President
Trump even weighed in as well a few times adding to the banter. While
there are many issues, one of the underlying debates over the Confederate
monuments espoused by Mr. Trump and others is a fight between those who wish to
preserve history and those who wish to “erase” it. I actually think the
President was partially correct – this is about history. We are in a
fight, but this just may be a fight between those who wish to learn from
history and those who wish to “relive” it.
The
history behind many of the Confederate monuments is not what most people may
think.
Most
of the oxidizing green statues and Confederate war shrines were not created
immediately after the war as a way to honor those men who died in battle. After
the Civil War our nation went through eras of rebuilding, reawaking, and
Reconstruction without trying to revive or romanticize the past. It was
not until another era following the turn of the century and early 1900’s that
the majority of these monuments were actually erected. The one in
Charlottesville for example dates to only 1924. As a matter of fact,
between the years 1900 and 1935, close to half of all of the Confederate
monuments were dedicated. To put that in perspective, in the 156 years
since the Civil War just thirty-five years during the middle of that time
accounted for more than all of the monuments for the past forty years and the
forty years immediately following the war combined.
So why did we see this unexpected enthusiasm to preserve history during this era? The time following the turn of the twentieth century was an era with strong tribal or group culture. People began to - much more than the prior era - identify in smaller homogeneous groups rather than a personal identity or that of the collective culture. This was brought on for a variety of reasons, but the outcome was smaller undiversified clusters of people where they found comfort in their identification based on shared values and beliefs. The consequences were many times the clashing between various groups sometimes divided by gender, race, economic status, or partisan lines. We can see this in the data as measured by the voting patterns of the U.S. Congress. Measuring the gap or partisanship of voting between the two major parties we see the greatest gap -or lack of cooperation - during this era between 1900’s and 1930’s.
Add
to this, income disparity, economic uncertainty, and global unrest of the times
it brought with it a certain level of anxiety of the future and concern we
would drift too far from the past. During this time, we were caught
between nationalists longing for the glories of an imagined past, and activists
invoking ideals of a utopia they wished to attain. We saw this with the
Ku Klux Klan who had been mostly marginalized prior to this era but now with
the cultures feelings of nativism found a revival and new attention. We
had a revolution or revival of Anarchist-Communist that exploited and
influenced the Progressive Movement. We had tensions rising and saw a
domestic bombing in New York city, race riots across the country, and violence
between groups. We also had statues erected at a record pace as a
manifestation of one side or groups symbol of identification and devotion to
the past.
If
any of this sounds eerily familiar and much of what we are living today you are
not crazy. History does repeat itself with some commonality and in an approximate
eighty-two-year cycle. We see this today and in cycles past with
alt-right and alt-left. We see this between racial lines with Black Lives
Matter today or the ‘new negro’ movement of the 1920s. We see this between
gender lines with women’s rights movement of 1850s or alternative lifestyle
movements of today. We see the seeds of revolution or secession play out before
the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the red scare just prior to World War II,
and today with the resurgence of small like-minded tribes like the socialist
leaning ANTIFA and fascist leaning Neo-Nazi.
The
gap or partisanship of voting in the U.S. Congress is back at an all-time high
it has not seen for eighty years. Income equality is back above 45% of
all income that was congregated amongst the top 10% of the people – a number
not seen since the late 1920’s. And instead of putting statues up they
are now trying to take many down as a manifestation of one side or groups
symbolic gesture and devotion for their ideals.
The
problems are not the statues but the time and era we live in. We are repeating
the cycles and history of the past. What we are seeing is merely an
emotional response to a logical conclusion of where the culture has come to and
has been before. We are in the late 1700’s crying for a revolution, the mid
1800’s causing civil division, and the early 1900’s marching towards a world
conflict. We have divided ourselves as a nation as us versus them and my
tribe against yours. Unfortunately, not looking at things logically and through
history - emotionally and because of these smaller tribes and the era we are in
many people cannot detach themselves to see this. Instead many find
comfort in their echo chambers that feed the illusion they must be right and discount
and blame others if something does not fit their views or hinders them from
what they feel is just.
The
President was partially correct – this does have something to do with
history. We are in a fight with history and we have seen time and time
again that history and the cycles we live in tend to win. The emotions
and events we are witnessing are not unprecedented but predictable. The
same underlying triggers and times that raised the statues are the same
underlying triggers and times eighty years later that are now trying to bring
them down. History also tells us we will most likely keep going down this path
with even higher tensions between groups, identity politics, and creating
greater divides that will only be mended with the next looming crisis that
brings us back together
After five years, I
have recently completed my latest book of an in depth look at the Cycles that
move a culture and the next looming reset. Stay tuned for the new book coming
this fall “Cultural Cycles: Examining the
History of the United States - Why It Repeats Itself, and the Next Looming
Reset”. This book uses history and
analytics and most of all the reader’s own intuition and logic to explain the
seemly rhythmic nature of history. It answers many of the questions of why
various well-known historic events took place when they did and what we might
be able to expect in the future. After
extensive research of historical patterns, I not only show how and why history
does repeat itself but also provide insight to how America may be on the verge
of the next cataclysmic reset.
