Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. Today I talk about historic events and how there can be some good seen to come out of it and/or bad. There is always the potential for bad depending on how you look at it. Perhaps this would be the; it depends on how you look at it post. . If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
According to History Collection (https://historycollection.com/10-major-historical-mistakes-changed-world-forever/), a mathematical mistake resulted in the discovery of the “New World”. Depending on which viewpoint this comes from, it could be good. There was a whole new land to colonize, but really from the viewpoint of the original inhabitants, is it really a good thing? It is only from the perspective of conquering peoples that it was a good thing and often that is where our history comes from. Remember there are two sides to every story and depending on the source, maybe more. Of course, it wasn’t the first time that the “New World” was discovered. According to history, the Vikings had made it across. In this podcast, I’m looking at certain parts of history briefly from both sides so things will have a plus and a minus. The same article indicates that Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident which is pretty much the case. This is good as it has helped many people who otherwise would not survive an infection. However, it does not do anything good for people who are allergic to it (luckily there are other options). Who would think that Fleming discovered penicillin because he left some snot in a petri dish (I’m rather intrigued by this possibility) and then something in another petri dish beside an open window? They refer to him as a laboratory slob in the article. This is quite interesting as one sees studies as something that requires a quite a bit of organization. Current standards would have him tossed out from any lab where order, cleanliness and high standards are important. So, it is extraordinary that he was able to maintain a job as a researcher but of course, it was a different time. Standards have changed over time as well. As time went on, studies and laboratories have become more professional and more concerned with not contaminating the samples. Not to say they are perfect, but they keep working on getting higher standards.
Another historic situation that resulted in a very definite ambivalence is the founding of Australia, according to an article I found, (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/australia-day) on January 26, Australia was founded when 11 ships of British convicts landed in what is now Australia. This has two different views. The aboriginal population does not see this as a positive thing which is very logical and want to see this celebration changed. People took over and exploited them and their land. Another side, the people were convicts sent to this area. Some likely for theft because of lack of food. However, once they were there, it seems many of them took it as a second chance to succeed and they built a strong foundation. This doesn’t take into account that the first several years were extremely difficult and punitive and many did not survive. The people who did, formed a strong civilization. It was, in fact, not easy and it took to the turn of the 19th century for it to be successful, but they built a foundation out of little to nothing. So, even in the situation of a penal colony, people could see a second chance and possibility of a different life. This tells people something about people making mistakes and finding redemption. Though from the aboriginal viewpoint, it was just someone taking over their land and their rights. This was not an easy direction to go and yet, they were determined. It was not an easy existence and there was a lot of poverty in the early years. On the other side, the aboriginal people suffered for their success.
In history there are things that were seen as a great move ahead. However, at the same time, there were other professions that were put out of business. For example, the great invention of the Light Bulb and the change to electric power was a great move forward for humanity. At the same time, no one factored in the many people who were put out of business. Everyone from candle makers (less need for them though not entirely ended) to the people who lit the lamps at night known as lamplighters (https://www.ancientpages.com/2019/05/17/lamplighters-in-london-an-important-job-in-the-victorian-era/). A lot of people were put out of jobs. Yet, this is heralded as a great move forward. It was a great move forward if you weren’t in a job affiliated with candles and lamp lighting to name a couple, but we give little thought of how it changed the livelihoods of a great many people. Things have continued to change with the acceptance of more technology and modernization. I remember as a child, seeing full service gas stations, they have mostly, gone the way of the dodo to use a phrase. The dodo being a bird that was made extinct by humans who would kill them and brought creatures that would also eat them. They were flightless. A poster child for the extinction and bringing in evasive species (https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-dodo-bird-1092144). My first exposure to this unfortunate creature was an illustrated copy Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It was a great move forward for humans, but not so much for the Dodo bird. My mother explained it and we looked it up in an Encyclopedia which has now moved towards extinction in its physical form due to the fast changing world around us.
I think the advent of automation has changed society by making things easier to accomplish. On the other hand, it has also made a lot of jobs obsolete while creating other jobs. So, each change in history has brought out more changes to jobs and to what people do for a living adding some here and subtracting some there. Each historic change to the world came at a cost to something and a creation of something different. I think it is important to think of both sides of the equation in historic changes so that we recognize that not everything is quite so cut and dried in society. We need to recognize that there is usually a cost to some and possible creation of something different. As Erin Bowman stated, “No matter how obvious something may seem, there are two sides to every story.” I think it is important to recognize that there are two sides so that one can move forward understanding that no one has made a perfect choice and no choice can be 100% perfect. Though, According to Helena Hunting, “There’s three sides to every story.” “What do you mean?” “There’s your version, the other person’s, and then there’s the truth, which is somewhere in the middle of the two.” This might be even closer to the crux of the situation. When one looks at it this way, it makes it easier to understand the need to closely examine our biases and our understanding of history. We understand the difficulty that was created for some groups.
However, as Barry Leiba stated: “We like things to be black or white, tall or short, here or there. We like to consider two sides to every story. Unfortunately, there aren’t always two sides. Sometimes there’s only one; more often, there are multitudes. Many facets on the stone. Nooks and crannies in abundance. Things are usually not either black or white, but multicolored.” In this way, history has had many different stories, but often it is seen from the side that is at the forefront. Things have changed somewhat. I see that they are taking a second and sharper look into Tudor History. Does it change the historic events? No, Henry VIII still had particular wives beheaded or divorced. But the way we look at these women in history, the understanding that there were limited choices at that time has changed how we look at the women in history. Even as a child, I thought Anne Boleyn was given a bad rap, but that was the only way to explain historic actions of a King in power. At one time, the residential schools were mostly seen as something that was there to educate. Now we see that they were horrific and there are children who just simply disappeared. It created a vortex of issues for the aboriginal communities. The more we open our eyes and the more we see that there are indeed multi sides and multi issues with historic data, the more people will look harder at what they find. Some horrors of history remain as horrors in history. You can’t explain away some of the historical horrors. Hopefully we do learn from them.
I think the most important message about history and current events comes from Maya Angelou and that is, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” We cannot make the pain and the damage from the past go away, but we can change things for a better tomorrow. Don’t allow racism, hate, and anger run your life. We see what it did in the past. We want a better future for ourselves and our children. When talking about mistakes, as Paul Bear Bryant said; “When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.”
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A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA 