When Time became History: Physics, Zen, and Cosmic Archetypes

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I spoke to a few history teachers over the week, trying to understand what differentiates history from time. Is history a human construct? A conceptual imposition of key notions onto bare reality? Are time and history even separable ideas? What I got were a few key ideas, that history consists of: Continuity, Chronology, Perspective, & Linearity.

All of this was prompted as I grappled with two strange ideas. First, that humans fell into history, and that this was a mistake. Secondly, that through this fall, we have the potential to make gold. As Terrence McKenna writes, we can “take what we learn from history, and fold it back into being truly human”. Now what does this all mean?

Progression as a Circle

When I speak of progression, I’m sure the next concept you assume is linearity. That progress is a ladder, and its ascension is akin to the ever accelerating attainment of the novel. The novel being what we perceive as never having been. Yet so-called progress wasn’t always like this, and Mircea Eliade writes that older societies refused to be relegated into history — specifically — by preferring periodic return to the archetypal.