I think I’ve figured out just why I like history so much and why I prefer to read about history over modern day affairs. Although I have very strong political ideals and am very interested in what happens in the political arena, I find that I actually avoid reading too much about it. I’m not one of those people who soaks up blogs and books and newspapers and radio shows about politics. Perhaps I should be, but I’m not.
See, the thing is, I’m a very empathetic person – empathetic to a fault, perhaps. The suffering of other people actually makes my heart hurt. This empathy is absolutely the foundation of my political beliefs, but it’s also why it’s often difficult for me to read about modern day issues. Reading about people dying in Darfur or children starving in our own streets makes me want to cry. It actually hurts, physically; when I say that it makes my heart hurt, I mean that literally. I feel a squeezing in my heart and an ache in my guts when I read these things. And other news just makes me angry, so much so that I clench my fists and grit my teeth. Reading about avaricious pharmaceutical companies or lying CEOs just makes me want to scream.
On the other hand, history is calming and even uplifting for me because history is already fixed. Problems of the past have been made better. (I’m of the camp who firmly believes that human belief systems have evolved mostly for the better over time.) We repudiated slavery. Women can now vote, own property, choose to divorce, etc. Children aren’t forced to labor in unsafe working conditions. (Although I recognize that even today, these things still occur in other parts of the world.) I think it makes me feel good and, more importantly, optimistic to see how humanity has progressed. It gives me hope that all of the other social ills I see can one day be fixed as well. I doubt we can ever reach “perfection,” because I also believe that while humans are inherently good, we are also inherently flawed. But reading about history provides a bit of a balm for the sadness and anger that I feel about too many things that happen today.
