Temporal Provincialism

Duncan Williams, Trousered Apes (New Rochelle: Arlington

House, 1972), p. 81:
Contemporary ideas need to be weighed not against others of the same
period but against those of the past, and it is here that the average, modern
student is defenceless. His interests and leisure reading are confined to an
alarming extent to contemporary writers and thinkers who, despite their
apparent individualism, are all really working in the same direction. It is
ironic that the current demand at universities is for more relevance (that is
to say, contemporaneity) in the curriculum. If acceded to, this will result in
a still larger degree of temporal provincialism and an even more profound
ignorance of the history of ideas than now prevails.

Temporal Provincialism –
Again
Posted by Bob on January 9th, 2009 under General

Everything here relates. I have written before about how everyone is shocked if I know some
detail of the latest news everybody is talking about, but they are equally shocked if I
remember the same detail a month later. By then, they’ve forgotten all about THAT Big News
Story.

The same is true of history. It is grudgingly admitted that the coded language in Revelations
might have something to do with Nero. Which is exactly like saying that a Christian
document written in a world ruled by Stalin might have some reference to Uncle Joe.

But I have had people tell me in earnest in the 1960s that John was actually talking not about
Nero, but about the Cuban Missile Crisis, while in 2001 he was referring to the Twin Towers.

In all but intent, this is the Big Lie technique. The big difference is that these people are lying
to THEMSELVES. As I said before, most people can’t remember what news they were
obsessed with six months ago. You can tell about what year a history book was written, which
means is not a good history. A historian can either get published or discuss real history.

It is the same with past, present, and future. I keep repeating that it matters not [at] all
whether a futurologist predicts correctly. He is getting published NOW. He is an official
futurologist because he is getting grants NOW. The more provincially NOW he is the better.

Which is why [some] of the most entertaining humor you will ever read consist[s] of the
confident predictions of Experts. Historians are the same about yesterday. News
commentators forget everything before they comment. They have to have something for
TONIGHT, and everything in history and all in future has to be related to NOW.

You cannot understand history or the future if you do not keep Temporal Provincialism firmly
in mind at all times. If you do, it gives you a huge understanding denied the “professionals.”

Almost everybody who has known me for a while considers my predictions correct to the
point of being creepy, even ones I had forgotten until they mentioned them. But the secret is
simple: Look at history as if you were in THAT time. Look at the future not in terms of what
might seem plausible now, but beyond the welter of Latest News.

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