grin stretched his lips. He lifted her wholly onto his lap and buried his head in her shoulder, so her chin rested against the greasy strings of his hair.

“Where do we start?”

#dadwc #my writing #dragon age #dragon age fanfic #dragon age origins #dao #oc: neria surana lavellan #anders dragon age #neria & anders #surana lavellan au #platonic relationships my beloved

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck said he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes but…

Buck is so afraid of making another mistake that he is doing everything he can to avoid making important decisions that will affect his own life and happiness. Since May 2022, he’s mentioned to three different people that he doesn’t want to keep making mistakes but the method he’s using to accomplish his goal is unsustainable.  

First, he told his ex-girlfriend in 5x18 “Starting Over” while he was breaking up with her, “I don’t want to keep making the same mistakes”. 

Second, during his conversation with Eddie in 6x1 “Let the Games Begin” he said, “Maybe I don’t want to pick the wrong couch again” after Eddie told him that he could have replaced his couch (metaphor for relationship) by now since he broke up with his ex-girlfriend more than four months ago (related post: Timeline of Couches). 

Third, during a conversation with Bobby in 6x1, he asked Bobby if he didn’t select him to be interim captain because he doesn’t have a couch and when Bobby asked him why he doesn’t have one Buck replied, “I guess I’ve been having trouble picking one out. Like I’m afraid of making a mistake again”. Buck’s problem is he wants to completely avoid making any mistakes so that he doesn’t get hurt again but his way of thinking is NOT realistic and it’s flawed because he doesn’t understand that making mistakes is a part of life.  By trying to avoid making mistakes altogether, he hasn’t realized that he will continue to make them over and over again because he’s missing ½ of the mistake making process, which includes LEARNING from those mistakes.  One of the ways people grow and become mature adults is by learning from their mistakes and there’s a quote that says, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”.  Therefore Buck is certain to repeat his mistakes if he does not start learning from them.

When a person understands the things they did that caused them to make a mistake, they acknowledge them, learn from them and do their best to avoid doing those things again so that they won’t make the same mistake twice.  Buck can learn from his mistakes and the first thing he should do is look internally and do some self-evaluation so that he can start to address all the mistakes he’s made in the past. Then he should acknowledge the role he played in making those mistakes, accept that he couldn’t do anything to change the other person’s behaviors, learn from them and then start to move on so that he can be at ease with himself. By trying to avoid making mistakes, Buck will continue to go in circles and he will not be able to move forward because he won’t acknowledge the things that caused him to make the mistakes in the first place.  Whenever he ignores making decisions about his own life, he’s simply pushing himself closer to having a mental breakdown because he will remain unsettled and he will keep making irrational decisions (related posts: Before Buck’s Breakdown and Buck Breaks).  Lately he’s made several irrational decisions including him vying for the interim captain role in 6x1 but when he didn’t get it, he never mentioned it again and it was kind of like he just forgot about it.  He didn’t say if he will or will not continue to pursue the role of being a captain someday nor did he mention if it was still even a goal that he has for his future.  In 6x2 “Crash and Learn” he started reading self-help books without having the proper context for them along with searching for the secret to happiness after a victim named Lev died but he has yet to address the hurt he felt after the 118 left the scene of that Happiness Convention.  In 6x4 “Animal Instincts” he agreed to be a sperm donor for someone even though he openly admitted to them that he doesn’t know what he wants for himself yet.  He’s isolating himself again which didn’t work the first time when he tried to stay away from the firehouse before he filed the lawsuit since he’s outgoing and energetic; therefore it won’t work this time either because that’s not his personality.

