Why We Feel Disconnected from History

When I was a child, I remember how I felt disconnected from history. Even then, I loved the subject: I was fascinated by ancient times and faraway places. Still, I couldn’t get past the feeling that I was disconnected from the past. It wasn’t just that the world of the past was a long time ago; I felt that I lived in an entirely different world, a place that no longer shared any connection at all with previous ages.

Over the years, that sense of disconnect has faded, to the point where I now feel vitally connected to the past. The world of the present no longer seems dramatically new – it connects in a surprising number of ways with the past. Distant times don’t feel so different – and I recognize myself as the latest generation in a long line stretching back into the distance.

However, this isn’t simply the product of maturity. I’ve heard, more than once, from adults who feel the same way as I did when I was younger. I think it’s a problem that most people suffer with: feeling disconnected to the past, as if in some way they live in a different world. It’s a problem, because it indicates a lack of perspective and an inability to recognize one’s place as a thread in the grand tapestry of history.

In trying to identify the cause, I’ve come up with at least four reasons why we feel disconnected from history. In fact, there are many other reasons, and these four reasons are not entirely separate – they are tied together in many ways.

Reason One: We Don’t Know History

The number one reason why we don’t feel connected to history is because we don’t know it. I’m not talking about knowledge of specific facts and details concerning an isolated period of history (that’s what I used to have) – I’m talking about a sense of the entire broad sweep of the human endeavor, or at least of western civilization.

You can be an expert in the Revolutionary War, or on Medieval Spain, without understanding how we got to the present. History buffs can feel as disconnected from history as anyone. But you don’t have to understand all the details to have a sense of why Rome fell, what led us out of the middle ages, or how the enlightenment has permanently changed the way that we all think.

Modern society prizes technological innovation, scientific skill, and the ability to use mathematics to answer complex problems. We focus on these skills, emphasizing them more than the liberal arts. STEM-related careers (like healthcare, engineering, IT, and computer science) are considered in-demand and high-paying. But how marketable is a degree in Roman History, or in British literature? Not only are the liberal arts (including history) viewed as dead-end majors, but the subjects are being gutted from institutions of higher education, to make room for more ‘practical’ subjects. In other words, we don’t know history because it isn’t valued.

There is also a concerted effort, by the cultural elites, to pry people away from any sense of shared cultural past. It is done in an attempt to dislodge the ‘authoritarian mindset.’ I’ve written about this more extensively in Reflections on Populism and Nationalism, so see that if you are interested to know more.

Connected with this active attempt to destroy our shared heritage and culture is the idea of multiculturalism. American culture is so individualistic that it is hard to find large communities that are truly united. Even if you are privileged enough to grow up in a community that remains culturally rich and connected with its past, it is unlikely that your community numbers more than a few hundred people within one geographic location. Go to any large event in your community: how many people do you feel a sense of connection with? For most, you have no idea what they believe about most anything – no idea of their religious beliefs, philosophical leanings, background, values, or heritage. Even mainstream culture is divided and fragmented. And if we didn’t have enough unique identities, the elites are constantly finding ‘new’ identities for us to welcome – whether it’s a new sexual orientation or a new ethnic sub-sub-category. We have little left to bind us together.

The result of this is that education doesn’t try to teach history as a topic that explains who we are, where we are from, or what we value as a community. It is taught as a few fragmentary names and places and dates. Modern historians are especially fearful of teaching ‘myths,’ any history that is factually untrue – even if those myths tell us something about what we value as a culture or what is praiseworthy. Older history teachers taught that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree, then confessed it because he couldn’t tell a lie. Modern historians don’t teach the incident at all, because they don’t know if it happened. But surely this incident ought to be taught, even if it didn’t happen, since it teaches us something about why Washington was seen as a role model (we can add a disclaimer, when teaching the story, that it may not have happened, but it’s still worth recounting).

Reason Two: The World Has Grown Up

The world is dramatically different than it has ever been, at any other point in human history. It’s important not to gloss over this. The changes that have occurred are more deep-seated than any previous changes.

