Sure, I can understand and accept that, but what I don’t really understand is what you feel should be the result of that realization. Are you saying that because only a small percent of individuals effect history on a grand scale, that “we”, and for the sake of this conversation we can say that “we” is me, you, anyone else reading, and others we come into contact with who we would have an influence upon, should stop even trying to make changes is the world? I’m not saying that is what you are implying for certain, but it’s a little unclear and it seems to me that might be the implication.
I am not looking for easy answers (like some joyous burst of inspiration “we should all join together and change the world!”). I am often quite a pessimist but I don’t really see any point in accepting a deeply fatalistic interpretation and living by it without making an attempt.
Would you care to elaborate on what you feel should be done (even if you do not wish to project those kinds of categories on others, I don’t know what you desire)? I’m sure some such understanding must guide your own actions.
Also to clarify, when I asked you before about where you place your effort, it was not in some attempt to prove you haven’t lived up to some expectation I had (if you even thought that), it is just that I wonder sometimes how interrelated the stances we take are with our outlook and how that connects with how we act. I honestly don’t believe that I’ve accomplished some great thing. I have been ruled by fear for much of my life, it’s not something I’m proud of. History for me is integrally connected to my own positioning as a subjective being, it was that that interested me in this thread and in the ‘End of History’ debate in general. For me philosophy is integrally related to how individuals can understand the world and act.
I’m not saying that last thought is something new, it’s been integral to philosophy and prerhaps contemplation prior to the written text, but I do think a lot of philosophical contemplation has moved away from that concern. It is not really important how we act (we here being the philosophers in question and their audience). Many philosophers live their lives through institutions with very structured repetitive behaviours, maybe they always have because there has always been deep structures to social life. (Roles and Institutions, pre-prescribed paths of development)
One of the reasons I had difficulty getting into the understanding of the way history is theorized in this thread is because I had always learned about history prior as being embodied in the written text. Human life before writing (or our possession of the writing of the time) being categorized as pre-history.
I am just wondering, do you think it would be significant or insignificant if a group of people (however large) created narrative texts (with real events, ideas and what have you) and passed them down among others that came to form the group throughout various generations. Would this be beyond the scope of history? Are we defining history as only what is recognized globally? To put it another way, does it only become history because it is recognized globally? If the same transmissions (texts, maybe other artifacts) were later “discovered” or otherwise brought forth to attention, does that make them part of history in a global understanding?