CHAPTER 1
HIDDEN AGENDAS




Sorry to take the fun out of finding these on your own, but I do want to put my own spin on things. Everybody's got a weltanschauung, so here's mine.

Firstly, as an independent scholar, I have limited opportunities for professional communication. It is easier to write a book, than to convey this in dozens of personal communications and in stray references in my papers.

Secondly, because my primary research makes me an Antarcticanist, I treat a region that has no indigenous population. Frequently, I am asked why I do not focus on some place with an indigenous historiography, or at least on a place with an established full-year population. In this book, I want to show that what I do is equivalent to that which is done in the more traditional area studies of history.

Thirdly, I also want to integrate orally transmitted folklore into the canon of historical knowledge. However, this is currently somewhat more popular than studying the history of naturally uninhabitable regions. Nevertheless, I still think that it is important to use this venue to share my own experience and plans with others. I have an interest in studying Polynesia in this way, and it is shown by the presence of several illustrative examples throughout the text.

Fourthly, I want this work to be useful to my critics. To this end, I have offered a variety of specific examples that can be disputed. Thus, the fact that this volume is laden with many such lists, is not attributable to my inability to generalize. Similarly, the illustrative examples that I have chosen are based upon my academic preparation, and upon my subsequent independent research without the guidance of professional historians. For this reason, they may appear to alternate between the elementary and the obscure. Also, because a significant part of the academic historical training in the United States is provided by and for Americanists, I seem to have given a relatively heavy weight to examples that are related to the history of the U.S. Furthermore, the exclusion of certain items or ideas may not be due to my belief in the inappropriateness or relative unimportance of the excluded items. I believe that students of world history should be exposed to at least a brief history of every major geographical sector of the world. Thus, I have no intention of asserting the primacy of certain specific topics for mandatory "in-depth" study by all historians and history students.

Nevertheless, I expect the red pens to fly; inserting carrots and slashing away at items in these enumerations. Thus, criticism can be more specifically focussed. My critics and I can then work toward mutually acceptable points of agreement or dispute (analogous to the U.S. President's "line item veto").

And on the subject of laws, this work is not intended to be some sort of legal brief that may be preliminary to some hypothetical litigation or to some threat thereof. In the past, some members of my various audiences have incorrectly believed that they detected a legal interest or intent in some of my speech and writing. It is true that there is an intriguing relationship between history and law. However, this may be difficult to fully explore within the context of a survey about world history. Nevertheless, with regard to any legal mannerisms that one may identify in this book, they are simply the result of an intention to express myself in an unambiguous manner.

Fifthly, by definition, everyone has to have some cultural biases. Even the statement that I am trying to eliminate my biases, is in itself a bias toward the doctrine of equality, which has some currency in western civilization. Thus, one may accuse me of imposing an unduly great importance on certain historical problems that some indigenous people may find uninteresting. But the mere fact that any member of this population has or had an opinion on such a problem, implies that he or she is aware of the existence of this topic. And this position could be compared with the opinions that are held by those in other cultures. Conversely, I, as a member of western civilization, may not be able to emotionally appreciate the significance of some of the problems about which the dominant factions in some other cultures may appear to be very concerned.

But "equality" means more than just giving equal time to each culture. Within any group, all should be given consideration. It is true that this notion seems to be appropriate only for democratic societies. Some may call it culturally insensitive to those peoples who have a heritage of authoritarian governmental structures. Nevertheless, I believe that, to within time and space constraints, the multicultural historian should present information that was supplied by individuals from several segments of any given society.

And concurrent with my fanatical allegiance to the ideology of equality, I am also encumbered by a bias toward evaluating the accuracy of historical record. Furthermore, I believe that this information should be accurately presented to my audience. Some may argue that this search for "truth" is contrary to cultural relativism. However, I think that each culture has its own criteria for accuracy and authenticity. It should be the responsibility of the researcher to understand these guidelines when studying relevant primary sources.

This raises the interesting caveat regarding science fiction in western civilization. I have no opposition to this genre as a form of fiction. Nevertheless, I do not believe that its explanations of causality should be used in history when one is trying to understand reality. One cannot deny that science fiction is currently a significant part of the popular culture in western civilization. However, it invokes causalities that are not generally accepted by other parts of this same culture.

But more broadly, my interest in the history that is transmitted by many different types of people, has apparently fostered my anthropocentric bias. Our species may have a self-righteous, inwardly-focussed, and environmentally-destructive nature. Yet, I still think that its activities are worthy of study. Thus, I am, for example, professionally disinterested in the cause of climatic change, unless it was unequivocally due to human activity. Similarly, my historical writings will never discuss why comets exist. However, I may attempt to understand the popular cultural impact on earth, that was caused by some of the more easily visible ones.

But despite my anthropocentrism, I also seem to have acquired an interest in environmentalism. I am not involved with any environmental organizations. However, my specialty as an Antarcticanist has resulted in an awareness of certain environmental problems. These include the ozone holes, the possible melting of the polar ice caps as a result of continued global warming, the impact of tourism on regions that do not have an indigenous human population, and the hunting of certain marine species (such as whales and seals) to near extinction. But whether or not one espouses environmentalism as a political ideology, I believe that there is a legitimate and complex branch of study within world history that treats the interaction of humans and the environment around them.

It is true that environmentalism is a belief system, and that such structures are abstractly designated as being "paradigms" or "models." Apparently, I seem to use the two latter terms rather frequently to describe world systems and various schools of historical interpretation. Nevertheless, this is not due to any attempt that I am making to construct, or to willfully support, any systematization that purports explain the whole of reality. My bias is toward empiricism. As William of Ockham put it, one should use the simplest thesis that fits the facts. Furthermore, empiricism dictates that the explanation should be modified to include any new observations which do not fit into the old model.

And lastly, please understand that I do not believe that I write in stone. As the title of this work states, it is a book of "thoughts" or suggestions; not a list of standards or directives or edicts. Furthermore, all that we do in this life, may be destroyed; be it by wilful ideological purges or bowdlerization, by lack of interest or ability in preservation during some later era, by nature acting locally on parts of the earth, by the destruction of our species, or by the ultimate cremation of our planet due to changes in the characteristics of the sun. And infinitely more trivially, I myself may actually change my own mind someday. Thus, I am happy to accept suggestions or substantiated criticism from anyone who aspires to participate in this latter process.

GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD HISTORY by David L. Lipton