〓DIES IN FLAMS〓 Issue48 by cjlu

cjluUID: 2448066

48"The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."

    XXX（其实是编的Orz） ever said:” History is just a biography of each famous individual. When we talking about history, we actually judging the famous few.” When we open up any history book, the most records we can find are about “who” did “what” during “which year”. And some history books are even composed by the sequence of each famous person who produces an effect on the history. It really the fact that the study of history put the principal attention on the action of individuals, but it’s never too much. For the reason though the groups of people made some significant events and trends that changed the history, however, it’s the famous few who point out the correct way and made the events and trends possible.
    The aim of the history studying is to know what happened, how it happened and what the significance is when it happened. The first factor is the foundation of the others for the fact is the root that all the inferences come from it. However, it’s important but less important when compared with the other two for the intention of history research is to use the history as a mirror and use it to guide the life here and now, and the fact itself cannot bring us the wisdom we want to get from it. The pity is that only the first factor has a close relationship with the groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten, the other two, instead, cannot cut the effect apart with the famous individuals.
    Let’s just divert our attention to the French Revolution, which marks the beginning of a new era that human owns the consciousness of freedom and democracy. We can’t deny that the groups of people who even can’t be identified now push forwarded the development of this revolution and finally lead it to success, but when we consider it seriously, it’s the national assembly who plot this revolution and the military leaders who direct the war actually determined the result to be “win” or “lose”. We can say without the groups of people who take part in the revolution, it will not come into being; otherwise, without the outstanding leaders, it will be impossible for the revolution to be a milestone of the human history or even impossible to make any differences in the history, and which, will lose its significance as a revolution. Not only the French Revolution, all the revolutions, significant events and trends in history are like that. To analysis objectively, if the history is a board of chess, the groups of ordinary people are the chess pieces and meanwhile, though sounds a little cruel, the great individuals are the players.
    In another saying, the groups of people whose identities has long be forgotten are the ones to put theories into practice, and it gives the later generations a false impression that the history is created by the folks and the society is improved by the groups of people whose name was never known by the history, but in fact, these people even don’t know the things they have done means what. A crowd of people is horrible when they lose their senses, they may follow the others behavior, even the frontier jumped down the cliff. When they were involved into the waves of the events and trends, they will make it a significant monument, but may just go forward unconsciously with the force of inertia. （就是那个啥大众趋同心理来着……）We may ask, then, who direct it? Without the design of the great individuals, the significant events and trends may only exist in the innumerable feasibilities, or just an inconspicuous “spray” in the river of history if the event took place. The great individuals are keeping a clear head, when the masses dropped into unconscious, and then it ought to be owned to them that they controlled the beginning and the consequence. We may attribute the success of an event or a trend to the groups of ordinary people, but we must admit a fact that if the event or trend finally became significant, it’s actually the achievement of the great few.
    We can’t deny it’s the indispensable factor of an event or a trend that the masses should take part in it, but we also can’t ignore the hidden player behind the curtain. When we talk about history, we are talking about the significant events and trends; when we talk about the significant events and trends, actually, we should focus on the famous few who direct it and lead it to the future.