In the West, society began to think democratically about 300 years ago. Then, 250 years ago, the world started to look democratic, beginning with the American Revolution, and followed by the French Revolution. Ever since those two revolutions, aristocracies have been falling, and society has embraced the democratic mindset more and more. Even if a few examples of aristocracies still exist, the ancient aristocratic way of thinking has entirely vanished – and with it, the entire mindset of the ancient and pre-modern world. It would take more than a few books to document all of the changes that this brings, but it touches everything: from medicine to music, from transportation to philosophy.

We live in a ‘manufactured’ world. There is a reason why everything is that way that it is – someone has thought about it and engineered it that way. Nothing is left to chance. From the angle of the pavement that you drive on, to the number of pickles placed on your McDonald’s cheeseburger, to the ads that you see on your computer, everything has been analyzed, engineered, and determined by a process. The world of the past was much less manufactured, and hence, it felt more ‘natural’ and more ‘raw.’ The idea of the ‘unexpected’ was much more prominent in the past. Hence, we feel disconnected from the world of the past.

The First and Second World Wars created a period of 31 years that dramatically changed the world. 1945 acts as the beginning of the ‘disconnected world.’ In most every aspect, the world of 1914 was a different world from 1945, at least at first glance. Cars replaced horses. Swords went out of style and atomic bombs came into style. Medicine developed from barely sanitary to using antibiotics. Airplanes barely existed before, but now they are commonplace. Even the globe has changed: empires with vast colonies existed in 1914, but independent nations (or at least the idea of independence) was well advanced by 1945. It’s easy to feel disconnected to the past when we have such a logical dividing line.

Reason Three: We’ve Replaced Natural Worlds with Artificial Worlds

This reason is closely connected to the previous reason. The Enlightenment provided a perspective of endless improvement, in which mankind is always attaining a better state. As a result, we think of what is ‘new’ as better, rather than what is old. We prefer our artificial worlds to the natural worlds of the past: and it shows in many ways.

We’ve created entire virtual worlds. Electronic screens are everywhere (even in your pocket), but the whole idea of a ‘virtual world’ is fake. It doesn’t exist. When you get on the web, where are you? You haven’t gone anywhere. Where is ‘Amazon’? Where is ‘Youtube’? They aren’t places – but we speak of them as such. We’ve bought into the idea of a virtual world that doesn’t even have existence. Yet we speak of it as a place, or as places. And it gets more crazy: you can play video games in which you can travel through entire landscapes or worlds that don’t exist. No wonder we feel disconnected from the real world.

Society is now more urban than rural. It wasn’t until the year 2007 that this happened – since 2007, more than 50% of the world population lives in urban spaces. Those who live in urban spaces are, by definition, living in artificial worlds – landscapes created by humans, and a step removed from nature. Again, it’s easier to feel disconnected from the past (a primarily rural, agrarian past) when you don’t lead a rural, agrarian life.

And of course, we spend almost all of our time indoors or in man-made vehicles. Once again, our lives are spent in ‘artificial worlds,’ rather than the natural world. It may seem small, but it surely affects the way in which we perceive our connection to the past, where people spent large amounts of time in the outdoors – tending grain, herding livestock, or practicing with weapons.

Reason Four: We Have Less Connection with the Circle of Life

Spending time in nature reconnects us with the ‘circle of life.’ By this, I’m not referring to any sort of eastern concept, nor the idea that history is ultimately cyclical (I view it within the Judeo-Christian framework as a linear concept). Rather, I’m referring to the idea of birth, life, and death that plays out constantly in nature. Because lifespans (of all living things) are indeed cyclical and connected, this ‘circle of life’ is a timeless, endless process that will continue until the end of human history. It is rooted in the past and continues into the future. By recognizing our role in it, we recognize that we play a small role in something that has been going on for a very long time.

As I’ve already pointed out, we spend much less time in nature than previous generations. This means that we feel more disconnected to the ‘circle of life,’ which roots us in the idea that we are from the past and will continue into the future. It’s not enough to just take a walk in nature (though that might be helpful) – our lives are lived fundamentally ‘apart from’ the natural world.

