Is It Still 2020 Or…
I wanted this post to be about how I finished my practicum and my upcoming talk on January 21st about said practicum and the surprising turn my research has taken because of it. But, alas, here we are still in the bowels of 2020! Or is it 2021? I really can’t tell.
With the events of this past Wednesday in the U.S. it is hard for anyone to be positive, I assume. The attack on Capitol Hill, and let’s be clear it was an attack on democracy, the institutions that are cherished under its banner, and those who were inside the Capitol building, is once again another symptom of a deeper systemic problem in the United States. This is not a spontaneous event incited by an Authoritarian Lunatic. These events are spurred by a hidden rot that has taken hold of the United States, a rot that has been ignored, downplayed and even characterized as a small group of uneducated, dumb, redneck hicks who get their conspiracy information and theories from the abyss of the internet.
THIS IS WRONG!
I don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of the political repercussions of Wednesday’s events. I don’t want to get into the how of the building and flaming of historical events that led to this outrageous attack. I want to discuss, briefly, that this infection, disease, if you will, which is also right here in Canada, has made me rethink the point of what I study…AGAIN!
I have asked this before. Many times actually. But with all the turmoil that is happening in 2020…sorry we are in 2021? right? I continuously ask myself “how important is studying Byzantine coins and identity in the grand scheme of things?”
VERY IMPORTANT
Here is Why!
If you have attended one of my lacklustre lectures (actually I think they are pretty F**kin awesome) you will notice a common theme behind each. A theme that will reside in each lecture I will ever produce and that theme is METHOD! And what I mean by this is that I want my students to engage with all material critically. I want them to learn how to discuss the evidence and argue it, critically and logically; to respectfully disagree with a person with a differing opinion and present their arguments appropriately. I want them to look at material culture and question why was it made? What was it made for? Who was it made for? What was its function? etc. etc. etc. But MOST importantly, this type of analysis is meant to develop the skillsets for the student to articulate their arguments in a cohesive and logical manner that is informed and based on the facts! I want them to learn how past historians and archaeologists have interpreted the evidence and how their bias and the political, social and cultural influences of the time informed their analysis. How societies’ ideologies have drastic effects on what we study and how we study it.
THIS IS INCLUSIVE OF OUR MODERN SOCIETY. THE SOCIETY WE ARE CONTRIBUTING TO RIGHT NOW!
Moreso, these skills, this type of dialogue and engagement, are meant to challenge their beliefs about how history and archaeology have been presented to them through mass mainstream media and Movies!
Because we all know the movie 300 depicted the battle of Thermopole accurately! I mean Gerard Butler is definitely a true representation of King Leonidas. Am I wrong here?
Anyway, my point is these skills are important for the modern world in order to understand the complex issues we as a society face. The barrage of misinformation and just plain and simple F**kin insanity out there in the social media world (you know I need to drop a few F-bombs in this blog. It wouldn’t be me without them), a media platform that most people get their “facts”, is overwhelming and our youth, even the supposed adults, need to learn how to sift through this information critically for the truth. See what I am F**kin getting at?
EDUCATION
It is plain and simple. And for decades our education systems have been gutted financially which leads to a host of problems. Therefore, what I study, and by extension eventually teach in my classes, is not just history of coins, who is on them, or archaeology and why I love digging shit out of the ground, or even why some punk-ass bitch stabbed another dude in the back and seized power only to be overthrown and beheaded while the crowd cheered it on as Khaleesi flies overhead with her dragons burning down a city of innocent people who are just trying to make a buck to feed their seven kids…sorry I think I lost my line of thought.
Education, and the ability to think critically, effectively and logically, is key to creating a society of tolerance and civility. It is key to understand how we analyze information, but more importantly, WHY we study what we study. What influences these studies and what are their desired outcomes? How these studies are used in the modern context of the world we live in? And I am sure there are some other good things that follow that too.
Look, 2021 has started off with a bang! Sorry for the cliché but it is what it is. To sum up my mini-rant:
ADDRESS THE EDUCATION CRISIS AND YOU WILL ADDRESS AND SOLVE A HOST OF OTHER F**KIN PROBLEMS THAT WE FACE.
I know if you went out there Wednesday and tried to reason with many of those Trump supporters they would probably punch you in the face and yell at you, “FAKE NEWS!” or some other bullshit like that. So it may be a waste of time with people like that, but if we address the education system and not downplay the Humanities (which my field is apart of) we can start grooming a society that can get back to speaking to each other about our differences and, hopefully, not rip each other’s throats out while talking. If we address the education problem we can recreate a society that used to be a model for the world. As of now, the U.S. has lost all moral authority and its ability to go to any country and say “that’s not right. You shouldn’t do that.” That has gone the way of the Dodo bird. Maybe, and this is a BIG MAYBE, there is just a tiny bit of Dodo DNA left that we can recreate and amend our society’s errors and rethink our values and what is important.