Engaging Macrohistory Through the Present Moment
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ARTICLE .3 Engaging Macrohistory through the Present Moment Anthony Judge Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential Belgium Introduction The question explored here is how the text of macrohistory – and its larger dynamic – gets written It is distinctly presumptuous for a non-historian to into the individual psychic fabric. Can it exist otherwise? comment on issues of macrohistory that are the focus of extensive studies1 – or is it? Is it appropriate to frame macrohistory as only being a matter for historians? As Identifying Longer-term Rhythms with war and other matters, is macrohistory too impor- 2 There has long been a preoccupation with the tant to be left to historians? longer-term rhythms of human existence that only The following is therefore a reflection on the signif- much more recently came to provide a context for icance of the rhythms of macrohistory for lived experi- macrohistory – but were notably neglected despite the ence in the present moment – an experience that is a work of Pitrim Sorokin (Social and Cultural Dynamics feature of the lived reality of all. The question is how do, 1937). Much is made of the capacity of the earliest or could, people engage with macrohistory – without observers to explore astronomical cycles and predict being historians? Responding to the details of macrohis- eclipses – in both cases judged as being determining tory over centuries is naturally disempowering to many. factors in the cycles of society and human experience. It might well be expected to engender a sense of apathy This provided a basis for astrology that remains vitally -- despite the sense of perspective some claim it offers. important to people of many cultures, including deci- A possibly more intriguing framing of the chal- sion-makers at the highest levels (Reagan, etc). However lenge lies in the question of how a person might detect it is one thing to be confronted with astronomically the longer-term rhythms that are of concern to macro- 3 determined interweaving cycles and quite another to history – especially in the daily life of a "blip culture" comprehend the larger dynamic that they represent, that seemingly treats such sensibilities as irrelevant. and yet another to sense their immediate experiential When the key focus for many is on the beat of music as significance. pacemaker for the heart and its affairs, the larger Many cultures have endeavoured to give meaning rhythms are beyond our ken. And yet we each have to in the present to such longer-term rhythms through write such a larger perspective into the internal decora- intertwining them with myth of immediate psycho- tion of our psyches – as the fabric across which we active significance. This remains of particular impor- move, even if only a stitch at a time. Whether under- tance in the Balinese calendar and in a larger sense to stood within a pattern of generations or not, "personal Hindu and Buddhist understanding of the "Wheel of macrohistory" extends from birth to death – and Life" as a context for cycles of individual reincarnation. becomes a preoccupation at various stages. Journal of Futures Studies, August 2004, 9(1): 3 - 12 Journal of Futures Studies Such cycles were of particular importance to rise to the Japanese time-spanning understand- determining experience in the Mayan and Aztec ing of giri. Modern cultural artefacts still achieve cultures. Cultures might well be distinguished in resonance in people when they are able to give terms of their ways of identifying macrotime meaning to longer-term relationships, whether and making it meaningful. between friends, siblings, man and wife, elec- Concern is expressed about cultural mem- tive affinities, or across generations. ory, perhaps focused most poignantly in com- The case is somewhat different with memoration of wars long past ("Lest We respect to what might be termed "time-span- Forget"), especially where such memories con- ning fiction" offering an epic "sweep of history". tinue to be of central significance in determin- For, once there is a shift to spanning more than ing relationships with other groups.4 Living three generations, the sense of time becomes memory may focus on the horrendously trau- more intellectualized. This is the case with fic- matic experiences of repressive political tion concerning families and dynasties across regimes of the past. In the case of the more than a century, whatever the degree to Protestants of Northern Ireland, these memo- which the facts are fictionalized and personal- ries of the past continue to be literally ized. Such stories start to partake of the per- "drummed in". spective of historical accounts across centuries. Some memories of this type are now asso- Extended to the history of humanity as a whole, ciated by the young with the outdated views of there is a similarity to the experience of one-vol- their elders, no longer held in traditional ume works such as H G Wells's A Short History respect. The patterns recognized