- The argument is that accountings of history are not accurate, and can never be accurate, thanks to the narrative fallacy . By its nature, narrative necessarily compresses reality into some coherent tale, meaning that accountings of history tend to overemphasise intention and action, instead of the more plausible ‘random actions by actors in a compl
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What is history but a fable agreed upon? - Napoleon Bonaparte
We can never move definitively from ignorance to certainty, for the thread of the inquiry will constantly lead us back to ignorance again.
Sarah Bakewell • At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others
History is a creative process (or as Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “a set of lies agreed upon”). The world happens as it happens, but we construct what we remember and what we forget. And people will eventually do that to us, too.
Chuck Klosterman • But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
A public that can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction is left to interpret reality through illusion. Random facts or obscure bits of data and trivia are used either to bolster illusion and give it credibility, or discarded if they interfere with the message.
Chris Hedges • Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Bits of information provide neither meaning nor orientation. They do not congeal into a narrative. They are purely additive. From a certain point onwards, they no longer inform — they deform. They can even darken the world. This puts them in opposition to truth. Truth illuminates the world, while information lives off the attraction of surprise, pu... See more
Byung-Chul Han • All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
there are no futures without histories.