It is thought, like Hegel, that history was
the growth of freedom… His “story” of history
is the rise of freedom… from the ancient world where
the only person who was free was the King… then later,
freedom was (taken, given, stolen) by nobles and the church,
the history of freedom is going from the one, to the few, to
the many and where it exists today, to all…….
but other concepts can fit into Hegel’s format and I think that history
can use other examples instead of freedom… we can take the concept
of awareness… history can be said to be the story of awareness……
how we have become aware, from the one or the few to the many and hopefully
to all…but why awareness? Because from awareness we can better understand
our past, present and any possible future. To grow, to truly have authentic personal
growth, we must first become aware of, or have a better understanding of
those childhood indoctrinations that we were given as children…… Socrates
said, Know thyself, that can only happen if we become aware of who we are
and what is our possibilities… if we can become aware of our personal story
in the midst of our collective story… I have a personal story of birth, hearing loss,
moving many, many times, landing in California and staying here for over 40 years
and my soon to be turning 60… each aspect of my story is part of the collective story
of us and the collective story of us, that which we call history, is part of my
personal story… my personal story lies within the flow of history in general…
my personal story is impacted by our collective story of capitalism and democracy
and religion…… my personal story does not exists alone… it is included within
our collective story and the collective story is reflected within my own story…
and it is only by becoming aware can I begin to accurately chart my own
story…I become aware of the small and I mean small role I have played
in our collective story while others have played a larger role in our collective
story…which has impacted me and has impacted you…
our story, our collective story is made clear by our becoming aware of
our past, present and future role in our personal and, and our collective story…
when I tell my own personal story, it has, as all stories have, many,
many other actors besides myself… you have some leading actors in
my personal story, my mother, my father, my brother and sisters,
my wife and my daughter… each of these people have a personal story
as well as a collective story… we name that story, family…….
at times, I have leading actors like close friends and workplace
and school, but as with all stories, actors come and go from a story…
and we have our bit players in my story… people who had some brief
impact in my life and then they disappeared…… and each person has
their own personal story in which I was a leading role or I too was a bit actor…
performing my role and then leaving the stage…
this awareness, this understanding of our various roles, be it a
leading role or a bit role, tells us, in part, who we are and what
are our possibilities…
my role in our collective play, solely as a bit player, where I
work a minor role of a checker in a very large grocery chain
and I have had other minor roles in our very large story of
capitalism and democracy…… I can bare witness to but
have no influence upon those collective forces of the ism’s
and ideologies and superstitions and biases that we collectively
have and hold……
if I had one message to offer it would be this…
become aware… try to understand who you are
and what is your role in your own personal and collective
story………
what is your story?
Kropotkin