in the older of the World (1922) or the millennia spanning traditions then decay into intellectual or cultural science fiction exercise of Olaf Stapleton's Last curiosities – possibly fit only for tourists and and First Men (1930), a "history" of the evolu- anthropologists. With the dissociation from tion of humankind over two billion years. Such daily experience of the agricultural cycles, and intellectualization is however given a much those related to the movement of animals, a more personal dimension in science fiction sense of longer rhythms may also be lost. The works such as Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: tales appreciative of the memory of elephants Archives.6 This intimacy is a feature in another to ensure the survival of the herd, in very occa- respect in The Blessing Stone (2004) by Barbara sional times of great drought, also lose their sig- Wood which provides a sense of the epic nificance. sweep of human history. Perhaps providing the In the present media era, new cultural most popular, and problematic, sense of longer artefacts nevertheless rely on a vestigial ability time spans is the novel of Douglas Adams7, to appreciate the place of humanity in longer adapted from a BBC radio series from 1978- time spans. This is notably to be seen in popular 1980. science fiction movies and series5 that are form- R Buckminster Fuller was one of the first to ative for the imagination of many youngsters. It popularize a World Game as guide to develop- might be argued that it is the time span (in addi- ing a longer term sense of patterns and options. tion to any space span) that provides an experi- A quite different approach, to eliciting a sense ential guarantee of depth, however artificial. of such time patterns, is that associated with The stories, plots and relationships – possibly some new kinds of interactive computer games spanning generations – give meaning to longer- allowing users to explore nation-building and term relationships that may be lost in the short- colonizing processes8 – some of which may be er-term relationships which many now accept banned for distorting history. One peculiar as the norm for daily life, notably as exemplified development of the last decade has been the by celebrity role models. The significance of astonishing popularity of online "virtual world" longer-term may however be reinforced by role-playing games like EverQuest, Asheron's actual tragic bonding experiences associated Call, Ultima Online, and Lineage that offer an 4 with accidents or warfare – of the type giving unusual insight into time. As argued by David Engaging Macrohistory through the Present Moment Plotz9, whilst every minute of the day, hundreds Experience of Longer-term Rhythms of thousands of people are gathering online to build digital civilizations, there are other much It is acknowledged that time may be envis- less known games developed to assist policy aged and experienced in a variety of ways.11 For makers in making history. example, Hugh Rayment-Pickard12 distinguishes Another approach to acquiring a sense of four types: Catastrophic time (the devouring longer term time patterns is through the (often and meaningless image), Apocalyptic time unforgettable) experience of "accidents", "disas- (awaiting the arrival of meaning, sceptical of ters" or "problems". Problems might be seen as human endeavour), Kairic time (savouring the encounters with previously neglected rhythms moment), Prophetic time (seeking to redeeem of macrohistory. Obvious examples are very time with work). As expressed by J B Priestly13: occasional flooding, heatwaves, cold spells, hur- We are not – even though we might prefer to be – ricanes, problems deriving from El Niño, inva- the slaves of chronological time. We are, in this sions of pests, degradation of ecosystems (loss respect, more elaborate, more powerful, perhaps nobler creatures than we have lately taken our- of songbirds, disappearance of "old growth" selves to be. forests, etc). Much is currently made of the Questions may be usefully asked, notably long-term cycles of climate change – as current- in the light of more recent theories of physics, ly experienced in terms of rising sea levels. A as to the locus of "the past" and "the future" in socio-cultural example is provided by the very relation to "the present".14 From a Hindu per- title of Samuel P Huntington's famed Clash of spective, as articulated by theosophists and oth- Civilizations (1993), which has done so much to ers, the "akashic record" is a form of universal fil- frame the unfortunate response of the West to ing system that records every occurring Islam through the "war against terror". The thought, word, and action – and may be "read". metaphor "clash" is indicative of the lack of con- In Hindu mysticism, akasha is understood to be ceptual subtlety in understanding of the interre- the primary principle of nature from which the lationship between long dissociated historical other four natural principles, fire, air, earth, and trends – "rape" would have offered the same water, are engendered.