Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Fallacy of Historical Determinism

We know that history moves in a certain direction, thus guiding humanity's actions down certain paths. We know that we live in the great age of democracy in which every nation, more or less, is being moved toward trade liberalization and individual liberty. We know that technology is one of the great driving forces toward this end.

We know all these things therefore they are false. The moment when we know that history is moving in a certain direction is when we lose the impetus to take direct, individual action to continue events moving in that direction. Therefore, history will begin to move in a contradictory direction to what we thought. There are always others in the world who disagree with us, who are pushing or pulling in the opposite direction. The moment that we believe history is moving in our direction we are lulled into inaction in the mistaken belief that action is no longer necessary to achieve the desired result. Humans will never choose to act if they believe they can gain the same result while remaining inactive. Those who disagree with us will then begin to move history in their direction. Ultimately, they too will become paralyzed by their own ideology and if we keep fighting events will turn in our favor again.

One who says he wants to change the world often forgets that the world might want to have a say in that. There are others in other parts of the world saying they want to change it and they are referring to us. Do we not want a say in the matter, in the question of whether and in what direction??

Historical forces are conceived and created by individuals. "Democracy", "Socialism", "Capitalism", all of these were sets of ideas that began in the minds of individuals. It is when these individuals begin to believe they have discovered the direction history is moving that they stop wanting to move it themselves and stagnation and decadence set in.

John.

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