In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue.
Why the art of nuance is critical to understanding history.
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I suppose I may have sparked your interest with this edition’s title, given the scrutiny this age-old history rhyme has garnered in recent years. You may recall the renaming of Columbus Day, or perhaps the tearing down of statues (as occurred in my town), or myriad other activities that have made headlines over the past few years. Today’s edition, however, is not to persuade you about the proper treatment of Columbus Day. Rather, our objective today is to challenge you to not fall prey to the currents of our time, but to anchor yourself to something much more stable—that which can be known and understood.
There are a great many scholars who have rightly noted the importance of uncovering the nuance of history when exploring major events, innovations, commemorations, wars, and such. This fundamental approach of remembering the story of how things played out in the past remains a critical element of what we aim to foster here in our Think On These Things pages. The familiar saying that “hind’s sight is twenty-twenty” is true at every turn—reminding us that the challenge of navigating any situation while in the midst of it is infinitely more difficult than making judgement calls after an outcome is secure. Call to mind a situation where you were tasked with making a decision. Might there have been complexity? Might there have been nuance? Might you not have known how all of the variables would play out?
The answer, of course, is unequivocally yes—and the greater the realm of power or influence, the more that is at stake. In his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz talks extensively about the trials and tribulations of life in the fast and furious world of tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. He frequently notes how often he was required as a CEO to make decisions—some large, some small, and some make-or-break—without having all of the information (or time) he wanted or needed.
We all face this to varying degrees and in different ways. Sometimes we get it right and other times we don’t. This is not an excuse to dismiss the impact of important decisions—we have a responsibility to ourselves and others we serve, lead, or influence, to exercise wisdom and diligence. However, given the nature of our fallibility and imperfection, the reality is that there is often more at play than what meets the eye.
Thus, when exploring historical events—such as Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas—we must step into the context of the later 1400s to truly understand the story of how things played out. After all, things do not happen in a vacuum. Whether we are talking about historical discoveries of land or revolutionary inventions, there are significant unknowns going into both. Further, there are complex influences at play.
As he often does, Wilfred McClay reminds us in his book Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story that the Americas (as far back as we can know) have always been lands of immigrants. The indications of earlier people groups who lived across North and South America reveal that there were all sorts of different groups who populated these lands over time. So, it is critically important to understand that Christopher Columbus was not the first “new” group to come to the Americas. The pattern of human history—in every part of the world—has always been one of various people groups conquering various lands/regions. This is not new, nor is it unique to this one instance in 1492. What is far more unique is the eventual result of what became the United States of America, whose governing documents and structure remain the longest standing of their kind.
This in no way discounts or minimizes the tragedy that comes along with competing powers and nations. There is much throughout history—in all regions and all countries—that is difficult to understand and reveals devastating actions by people. In fact, exploring some of the extreme atrocities throughout history puts into keen perspective for us the many blessings we enjoy today in the most free, prosperous, just (albeit imperfect) nation in the world. And as we have said many times in these pages, this reality brings us face to face with the truth about human nature.
Nonetheless, history is filled with complexity that we must wrestle to know and understand. So let us endeavor to not fall prey to the winds and torrents of our time. Let us, instead, delve deeply into the vast amount of information that can be known. This is the harder and slower way—but it is also the better way.
Let us turn to the wisdom of a few philosophers, scholars, theologians, and historians who would encourage us to exercise our minds and memories in these endeavors:
St. Thomas Aquinas in his De Memoria et Reminiscentia references both Cicero and Aristotle’s comments on memory:
“Moreover it pertains to prudence to direct one by a consideration not only of the present circumstances, but also of past events, in those courses of action which are at hand. For this reason, Cicero, in his Rhetoric, proposes as the parts of prudence not only foresight, by which the future is planned, but also understanding, by which the present is considered, and memory, by which the past is apprehended. Hence it is necessary that there be also in other animals, which show a participated likeness of prudence, not only a sense for the present, but also a memory of the past. Therefore, the Philosopher, in the beginning of Metaphysics, says that in certain animals memory is formed out of the senses, and on this account they are prudent. But as animals have an imperfect prudence compared to man, so also they have an imperfect memory. For other animals only remember, but men both remember and recollect.”
Noted historian, Wilfred McClay says:
“Historical consciousness is to civilized society what memory is to individual identity.” And “One of the worst sins of the present – not just ours but any present – is its tendency to condescend toward the past, which is much easier to do when one doesn’t trouble to know the full context of that past or try to grasp the nature of its challenges as they presented themselves at the time.”
More recently, pastor and author Andrew Wilson notes a “forgetful age” in his book Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West and accurately describes what happens when we don’t remember. He notes that
“In the absence of a plausible historical narrative, people retreat into tribalism or conspiracy theories (perhaps both) to help them make sense of the pace of change, because the deeper currents that shape society over decades and centuries—what James Davison Hunter calls the cultural “climate,” as opposed to the “weather”—are invisible to them. Another result of amnesia is arrogance, and it is available in both conservative and progressive flavors. In the progressive version, our current mores are self-evidently correct, which means that anyone who thought differently a hundred years ago, or even ten years ago, must have been either stupid or evil (or both). In the conservative version, the only reasons for a person’s success are their own ability and effort, which means that anyone who highlights the importance of historical privileges , or oppression, must be either jealous or lazy (or both). Memory, in contrast, should generate humility: the acknowledgement of our past, with all its strengths and weaknesses, and the recognition that the reason we have the moral convictions we do, and the material advantages we do, is because of our ancestors. As James Baldwin relentlessly pointed out, we are our history.”
We also see this repeatedly admonished to followers of the Judeo-Christian faith. In the pages of the Old Testament—known as the Torah to Jewish people—God repeatedly tells his chosen people (and later His prophets do the same) to remember. Remember His covenants and promises, remember His miracles, remember His faithfulness, remember His commandments…and on and on. This is also why there was such a powerful tradition of oral history being passed down from one generation to the next.
Why is this necessary?
Well, the answer for the ancient people was the same as it is for us today. We forget. We lose sight of things. We are easily persuaded. We are distracted. We fall prey to the currents of our day or week or time.
Wilfred McClay, once again from his uplifting book Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story, describes the importance of storytelling this way, which taps deeply into the need for color and nuance when we remember:
“We are, at our core, remembering and story-making creatures, and stories are one of the chief ways we find meaning in the flow of events. What we call ‘history’ and ‘literature’ are merely the refinement and intensification of that basic human impulse, that need.
The word need is not an exaggeration. For the human animal, meaning is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Without it, we perish. Historical consciousness is to civilized society what memory is to the individual identity. Without memory, and without the stories by which our memories are carried forward, we cannot say who, or what, we are. Without them, our life and thought dissolve into a meaningless, unrelated rush of events. Without them, we cannot do the most human of things: we cannot learn, use language, pass on knowledge, raise children, establish rules of conduct, engage in science, or dwell harmoniously in society. Without them, we cannot govern ourselves.
…A culture without memory will necessarily be barbarous and easily tyrannized, even if it is technologically advanced.”
So, the next time you go to explore a controversial topic or piece of history, keep this in mind! May the humility of remembering keep us firmly planted with roots of civility, understanding, and learning.
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