The enormous wealth and prosperity of the 21st-century West allows us to super-specialize in our careers, and to outsource everything else. This causes us to have less of a connection with the tangible world around us, with several results.

Those who are ‘jacks of all trade’ have some idea of the vastness of the world and all the knowledge that they don’t know. Precisely because they are engaged in so many skills, they can’t master any of them – so they have a greater appreciation for all there is to know. This causes them to ponder those who have gone before and all the effort that was put into gaining the knowledge that we now have. In the past, most people were ‘jacks of all trade’ since they had to know a little about agriculture, woodworking, livestock, etc.

But since we hyper-specialize today, we are more likely to feel like we know a great deal about our own field, and we probably feel like we know far more about our field (in our day) than the people of the past ever did. The result is that, rather than value those who have gone before in our field, we feel disconnected from them, as if we are the ‘best version,’ while those who came before had a crude knowledge.

Having a connection with the tangible world is significant because it connects us with the age-old rituals and processes that have been going on for hundreds of years. If you are re-shingling a house, or building a shed, or digging a pit, you are likely doing jobs that have been done by millions of people, for thousands of years – even if the specific way that you do the project looks a little different from how your forebears did it. Engaging in these simple projects acts as a subtle reminder of how much you have in common with the past and the people of the past. But because we hyper-specialize, we rarely need to do the sort of projects that those of the past did regularly. It’s much easier to leave those things to the ‘professionals,’ who can do it more easily.

There is one aspect of our highly-specialized, intangible culture that is particularly absent: the process of bringing food to the table, from nature. Farming has been the work of the vast majority of human beings since the dawn of time. Traditionally, somewhere around 90 percent of humans had one occupation: farming (of animals and/or crops). In fact, in the most ancient or remote cultures, hunter-gatherers wandered the countryside, finding and hunting their food sources. However, we have been almost entirely removed from these processes. Very few people see the entire process of how even one food source (say, a chicken) goes from being raised to ending up on the table. Those who do see it for one food source are highly unlikely to see it for many food sources (say, a number of different animals and vegetables). Yet the tilling of soil and the raising of animals have been the primary links that humans have had to nature and the ‘circle of life’ for millenia.

Through farming, we see how important the earth is; we observe the ‘circle of nature’; we remember the millions who have gone before. And we also have reason to ponder the larger questions of life: ‘where does life (animal or vegetable) come from?’ ‘Why is there suffering (since animals must die to provide us with food)?’ ‘In what ways am I like this animal or vegetable life (and in what ways am I not)?’ By observing this circle of nature, we remember that we, too, are a part of it – and that, like the plants and animals that we consume, death will also come on us. This is, in some sense, the most powerful influence to keep humans reminded of the past, and connected to the idea of ‘history.’ This is not to say that being in an agricultural environment, every now and again, is enough to do this; it is to say that repeated, continual involvement in this environment is likely to forge a stronger connection to the past.

And finally, we are too far removed from death. Death is also part of the ‘circle of life.’ In most societies throughout history (including American culture until the very recent past), it was the duty of the family to care for and bury the body of the deceased. The entire process of dying generally took place at home – hospitals were a rarity. It was family, not professional nurses, who cared for the sick. Observing the deaths of family members in such a personal way left a powerful influence on young and old alike. Today, the entire process is sanitized by a cadre of professionals who handle all aspects. In the process, we lose our sense of connection with the idea of generations that come and go.

Conclusion

It’s important to realize that I am trying to be descriptive, not prescriptive. I’m not writing to say that we should change (some aspects of our society are very beneficial, in comparison to the past). Instead, I’m simply writing in an effort to observe why we feel the disconnect that we do.

If I were to give some recommendations for how one can feel more connected to history, here is what I would recommend:

Learn history by reading widely. Learn from those who know it well.

Reconnect with your culture and heritage by learning about it and joining those people who celebrate it.

Spend time in the country. Visit a farm, or take a vacation in nature. Go on more walks.

Put your phone down. Set guidelines for how you use electronics.

Learn a traditional skill as a hobby: it could be woodworking, leatherwork, animal husbandry, planting a garden, or just about anything else.