Why you should say goodbye to the myth of the beautiful past

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Romantic images have little to do with reality.

Probably, each of us dreamed of feeling like a noble knight or a beautiful lady and plunge into the atmosphere of balls and luxury. But such desires are often based on a mythologized perception of history.

Why we love to idealize the past so much

There are several main reasons.

Because of the myths deeply embedded in our minds

Previously, they helped R. Barth. Mythologies explain the structure of the world to ancient people and were actually the forerunners of science and history in primitive society. Myths provided simple answers to the most difficult questions and left no room for uncertainty.

Now we already know that lightning is not an instrument of the anger of the gods, and people are not molded from clay. Nevertheless, the attractiveness of myths has not disappeared anywhere. Therefore, some today enthusiastically believe in various fictions about science, technology, the universe, relationships and much more. Misconceptions about the past are also widespread. Including those that represent bygone times ideal.

Due to stereotypes about certain historical eras

Perhaps one of the most famous such periods is the Belle Époque in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This time is usually presented as a time of optimism, economic prosperity and art, cabaret and champagne. This image emerged due to the relative calm in international politics, rapid technological progress, scientific discoveries and freer morals during these years.

Other countries also had their "beautiful eras". For example, the Roaring Twenties in the United States. Such pictures do not arise by chance. Often, people love the heyday in the history of their country. It is pleasant for us to think that at some point our country was one of the most powerful or developed powers in the world.

Due to the influence of popular culture

The popular culture that emerged in the 20th century played an important role in the spread of myths about the beautiful past. Many books, films, and video games idealize bygone eras. Suffice it to recall some historical movie in which all the characters are combed, painted, and their teeth are white and even. In such works, knights or musketeers are always noble and well-mannered, and their actions correspond to the principles of modern morality.

Due to dissatisfaction with the present and nostalgia

Also, the craving for a supposedly wonderful past is disappointing in the present. For example, ideas about the same “Belle Époque” appeared in contrast to the tragic events of the First World War.

Why life in the past was not so happy

Let's look at specific examples.

Living standards left much to be desired

Probably, it is not worth explaining that earlier people died much more often due to diseases, unsanitary conditions, hunger and wars.

Also, for sure everyone knows that in the past there were not only the military, the nobility and the clergy. There were also the lower classes, which constituted the absolute majority of the population. They lived in poverty, were forced to work hard and for a long time had no rights at all. Such people could not receive a minimum education until the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, even in the leading countries of the world.

There are also less obvious examples. For example, until the 19th century, European women used cosmetics with poisonous lead, and at the beginning of the 20th century, soaps, drinks and "drugs" with radioactive substances were popular. All this, of course, affected life expectancy.

Incredible knowledge coexisted with incredible ignorance

Because of the great thinkers of the past, it may seem that before all people were well educated, knew several languages and, in general, were much smarter than their descendants. But this is a simplified view. The level of knowledge and culture was very different, and also strongly depended on the origin. And the "giants of thought" were extremely ignorant in some matters.

For example, ancient thinkers knew P. S. Kudryavtsev. The course of the history of physics, that the Earth has the shape of a ball, and fairly accurately calculated the size of the planet. But this did not prevent scientists from believing in giant ants, Amazons, centaurs, people with dog heads, about which they wrote 1. Herodotus. History in nine books.

2.. "Father of history" Herodotus and Pliny the Elder.

Violence was the order of the day

People of the past were much more bloodthirsty than modern people.

Torture of Kh ‑ A. Llorente. The critical history of the Spanish Inquisition was the norm for both ecclesiastical and secular courts. And not only in the Middle Ages, but also much later. And cruel executions did not go away, for example, in the 19th century. For example, during the suppression of the sepoy uprising in India in 1859, British soldiers tied some of the rebels to the muzzle of a cannon, and then fired a shot.

Even entertainment was barbaric by today's standards. For example, in Europe, during folk holidays, they liked to burn cats or throw them off the bell tower. And this tradition did not die in the Middle Ages. The last cat was thrown from the belfry in the Belgian Ypres in 1817.

Most people's lives were bleak

Cruelty manifested itself not only in laws or holidays, but also in everyday life.

The French historian Philippe Aries studied archaeological and written sources and F. Aries came. The child and family life under the old order to the conclusion that up to the 17th century the concept of childhood did not exist in principle. That is, the child was considered a small adult, and the attitude towards him was appropriate. Therefore, children from poor families worked on an equal basis with adults and earned injuries and serious illnesses. This state of affairs persisted almost until the beginning of the 20th century.

Despite the abundance of stories about beautiful ladies and romantic love, the attitude towards women was terrible. For example, in the Middle Ages they were called R. Fosier. The people of the Middle Ages are "vessels of evil" because of the burden of the so-called original sin of Eve. Needless to say, for a long time daughters and wives had no rights, and violence was a family norm. The struggle for the emancipation of women began much later and was fraught with many difficulties.

The morals were not so strict

Many also like to think that the past was a time of high morals and ethics that are lost today. But internal (morality) and external (morality) norms are not the same thing. This principle has worked in the past, perhaps even more revealingly.

For example, the era of the Enlightenment was remembered for the fact that the rulers and rulers of that time almost officially gave birth to favorites and favorites. And this behavior was not considered unacceptable.

During this period, behind the facade of strict morality, an active life was raging: sex before marriage, betrayal, lawsuits to establish paternity. There were also rapes and forced miscarriages.

Do not think that in the highly spiritual 19th century the situation has changed a lot. For example, Alexander Pushkin walked A. Tyrkova-Williams. Pushkin's life. Volume 1. 1799-1824 to prostitutes, and called his wife Natalia Goncharova 113th love.