Until Buck starts to address the way he uses unhealthy emotional and mental coping mechanisms, he will continue to delay any growth he could have achieved over the past six years (related post: Emotionally and mentally incapable of making big decisions). There are things he can do to address his mistakes but it will not be easy and it won’t happen overnight.  First, he needs to return to therapy so that he can talk through his issues with a licensed, impartial and objective person.  If he doesn’t want to talk to Dr. Copeland again, there are other therapists he should consider and if he needs a referral, Frank or Dr. Lim could assist him. Second, he needs to learn how to say NO whenever someone asks him to do something that he doesn’t want to do (related post: No is a complete sentence).  Saying no is not a bad thing and he wouldn’t owe anyone an explanation for why he would be choosing to say no. Third, he needs to learn that he doesn’t have to keep giving parts of himself away to other people just because they asked him to do it, which in the past has meant that they were doing it for their benefit and not his. Those people were only concerned with achieving their own happiness and not even considering his happiness which means Buck needs to learn that his happiness is important too (related post: Unhappy Buck).  Doing this will require him to learn how to make his own happiness a priority instead of him allowing other people’s happiness to take precedence within his decision-making process (related post: Buck being used for his parts).  Finally and most importantly, Buck should start focusing on the things he wants for his own life and future.  If he truly wants to be a fire captain someday, then he should schedule some time to speak with Bobby so that they can create a career plan for him.  Additionally if he wants a family of his own then he should talk to the person (Eddie) that he wants to have a family with so that they can discuss all the particulars together instead of assuming they know what the other one needs or wants.  In order for Buck to determine the things he wants out of life; he has to first look internally so that he can make those decisions on his own. Once he understands that making mistakes are inevitable and that he can learn from them, then and only then will he be able to identify the things that will make him happy.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #evan buckley character study 911 #buck's breakdown 911 #911 fox #911 on fox #911 speculation #911onfox #911 meta #911 s6 #911 season 6 #911 season 6 speculation #911 #eddie diaz is BAE #Anti Connor and Kameron

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

KAEDE AKAMATSU WINS! FATALITY

Also that Monosuke pack hitting hard!

*Says smoking a blunt*

OH CRAP! KUB DOWN! KUB DOWN!

Monotaro! We've gotta get outta here! Retreat!

*Monophanie and Monotaro rocket themselves out of the lab to escape.

Hey! Get back here! We're just getting started!

Don't! ...hah...Don't antagonize them.

I'm not kidding when I say that took basically every last drop of energy out of me.

*Monokid's Exisal, piloted by Sora, turns towards Kaede, and the hatch opens to reveal the phone inside.

Oh, alright...But hey, we managed to fend them off, so that's a plus!

...

*The hatch for Monodam's Exisal also opens, and the bear peers out to look at the remains of his brother.

I'm...I'm sorry Monodam...

DO-NOT-APOLOGIZE. MONOSUKE-HAS-A-TENDENCY-TO-RUN-HIS-MOUTH-LIKE-HE-IS-BETTER-THAN-EVERYONE.

THAT-MOUTH-IS-WHAT-GOT-HIM-KILLED-BEFORE. THOSE-WHO-DO-NOT-LEARN-FROM-HISTORY-ARE-DOOMED-TO-REPEAT-IT.

Yeah...I guess...

Ugh...

Kaede!?

Hah...The room is...spinning...

*Kaede nearly collapses, but Sora uses the Exisal's arm to catch her.

I think her wounds might have reopened.

SHE-WILL-BE-FINE-IF-WE-GET-HER-TO-THE-MEDICAL-BAY.

Alright...But I'M carrying her.

VERY-WELL.

*With the threat pushed back for now, Sora carries Kaede using the Exisal, while Monodam follows.

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganronpa another 2 #sdra2 #sora #kaede akamatsu #monodam #monotaro #monophanie #ask #rise and shine arc

[inkofamethyst]

November 11, 2022

I actually did the worst on my open book popgen exam lol (not that it mattered anyway).  I’m in a good place grade-wise, I think.

You know, all of these programs conveniently leave out the fact that not only do you have to submit a personal statement, but you have to also write four, five, six other little essays on random (they’re related) topics.  Like,,, HUH.  I just thought I’d pop in with a quick “boy howdy I wanna be a scientist, a woman in stem, a personified bunsen burner” and then be met with a round of applause and a stipend but apparently that’s not enough these days.

Also some of my apps are asking about my sexuality and that was definitely not a thing four years ago and like idk I know some ace folk feel like they fit in the queer community and that’s totally fine and I love my little hahaheehee’s on acetok but putting it in writing (yes, I recognize the irony considering the nature of this blog)???  FIRST of all I don’t know if this is real or if it’s purity culture-induced guilt.  I could get married and it all falls away and suddenly you’ve got a sexual being on your hands (one in need of therapy tho bc I’ve heard it’s a difficult switch to make).  SECOND what if it changes.  I dunno I just.. there is no truly permanent sense of self and.. ugh.  I mean I could say I’m aro/ace and they’ll be like “wow so she won’t be distracted by boys she’s a safe bet” but what they don’t know is that I’ll be distracted by everything else.

