Best of Times

“History is written by the winners,” but history is also, by definition, written by those living in later times. Most historians cannot avoid the moralizing bias of their own environment, seeking lessons in the past to apply to their perception of current problems. 

So I find it refreshing to read historians from former ages, who are not nearly so ignorant as some suppose. Right now I am enjoying the extremely long and detailed History of the French and English in America by Francis Parkman, author of the well-known Oregon Trail. This history is a vivid portrait of the early wilderness and its inhabitants, and a refreshing counterpunch to those who like to magnify certain parts of the past, ignore harsh realities, and see it as a romantic golden age.

In 1550, Canadian forests were dark, filled with mosquitoes, and although wild game was abundant in summer, aborigines often starved in winter. Society was vicious, capricious, uncertain, and insanely cruel. Life was so harsh that the best way to endure it was with childish enthusiasm (and fear) mixed with inert complacent stoicism.

I’ve always been extremely grateful to inhabit my own era. Now I am a septuagenarian who can live like a 20-year-old of days gone by. And I have food, heat, water, comfort, and basic security.

Best of times, indeed. The “snowflakes” of today, caught up in petty victimhood and anger, will never understand.