| Modern civilisation seems to be pushed by
an incessant impulse forward, trying at each step to overcome
former achievements and using it as a trigger towards the next
discovery or creation. The main thing being this movement, the
production, that which is ahead. Even when only recycling the
past, everything seems to take airs of newness. Forgetfulness
is a characteristic of human beings. The disappearance of the
past contributes to emphasise the present and to make us move
forward without questioning.
This worldview has been amplified through science, where
a fixed idea of linear and evolutionary time has definitely
contributed towards burying our origins. The greatness of
history has thus been lost.
Besides the action of time, our past has also been fragmented
by ingenious minds which at all times, and under different
circumstances, have been working for the maintenance of the
status quo. In this way, our historical perspective has been
manipulated throughout the centuries. It has been left to
the historians to put the pieces together and to attempt to
assemble the real picture. But even they are not free from
the burden of their time and therefore from the influence
of an established ideology, whatever it may be.
As we look back to a not so very remote past we find a completely
different perspective of history. Ham so, so ham - that which
I was, I shall be again - goes an Indian saying. The civilisations
of the East, of Egypt, Greece as well as the Pre-Colombian
Americans have commonly possessed a cyclic approach of history.
Plato believed that 'the same views have arisen among men
in cycles, not only once, nor twice, not even a couple of
times, but endless times…'; and Aristotle thought all
arts and sciences reached perfection many times in history
and were almost forgotten afterwards, being ultimately completely
lost as a result of huge catastrophes.
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