Trump doesn't really think about histoy in any systematic or theoretical way. In my view, he has an incoherent and unformed attitudinal-based sense of the past. [...]
Am I right in remembering that while discussing the American Civil War a few years ago he referred to the advisability or otherwise of the Union government having closed the airports?
His ignorance is truly wondrous!
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Mayan Elephant:
Not only have I denounced the Big Lie, I have denounced the Big lie big lie.
I suspect that it's a question not answerable in terms of, for example, one specific decade. Perhaps it's a patchwork quilt of concepts and practices dominant in different time periods?
So it could be something like:
the social structures of the 1920s
the general prosperity of the 1950s and 60s
the US military might of the 1940s
whenever it was that 47 got his inheritance and had not yet bankrupted a casino
It would have to have a "cafeteria" flavour, because you won't get everyone to agree. Best keep it vague.
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Look, I know this is difficult for you with English not being your first language, but I didn’t state what ceeboo said. I asked ceeboo a follow up question on the basis that he responded without answering the original question.
Is there a grown up nearby that can talk you through this complicated grammar stuff?
No. And I didn't realize your snark about ceeboo would lead an adult to think that the follow up question was warranted or that it would get a response. My bad. You know me, just runnin' around with this dunce cap on. Silly me, thinking that his response was made knowing that he was ignoring the original question for good reason.
Ban Whiskey permanently if that's the only way.
— Gadianton
Trump doesn't really think about histoy in any systematic or theoretical way. In my view, he has an incoherent and unformed attitudinal-based sense of the past. For him the past is better than now, and if he can use that to get his way, he will be mollified for the moment. Trump is a man of fears and appetites. He has no real friends, loves, or ideals. Others attribute to him values he does not possess, and he is happy to go along with that if it gets him what he wants.
As a historian, are there any civilizations that haven't had a mythology about a prior golden age?
As a historian, are there any civilizations that haven't had a mythology about a prior golden age?
The privileging of the past as an ideal time is practically hardwired. I don’t know of many cultures that don’t have some kind of myth of a better past, but I also don’t know every culture. The question in my mind is, given the existence of modern historical method, why people continue to imagine a better time in the past and be manipulable by appeal to that mythology.
"He disturbs the laws of his country, he forces himself upon women, and he puts men to death without trial.” ~Otanes on the monarch, Herodotus Histories 3.80.