МИСЛЕЊЕ
History and the importance of names One of the aspects I’ve always loved about (studying) History is that it makes you smarter. A bit like a superpower, or a “third eye”, so to speak, it helps you see layers in reality, in everyday life, in the political arena that are not evident to a less trained eye.
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tudying History leads us to realize that what we live today is not natural, not given, something that has been here forever and forever will remain so, but instead the result of concrete historical moments, geographical spaces, decisions, perceptions, cultural practices and traditions - broader contexts - and that it may be changed. This applies to the country we live in, the kind of relationships that we nurture and that are socially normal to have, how we dress, or how we call a certain profession, institution or event. That’s what I wish to discuss here, specifically: how we call things. The choice of names is usually considered a very banal activity everybody and everything has to have a name commonly acknowledged so that we can refer to it and understand what/who we’re talking about. Right? Well, there’s more to it than that. And this is a simple yet tremendously important benefit that historical knowledge brings to our critical sense. How so? Well, for a start, giving a process a certain name (nobody and nothing is born with a name, not you, not me, not anything in history or in current events) conveys a certain assessment of it. An evaluation of a situation, the level of gravity or unimportance of a problem, who is to blame or to be applauded for it, what’s to be done, how and by whom. A name is a representative of the narrative around something - an institution, a crisis, a country, a people - how it is framed, and who is the group that sets the tone.
20 - VOICES
