Historical Illiteracy Is One of the Biggest Problems Facing the Western World

It's not a trick question. How much do you know about the history of the human species? Do you know where you come from? No, not where your great-grandparents disembarked 150 years ago. Where do your roots truly lie? Many people can't answer that question.

As invested as people are in 23 And Me or Ancestry.com, most people (in the West) don't consider their history beyond written documents from a handful of decades ago. They can tell you what boat their great, great granduncle sailed on, but they can't tell you anything beyond that. By and large, we are historically illiterate people. Now, that illiteracy is playing out in a splintered society and suffering for us all.

What is historical literacy?

In the simplest terms, historical literacy is an understanding of historical subject matter and the ability to think critically about it. A lot goes into the accurate analysis of history, whether it is ancient history or more recent, modern history. To gain the truth about events of the past, one must be able to ask the right questions, consider the right angles, and focus on big pictures as well as minute details

The individual who is historically literate can take a period of time, zoom in on it and place themselves within the context of that time period. Within that context, they can mark meaningful events and explore deeper subtexts that help them to not only understand the period better, but their own place within the human timeline too.

To be historically literate is not only to understand history, it also involves the ability to take applicable meaning and knowledge from the study of history. All of that starts first with a spark, a flint strike of interest and inspiration taken by transporting ourselves (cognitively) into the past.

Why do so many lack this literacy? It's a question with many answers. Perhaps the more important question to ask ourselves, though, is what is the cost of historical illiteracy…really?

Because the reality is that this is the central problem, the real rub. There is a huge lack of historical literacy in the West, and it is one of the driving engines behind so much of the political and social discord that we're experiencing. We don't know our history, as humans, and that leaves us vulnerable, as Pryor claimed, to the machinations of monsters and criminals.

Why is historical literacy so important?

If it seems like the plight of an ill-bent history teacher, it's not. Historical illiteracy is a genuine threat to the people of this planet and is keeping us from reaching our highest potential as a species.

This reality is, perhaps, best summed up by archaeologist and author, Francis Pryor - one of the foremost minds in British archaeology.

"Without an informed understanding of our origins and history, we will never place our personal and national lives in a true context. And if we cannot do that, then we are prey to nationalists, fundamentalists, and bigots of all sorts, who assert that the revelations and half-truths to which they subscribe are an integral part of human history."  -  Francis Pryor, Britain BC

Pryor succinctly illustrates the realities. When you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it. Worse, as a species, we become prey to charlatans, thieves, bigots, nationalists, and all other manner of dangerous humans who want to end and destroy this beautiful journey our ancestors struggled to create for us all.

Prey to bigotry

There is a lot of bigotry out there prowling around these days. People get bigoted over gender, LGBTQ+ people, politics, women's bodies, religions, and a multitude of other emotional minutiae. In many ways, the world we live in seems more polarized than ever. That's not an illusion. In many ways, it is more bigoted and divided than it has, at times, been in the past.

Historical illiteracy leads people right into the folly of things like racism and nationalism. How? People who have no understanding of their own humanity, migration patterns, or ancient societies, fall prey to fantasies imagined in the minds of those hate-hearted.

Take for example a white supremacist, many of which who foolishly subscribe to the idea that they can return to an "all white" time in history. That time never existed, certainly not for those who are descended from Western and Eastern Europeans.

People of different races, religions, genders, and creeds have always mixed together in European and non-European landscapes. There were Black merchants, doctors, mathematicians, princes, and philosophers in Tudor England. Scandanavians made their way to live and work in Ancient Egypt. Returning to Egypt again, there were entire forces of Celtic and Gaulic workers and warriors that called the land of pyramids home.

Gay and transgender people lived openly. They were members of the royal family in many countries, they were kings and queens. In some cultures, they were revered and held in special places within society.

Humans have always mixed and intermingled, except for the rarest of instances. In the ancient world, they thought in much broader terms than given credit for. We are more mixed and entangled as a species than we are separated and divided, and we have always been that way. For those who don't know history, however, it's easy to be fooled into believing racist and nationalist fantasies.

Fools to charlatans

One of the biggest repeating patterns in human history is corruption. Time and time again, the people put in power (be they men or women) become corrupted as their power increases. Eventually, they take advantage of the people they lead. This opens the door to more corruption, and soon there is a flood of wicked leaders who use their positions to extort and oppress.

You would think, after nearly 200,000 years of these cycles, we would learn the lesson. Our branch of the human tree doesn't always work that way, however. Many - especially those without a solid grasp on historical patterns - seem to fall back into cycles of give-and-destroy with the leaders they elect over and over again.

