Many of us, especially schoolchildren and their parents, tirelessly wonder why we need to know history. What is the significance and relevance of studying events that happened many years ago? However, there are many varied reasons that indicate the need to study this subject, which is a combination of many other disciplines. Many arguments have already been made about the importance of history, but they still remain relevant today.

Virtual time machine

Raise patriots

A healthy social atmosphere in the country, a full-fledged society and peace is the goal that all people in general and each individual state in particular strive for. It is impossible to value everything with money and pay for everything. Therefore, the state rests not on businessmen, but on philanthropists, altruists and patriots. The whole world rests on them. History remembers them. Those who loved their country, who gave their lives for the happiness of others. These are fearless warriors, selfless doctors, talented scientists, and simply selfless patriots of their people.

Why is history needed? Because it popularly tells each next generation about what it owes to its ancestors. We will learn what ideals our great-grandfathers lived by, what feats they performed. We understand how their lives impacted our present. Fostering respect for the past with its reforms, struggles, victories and failures is the task of history.

Why study history?

Today is inseparable from yesterday. All people and nations live by history: we speak languages that have come down to us from the distant past, we live in societies with complex cultures inherited from ancient times, we use technologies developed by our ancestors... Thus, the study of the relationship between the past and the present is undeniable basis for a good understanding of modern human existence. This explains why we need history, why and how important it is in our lives.

Getting to know the human past is the path to self-knowledge. History helps us understand the origins of modern social and political problems. It is the most important source for studying the characteristic behavior of people in certain social conditions. History makes us realize that people in the past were not simply “good” or “bad,” but were motivated in complex and contradictory ways, just as they are today.

Each person's view of the world is shaped by individual experience, as well as the experience of the society in which he lives. If we do not know modern and historical experience different cultures, we cannot even hope to understand how people, societies or nations make decisions in modern world.

The very essence

Historical knowledge is no more and no less than a carefully and critically constructed collective memory. It is memory that makes us human, and collective memory, that is, history, that makes us a society. Why know history? Yes, because without individual memory a person will immediately lose his identity and will not know how to act when meeting other people. The same thing happens with collective memory, although its loss will not be noticeable so immediately.

However, memory cannot be frozen in time. Collective memory is gradually acquiring a new meaning. Historians are constantly working to reconsider the past by asking new questions, searching for new ones, and analyzing ancient documents in order to gain new knowledge and experience to better understand the past and what is happening. History is constantly changing and expanding, as is our memory, helping us acquire new knowledge and skills to improve our lives….

The question of why literacy is needed is discussed widely and at length. It would seem that today, when even a computer program is capable of correcting not only spelling, but also the meaning, the average Russian is not required to know the countless and sometimes meaningless subtleties of his native spelling. I'm not even talking about commas that were unlucky twice. At first, in the liberal nineties, they were placed anywhere or ignored altogether, claiming that this was a copyright sign. Schoolchildren still widely use the unwritten rule “if you don’t know what to put, put a dash.” It’s not for nothing that they call it “a sign of despair.” Then, in the stable 2000s, people began to fearfully play it safe and put commas where they were not needed at all. True, all this confusion with signs does not in any way affect the meaning of the message. Why then write correctly?

I think this is something like those necessary conventions that replace our specific canine sense of smell when sniffing. A somewhat developed interlocutor, having received a message, identifies the author by a thousand little details; of course, he does not see the handwriting, unless the message did not come in a bottle, but a letter from a philologist containing spelling errors can be erased without finishing reading it.

It is known that at the end of the war, the Germans, who used Russian labor, used threats to extort a special receipt from the Slavic slaves. So-and-so treated me wonderfully and deserves leniency. The liberating soldiers, having occupied one of the suburbs of Berlin, read a letter proudly presented by the owner with a dozen gross mistakes, signed by a student at Moscow University. The degree of sincerity of the author became immediately obvious to them, and the average slave owner paid for his vile foresight.

Today we have almost no chance to quickly understand who is in front of us; the methods of camouflage are cunning and numerous. You can imitate intelligence, sociability, even, perhaps, intelligence. It is impossible to play only literacy, a refined form of politeness, the last identifying mark of humble and mindful people who respect the laws of language as the highest form of the laws of nature.

Dm. Bykov.

