The last time I visited Behemot, I couldn’t resist buying myself a book – A Little History of the World of the German author E. H. Gombrich. He was one of the best-known art historians of his time and famously known for the book The Story of Art.
It is a book written mostly for young readers to get a short overview into what’s happened since the prehistoric age to the era we live in now. I felt like I forgot a lot of history and as I saw this book on a bookshelf I immediately fell in love with it. I thought it would make a lovely 1+ in my colorful collection of books called library.
On one side, I was surprised about how many facts I still remember but never get to discuss them with my friends. On the other hand, there is a long way to go… I hoped to get to know more on the topics of the history of new era, the after-war climate and the way it affected our political system.
The Little History of the World gave me a short review of what I’ve forgotten and of topics I should deeper my knowledge of. It is a nice read, a history read in The Little Prince way and as is explained about Gombrich by his granddaughter in the preface:
“He was… feeling a little impatient with academic writing, having waded through so much of it in the course of his studies, and was convinced that it should be perfectly possible to explain most things to an intelligent child without jargon or pompous language.”
All in all, the history of the world remained the same: battlefields, people dying, dark eras and enlightenments following. It also makes one a bit concerned about the stupidity of mankind that never learns from the mistakes of his predecessors, no matter what the subject of dispute. I wonder how many mistakes will yet be made in the future of mankind and what good will that be for our descendants?
“I wonder how many mistakes will yet be made in the future of mankind and what good will that be for our descendants?”
There are quite a few specific mistakes that can make our future light cone filled with nothing of value, let alone any of our descendants living their lives in it. So one of the most important things one can do in this world today, is working on this menacing problem of existential risks (slovene translation).