Homer and Herodotus
Video does NOT contain the first 5 minutes of aphorisms that is on the audio below.
June 7, 1989
AKS/News Items = none
Summary = See Below
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Transcript = needs edit before posting ( Tneeded )
Summary
Jan Cox Talk 0503 – Jun 7, 1989 ** – 1:12
Notes by TK
History is not what happens, it is what is said to have happened. History parallels your memory and your life. Your conception of history is you: it is not ‘removed’, it is pushing on you at every instant and it is what is said to have happened to you, not what actually happened. What is said by The Dialogue is your history, the source of your history.
“History is the record of unchangeable events” is an ordinary quote in the City. Thus, memory is a record of unchangeable events as well. But history (and memory) is continually changed via reinterpretation. An absolutely unchangeable memory would not be in man’s (therefore, Life’s) best interest. Homer was a poet, a storyteller, whereas Herodotus was the first ‘scientific’ historian, concerned with/for ‘facts’, unbiased observation.
In Homer’s time, storytelling was history; there was nothing to compare it to, no alternative, whereas in Herodotus’ world research and fact began to prevail. It is like the emphasis shifting in music from the rhythm and melody to lyrics. There is in everyone’s Nervous System a great attraction to storytelling; it has an inescapable appeal and is widespread (viz., religion) still. Spiritual ‘seekers’ look for a Homer-type ‘fabulist’ rather than the more mature Herodotus-scientist.
This points out the division in humanity between cortical circuitry vs. the lower non-verbal ones, and the process of evolution from the more simple to the more complex. A Real Explorer would be a combination of Homer and Herodotus. The fable is actually part of history, i.e., what is said to have happened is part of what happened; it is a wrap-up, the completion of the parcel known as ‘history’. Connection to the ‘ultimate triumph of words’ as words make history.
No energy conversion is 100% complete. This is true in all verbal exchanges (although harder to see in the small scale) via ‘friction’. Friction, ranging from slight misunderstanding to active disagreement, has great power. In nature it levels mountains; how could it be used by a Real Explorer?
Friction is Life’s extraction of profit, of its commission, from every exchange. Consider that such unavoidable loss occurs in your internal Dialogue. Therefore, don’t tell yourself what you’re doing. “I came to get hung, not make a speech” attitude when asked for ‘any last words at your execution.
Thought for the day, and possible unusable name for This Thing: “Don’t whine”.