The question of why literacy is needed is widely and widely discussed. It would seem_ (today) when even a computer program_ is capable of correcting not only the spelling_ but also the meaning_ of the (average) statistical Romanian (not) required to know the countless and_ sometimes_ meaningless subtleties of native spelling. I'm not even talking about commas, which are (un)lucky twice. (C) began_ in the liberal nineties_ they were placed anywhere_ or ignored altogether_ claiming_ that this was a copyright sign. Schoolchildren still widely use the (un)written rule_(not) know__ what to put_ put a dash_. (It’s not) for nothing that they call it a sign of despair. Then_ in the stable 2000s_ people began to be afraid_to play it safe_ and put commas where_ they were (not) needed at all. It’s true that all this confusion with signs (doesn’t) affect the meaning of the message. Why then write gracefully?

I think_ this is (not) that (in) the kind of those (un) necessary conventions_ that replace us with a specific personal instinct when sniffing_. A somewhat developed interlocutor_ having received a message_ identifies the author by thousands of_ little things_ by_erra_ of course_ he (does not) see_ unless the message did not come in a bottle_ but a letter from a philologist_ containing spelling errors_ can be erased_ (without) finishing reading.

It is known that (at) the end of the war the Germans, who used manual labor, extorted a special list from the Slavic slaves with threats. Such (that) treated me wonderfully and deserves to go down. The (soldiers) liberators_ having occupied one of the suburbs of Berlin_ read_ proudly presented by the owner a letter with a dozen gross mistakes_ signed by a student of the University of Moscow. The degree of the author's sincerity became obvious to them (from) once_ and the (philistine) slave owner paid for his vile foresight.

We (today) have almost no chance to quickly understand who is in front of us, the methods of camouflage are cunning and numerous. You can imitate intelligence and uniqueness, even perhaps intelligence. It is (not) possible to play only grace, a subtle form of politeness, the last identifying mark of humble and mindful people who respect the laws of language as the highest form of the laws of nature.

Dm. Bykov

Check.

Thank you Larisa for this wonderful find.

I came across interesting discussions by Dmitry Bykov about language.

And the same thing, only in text form:

Spelling as a law of nature
The question of why literacy is needed is discussed widely and biasedly. It would seem that today, when even a computer program is capable of correcting not only spelling, but also the meaning, the average Russian is not required to know the countless and sometimes meaningless subtleties of his native spelling. I'm not even talking about commas that were unlucky twice. At first, in the liberal nineties, they were placed anywhere or ignored altogether, claiming that this was a copyright sign. Schoolchildren still widely use the unwritten rule: “If you don’t know what to put, put a dash.” It’s not for nothing that they call it “a sign of despair.” Then, in the stable 2000s, people began to fearfully play it safe and put commas where they were not needed at all. True, all this confusion with signs does not in any way affect the meaning of the message. Why then write correctly?

I think this is something like those necessary conventions that replace our specific canine sense of smell when sniffing. A somewhat developed interlocutor, having received an electronic message, identifies the author by a thousand little things: of course, he does not see the handwriting, unless the message did not come in a bottle, but a letter from a philologist containing spelling errors can be erased without finishing reading it.

It is known that at the end of the war, the Germans, who used Russian labor, threatened to extort a special receipt from the Slavic slaves: “So-and-so treated me wonderfully and deserves leniency.” The liberating soldiers, having occupied one of the suburbs of Berlin, read a letter proudly presented by the owner with a dozen gross mistakes, signed by a student at Moscow University. The degree of sincerity of the author became immediately obvious to them, and the average slave owner paid for his vile foresight.

Today we have almost no chance to quickly understand who is in front of us: the methods of camouflage are cunning and numerous. You can imitate intelligence, sociability, even, perhaps, intelligence. It is impossible to play only literacy - a refined form of politeness, the last identifying mark of humble and mindful people who respect the laws of language as the highest form of the laws of nature.
Dmitry Bykov, 276 words

What is this?
The cry of a yearning man, the cry of a man yearning for dictate, order, law.

This is a longing for the world of Modernity, for a world that sacredly believed in the natural laws of history, the laws of social development, Progress, the laws of human behavior, the laws of language, and so on.

This is a longing for the law-forming foundations of the world, society, human behavior, language, etc.