Political and religious charlatans use the same tricks and lie they always have to sell people damaging ideology and harmful illusions (or delusions). They promise that they alone have the power to absolve, us to relieve us of the physical and emotional suffering of this life. Neither delivers, however, as millions continue to starve, get murdered, fall ill, and die hopeless (and homeless) on the streets alone.

Those without a history believe that the same liars and thieves can sell them a future. They cannot. If any of these charlatans and these established systems wanted to make the world a genuinely better place, they would. Instead, they give excuses, and those without a reference point get sucked up into the lies, believing they're being sold solutions that don't exist.

Cycles of failure

Mankind has made some serious mistakes in our time ruling this planet. Specifically, we have inflicted incredible violence and forever changed the face (and future outcomes) of this planet and our species. Genocide, wiping out entire groups of people, entire families, in one fell swoop. Famine and warfare, scarring the planet and creating (again) generations of suffering and destruction.

These cycles of failure repeat themselves. Believing the lies told by the charlatans of the pulpit (both political and religious), large groups of people elect liars to build systems that disenfranchise the greatest portion of the population. Then, the warfare and tribalism kick in. The people are kept emotional and worked into frenzies, pointing at enemies that don't exist to keep them weak.

Our cycles of failure keep repeating. Rather than looking at the Holocaust and swearing never again, we broadcast modern genocides on television and platform them on social media. They are given different names and debated - as though worth debating - while real people suffer and children are wiped off the planet.

One must wonder, how willing would people be to look away? To pretend that these atrocities are any different now than they were back then? Perhaps it is optimistic, but one would hope we would stop repeating the mistakes that set us back if we all had a higher standard of historical literacy.

Endless divisions

We are a species plagued by an endless parade of divisions. Tribal to a fault, we divide ourselves up beneath any label we can find for ourselves. We separate ourselves based on country, based on the ethnic backgrounds we (often falsely) believe others to come from. The worst part of this is the aggressive and hostile way in which we guard these divisions. We don't want others to be a part of the club, and if they try many react violently.

These endless divisions, so many of them pointless and superficial, have been created from a complete lack of historical reference points. People don't understand how their countries were formed, who really formed them. They don't understand how we have always mixed and comingled in the effort to survive the brutal experience of life.

Would we be better? Could we get over our divisions if we realized that we all carry the blood of one another inside? That we all come from the same places, the same people if you just go back far enough and keep your mind open enough? It's sad to see a species intent on destroying itself from a simple and singular lack of knowledge.

How can we (realistically) increase historical literacy?

If the problem is historical illiteracy, then what is the solution? Thankfully, we have not yet crossed the point in our historical ignorance that cannot be recovered from. There is still time for us to pick up the strings and reunite the story that is humanity, and we can do that by using the CHAI method (self-dubbed). What does that look like?

• Creating more interest: First and foremost, there needs to be a reinvention of our approach to history. Rather than framing it as a boring snoozefest into the past, it should be framed as an exciting key to mass awareness and progress delivered by passionate educators.

• Humanistic angling: As we learn more about human psychology and behavior, this knowledge must be applied to the past. The human brain hasn't changed in the last 10,000 years. By applying a humanistic perspective to that history we can make it more applicable to our current experiences in the modern world.

• A focus on reality: Too often, history is used now as a tool to increase nationalism. Countries make up their historical records from a favorable angle and truth gets lost in the mix. For us to reform historical literacy, there must be a greater focus on the reality of man's history.

• International ego-death: Hold on tight. This one is going to hurt. As a species, humans need an international ego death. None of us is special. None of us is above the other, purer than the other, smarter, or more inventive. Humans are humans and an international ego death could help put us all back on the mortal coil where we belong.

Focusing on these four central steps, there are huge benefits to be gained. More people who gain an interest in history, both as they saw themselves represented in it and as those passionate about that history were centered. Adopting a humanistic perspective lends itself to that interest too and helps us to get a more honest understanding of our ancestors and their lessons for us.

Of course, there can be no increase in historical literacy without a complete reckoning with the truth. Good or bad, we need to acknowledge what we have done and how it has led us to this point in time. From there, we can all embrace an international ego death and put our humanity in a more mortal perspective for once.

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They say that the goal of parents is to make life better for the generation they leave behind, and that certainly applies on a wider scale to the whole of the human family, too. It is our responsibility to make sure that tomorrow is better than today for the people who come next. This includes handing down an accurate historical record that they can learn from.

Historical literacy enables us to do just that. Standing at a crossroads as a species, it is now more important than ever that we ensure an honest handover of where we are and how we got here. The children of the future deserve it and our ancestors of the past deserve it. Crucially, we need that history. If we are to escape the folly of ourselves, we must learn how to love history and how to analyze it critically for a better future.