The Homunculus of History
The Homunculus of History
National Mythos, Churchill, 9/11 and the Narratives of Past
If you’re not chronically online you may have missed the Tucker Carlson x Martyrmade podcast, which, for a moment turned the Internet into a firestorm controversy over… Churchill not being a saint?
Yes, you read that correctly, the “Last Lion” of Britain a hot tempered drunkard, who bombed Dresden, caused thousands unnecessarily casualties, denied Hitler’s offer for peace, amongst other actions; wasn’t a saint.
Yet this sparked outrage about being a “revisionist” version of History and “Propaganda”. But, as we may come to discover “History” as we know it is exactly that: Fake and propaganda.
History is Malleable
We often view History as this static thing, or an eternal monolith of historic events. But this is not True. History is an ongoing collective story, that we are all are apart of and shape.
We are living History.
History isn’t just a collection of facts, it’s a narrative; A story or interpretation of those facts. In many ways it is more useful, as it translates raw data into something more usable. If it was an accurate account of events there wouldn’t be American History, Russian or Chinese History nor would there be Native American History. It would be all one History. One consensus…
Now to anyone who’s studied History finds this idea of consensus laughable. Because it is. History is the narrative of the people who tell it. And that story changes with each generation, and event.
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards
~ Kierkegaard
History is not an accurate account of events, but the dominant narratives of the day. No one can begin to understand an event and its causes or effects until well after it has happened. Yet within months, days, or even minutes we talk about the consequences or gravity of events.
When we do this, we are not being “historians”, but speculators. To get to some sort of Truth you must be detached from the situation. So what we are doing in the moment is trying to form societal consensus about what happened and what it means.
What we are creating and talking about isn’t History, but Mythos or “Context”. And if you aren’t subsequently far enough away you get attacked for you are attacking the fabric of Society. Because doing so shifts the bedrock and course of Society.
WWII, 9/11 and a National Mythos
So what happened is when Daryl Cooper of Martyermade tried to have a more historical and “accurate” conversation around the events of WWII? He was attacked. For he was attacking part of the societal cohesion that has been the bedrock of the West for the past several decades:
“We are the heroes of the World, we have never been on the wrong side of History.”1
Perhaps you believe this statement above to be ridiculous, yet every narrative around WWII, and in many respects 9/11 was and is “we are the heroes and did nothing wrong.” This is not to belittle the tragedies that have occurred; but to acknowledge that any delineation from the traditional narrative will brand you a heretic.
We saw this in real time with January 6th and the Charlottesville riots, a narrative was formed and any other opinion was silenced despite the facts is and was denied.
Society is not ready for the conversation Daryl presented. Because it is still part of the conscious national conversations. Hitler is still considered the epitome of evil; and yet there are just as many candidates from History that are just, if not more reprehensible. Even our heroes are a binary: Churchill vs Chamberlin. The way we get to have those more honest conversations is through the death of those keeping those opinions and new national/international mythos events.
This may be longer than expected (even for Daryl) as many groups (in particular ethnic Jews) have based their society and in many respects their identity about victimization. Even the Germans are victim to these narratives. Until they grow past it, or are ignored; the exploration of this topic we will remain in the low level binaries we have been locked in for decades. But we digress.
The Homunculus of History
A Homunculus: a human-like golem without a soul created through alchemy.
So we get to the crux of this issue, which is, that History: is narrative of previous events based upon the culture and context of the modern day. It isn’t a static collection of facts, but a clay golem in which we all craft.
This, is History. A soulless collection of facts that, we, every generation breathe new life into to get a story; which fulfills the needs of the day. The facts that contradict the narratives of the day are discarded, ignored, and in many cases destroyed. Lost to the sands of time.
The Boomers once rebels of the day and “fighting the Power”, are now the System and the cause of so many problems. We see their narrative breaking down everyday. Covid-19 once an animal soup spread from an unsanitary market, is now readily known and accepted, as a lab experiment gone wrong.
And so this process will begin again.
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”
— Steve Jobs
Coda
When reading History we must understand the context in which it is in. The economic, political, and philosophical climate in which the author writes. Even the author’s worldview must be understood. For even the examination of older events often carries modern moral sentiments.
History is fake, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useless. It allows us to build continuity with our past and learn lessons from it. Facts are less useful than stories; because context shapes actions.
And context matters more than anything else.
You may suggest Vietnam if you were astute, yet underlying the general thoughts of Vietnam blunders in the jungle and protracted quagmires you will come to the top level conclusion that fighting the Soviets was and still is justified. In short you still believe the statement above, but wanted elites to pick their battles better.