This is a longing for a foundation, a solid foundation, which humanity lost with the “death of God” and which it tried to find by creating metaphysical pictures of the world, constructing laws of natural development, dreaming of a world absolute truth and a pure natural man.

Everything would be fine, but in the 20th century these dreams turned into bloody bacchanalia totalitarian regimes.

The dictate of the natural laws of history, the laws of society, the laws of language, the laws of human behavior, etc. somehow easily turns into dictatorship and arbitrariness of individuals, parties, bureaucracies, etc.
And somehow these natural laws of history, laws of society, laws of language, etc. turn out to be unfair. to individuals, social groups, nations, etc.
And somehow these natural laws of history, laws of society, laws of language, etc. are easily sentenced. individual people social groups, peoples to destruction.

And, it would seem, it’s time to forget about dreams of indisputable laws and immutable rules, it’s time to agree that the sign is arbitrary, and that’s all social entities are being constructed.

But, no, our poorly educated intellectuals are internally drawn to authoritarian models, but I just can’t. Pulls spontaneously, involuntarily, almost unconsciously. Our “liberal” will compose a couple of poems about freedom or something similar and blurt out something in the style of our old man Kant about the need for police freedom.

Like, freedom is needed, but only within the framework of Progress and order. It seems there should be freedom, but law and order (natural law and natural order -!) limit it, and sometimes even nullify it.

Criticism (the same freedom-loving poems) seems to be something like a policeman who uses a club to restore order and free thinking. " To deny this positive benefit of criticism is the same as arguing that the police do not bring any positive benefit, since its main task is to prevent violence of some citizens against others so that everyone can calmly and fearlessly go about their business"(Kant_Critique of Pure Reason).

That is, even through criticism, the dream of a police state shines through.

As the same old man Immanuel noted: " Only such criticism can cut the roots of materialism, fatalism, atheism, unbelief and free-thinking...." (Critique of Pure Reason)
And in Russia we don’t need this fashion for brilliant postmodernist free-thinking, because, as our Kaliningrad philosopher wrote back in the 18th century: “... The spirit of thoroughness in Germany and Russia did not fade away, ... it was only drowned out for a short time by the fashionable manner of brilliant free-thinking..." (Critique of Pure Reason)

And, of course, this text is permeated with horror of the Mystery. Where would we be without this?
The horror of an archaic creature lost in the chaos of signs, symbols, texts of the postmodern world. The horror of an archaic creature before the openness of the world, society, man, text, sign, symbol.

And there is also a longing for the traditional world of hierarchies, the world of established symbolic systems, a world in which at first glance you can see “who is who.” It can be seen by clothing, by body movements, by language, by the presence of obvious well-known symbols of power, symbols of high status, etc.

This is a longing for a legal demonstration of one’s status, which in a plebeian postmodern society looks like something awkward and comic.
But we have a dream in a society of demonstrated status. The dream of our bourgeoisie. The dream of our intellectuals. The dream of our right-wing “liberals”.
This is not Soviet thinking. This is pre-modern, traditional, archaic thinking.
And these people forbid others to pick their noses!
And they teach others to live literacy and freedom.

Literacy as knowledge of the rules of language is not a property of consciousness, and certainly not a property of the mind. This is a bodily property, automatic bodily skills, a certain habitus. Literacy as knowledge of the rules of language is the result of a certain discipline of the body.

The longing for literacy is the longing for discipline, the longing for certain techniques of discipline.

The desire to impart knowledge of the rules of the language special status- this is the desire to give a special status to the visible features of the body, features of habitus.
This is the desire to make certain signs and symbols out of body features that indicate a special status, and the particularity of status is usually directly related to the high status (I wonder if the use of the word “high” automatically writes me down as a common slave owner or something similar?).

Simply put, this is the desire for a system in which a person is automatically given a high status only based on certain properties of his body (the ability to write correctly).
This is the desire to give a high status to certain bodily characteristics that are inseparable from the habitus of a literate person.
And this status is immediately recognized.
And we immediately see this status.
And this status immediately imparts additional signs of intelligence, intelligence, kindness and other positive characteristics.
That is, the inherent features of the body turn into status and frankly indicate high status, and high status automatically makes a good man.