On a lighter note, listen.  I get it, LMM maybe wasn’t at all what we were expecting from Hermes.  I love the jokes, I think they’re silly because, ultimately, that man is a dork.  A theatre kid (who makes pretty bangin music ngl).  All adult theatre kids deserve ridicule.  No exceptions.  Obviously I want him to do well because I want the show to be good and I trust Rick.  I love the silly jokes, but I feel a little bad bc we’re circling back to that time on tiktok when Hamilton had just been released on D+ and everyone was watching it and making fun of the guy even though he wasn’t doing anything except loving being on stage.

And, breaking news, it turns out that I may not get into that education class after all which kind of sucks.  I have to wait until the start of next semester to see if the section has seats available at which point anyone will be able to register.  Until then, I’m registered for a greek art class in its place.

Lastly, it’s surprisingly easy to slip into supporting eugenics and I blame this on the fact that geneticists find eugenics to be so abhorrent and such an uncomfortable part of the discipline’s history that it’s rarely actually discussed or taught.  And this is the same problem with minimizing slavery or the holocaust or the treatment of indigenous Americans.  Those who do not learn and critically consider history are doomed to repeat it.  Scientists have an ethical responsibility to go beyond providing data.  They must nip misinterpretations in the bud by addressing the context of their work.  We read an article (more like a saga of articles, it was the scientific equivalent of a fight over twitter) in popgen which got me completely wired by the way that it used eugenics rhetoric without addressing that issue explicitly, and that feels so much more irresponsible than saying your a eugenics advocate outright (my prof had to assure me that the author was not, in fact, a eugenics guy).  I just... science doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and we live in an age where information is readily available to any person at any time.  Scientists need to keep that in mind and consider the social ramifications of their work, especially if it relates to humans.  Neutral science does not exist!!  We’re all influenced by the context in which we are raised!!  Anyway, back to the original point, eugenics should be taught sensitively in science classes so that people understand a) how to detect the warning signs of a budding eugenics-based argument and b) why they’re wrong to begin with.  Only then can we civilly discuss issues like how to mitigate the problems of the (fairly theoretical to begin with) human genetic load or whatever.

Today I’m thankful for the walks promenades I took last night and tonight!!  It was decently warm and I just needed to blow off some steam (we’re a mere week into daylight savings and I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate how sunset starts at 2 pm I hate how I feel down more often now).  Plus CRC3E38 was released yesterday and I tore through that thing on my walks.  I’m thankful that there’s a big open area on campus where people often frequent so I feel safe walking at night.  I’m thankful that I, a patron of the arts, went to see an (free) a capella show tonight, a lovely and uniquely collegiate experience.  I’m thankful that my cello-friend liked my arrangement draft!!  Finally, I’m thankful that I know people who will straight up tell me who the red flags in my field of choice are because I was definitely unknowingly flying close to one.

[msenvs3000w24]

Who cares about history anyways?

"There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it" (Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation)

I had to mull over this quote for a little while. It took a few rereads before I really understood what the author was trying to convey. I’m not sure if that is my own lack of understanding or the way it is written but either way it did take me a while to gain meaning from it. 

This quote brings to mind the saying ‘those who forget history are doomed to repeat it’. The idea that history is in the past and therefore we don’t need to think about it or consider it is ridiculous. Sure, we can’t do anything to change what has passed, but we also can’t afford to just forget about it altogether. The world as we know it is a function of everything that has ever happened. If we don’t learn from the mistakes we have made in history, we won’t be able to prevent those mistakes from happening again.

The popularity of Stonehenge is proof of the human interest in our history. Where did it really come from? How did people so long ago build it? So many question...

In regards to nature, there is one very consequential place where we need to be using history to inform our current and future actions, climate change. By studying tree rings and ice cores we can learn a lot about the history of our world’s climate. We have learned that while there are normal fluctuations in the climate, these take place over very large periods of time and the changes that we are currently experiencing are comparatively very fast. Without looking at the history of our world, we wouldn’t be able to say with nearly as much certainty how truly dangerous our current, and recent past, actions are for our future. The history of our environment is crucial if we hope to have any chance of saving it. 

Another point worth discussing from this quote is the emphasis on the word integrity. One of the meanings of the word integrity is used in this quote, specifically the use of the word in terms of something staying together or being structurally sound. Integrity can also be doing the right thing when no one is watching/ you won’t get any reward for it. I think this relates to the quote as well because we have to do the right thing for our future and our past, even if neither of them are watching us, history because it can’t and the future because just like us they may chose to ignore their past. 

Do you think the author meant for their use of the word integrity to have a double meaning?