who has interesting take (that you don't necessarily agree with) on interplay of narrative as motive force versus material conditions/circumstances in outworking of history
-
Show this thread
-
already reading spengler, will certainly read de jouvenel, likely will read ranke and carr, might skim toynbee, appreciate more suggestions
4 replies 0 retweets 10 likesShow this thread -
at this point fairly committed to doing "ok here's my theory of historiography and a summary of 1500 years of western history, now we can talk about ideology and geopolitics" as a book and now in research mode
3 replies 1 retweet 20 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @alicemazzy
'(·) Retweeted '(·)
re narrative as a motive force,https://twitter.com/allgebrah/status/784487482201104384 …
'(·) added,
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @allgebrah @alicemazzy
though in a history context, it's probably more about "what propaganda can you make work" and the narrative constraints on propaganda
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @allgebrah
I specifically don't mean propaganda (ie a narrative constructed with intent, to "sell something", which is only interesting for its utility) but what I've been calling "world-ideas" ie models of reality
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @alicemazzy @allgebrah
basically the way I unify narrative-mode "here is the story of history and the pivotal moments when ideas emerged" and materialist-mode "the narratives are fake let's look at what people ate" etc stuff
1 reply 1 retweet 1 like -
Replying to @alicemazzy @allgebrah
is people behave according to a world-idea which contributes to guiding action but over time the narrative drifts away from reality (eg what power centers have "legitimacy" vs which have real power)
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @alicemazzy @allgebrah
this tension builds until it becomes unsustainable at which point a new narrative has to be constructed to explain the current reality
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
at which point the narrative is projected both forwards in time to guide action and *backwards* in time to explain events from before it existed
-
-
Replying to @alicemazzy @allgebrah
this to me is the crucial idea that can be used to make sense of both events of history over a long span and also writings of historians projecting their world-idea back onto times past
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like - 2 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.