But why do you need high status and positive characteristics?
Naive people. No need to lie.
And all this talk about literacy, intelligence, special status, etc. just a vulgar cover for one desire, the desire to enjoy the right to fly over other people:

But you shouldn't accuse anyone of lying.
For it is known:

Virtual time machine

Exploring significant historical events and people is like time travel. History studies the past and the legacy of the past in the present. This is necessary in order to know how our modern world and the peoples of our planet became what we see them today, as well as how we evolved.

Many mysteries, frightening and intriguing, cease to be so mysterious as soon as the complex reasons and events that led to them become clear. This explains why history is needed. When the commonalities we share with people from the past are understood, as well as the differences in the present, an awareness of our society, its present, past and future is formed.

Learning from mistakes

At the same time, history offers us much more than the past events that led to the creation of the modern world. Why is history needed? It offers us the study of the past and present of peoples unknown to us and foreign countries, in which everything is arranged completely differently. Knowing what we share with people in the past, and along the way learning how much their lives differ from ours in the present, we can turn the future for the better. We look back and see the consequences:

bloody wars;
revolutions and coups d'etat;
thoughtless attitude towards nature;
great discoveries;
misconceptions and illiteracy.

You can step on the same rake many times. For what? It is necessary to study history in order to extract mistakes from the past and prevent them in the future.

We adopt experience

Moreover, history tries to understand past life individuals and society as a whole, exploring all possible aspects of their reality. The diversity of human experience is explored: how much people differed in their ideas, beliefs and cultural practices, how widely their experiences varied depending on time, nationality and social status, how much humanity fought with each other while inhabiting the planet we share.

The experience of the past is colossal and invaluable. Its undeniable significance for future generations shows why history is needed. Think about events, analyze them, “digest” the information and only then, based on past experience, understand the present, make an expedient and safe plan for the future.

General development

History analyzes the past, assessing the complex web of causes that help us understand current events and phenomena in the modern world. It teaches analytical skills, critical thinking and logical analysis of situations, which are simply necessary when studying many school subjects. History trains your memory and teaches you how to correctly process and perceive information, helps you develop the skills so necessary to look beyond the headlines of texts, ask the right questions and express your own opinions.

Raise patriots

Why study history?

Each person's view of the world is shaped by individual experience, as well as the experience of the society in which he lives. If we do not know the contemporary and historical experiences of different cultures, then we cannot even hope to understand how people, societies or nations make decisions in the modern world.

The very essence

However, memory cannot be frozen in time. Collective memory is gradually acquiring a new meaning. Historians are constantly working to reconsider the past by asking new questions, seeking new sources of information, and analyzing ancient documents in order to gain new knowledge and experience to better understand the past and what is happening. History is constantly changing and expanding, as is our memory, helping us acquire new knowledge and skills to improve our lives….

The question of why literacy is needed is discussed widely and biasedly. It would seem that today, when even a computer program is capable of correcting not only spelling, but also the meaning, the average Russian is not required to know the countless and sometimes meaningless subtleties of his native spelling. I'm not even talking about commas that were unlucky twice. At first, in the liberal nineties, they were placed anywhere or ignored altogether, claiming that this was a copyright sign. Schoolchildren still widely use the unwritten rule: “If you don’t know what to put, put a dash.” It’s not for nothing that they call it “a sign of despair.” Then, in the stable 2000s, people began to fearfully play it safe and put commas where they were not needed at all. True, all this confusion with signs does not in any way affect the meaning of the message. Why then write correctly?

(D. Bykov, 276 words)

Text of dictation 2013. Part 2

The dangers of heaven

The Internet for me is the third turning point in the history of human culture - after the advent of language and the invention of the book1. IN Ancient Greece The speaker speaking in the square in Athens was heard by no more than twenty thousand people. This was the sonic limit of communication: the geography of language is the tribe. Then a book came that expanded the circle of communication to the geography of the country.

And now there was a dizzying, unprecedented2 opportunity to instantly convey the word to countless people. Another change of spaces: the geography of the Internet - the globe. And this is another revolution, and a revolution always breaks quickly, it only builds slowly.3

Over time, a new hierarchy of humanity will emerge, a new humane civilization4. In the meantime... for now, the Internet is dominated by the “reverse side”5 of this grandiose breakthrough discovery – its destructive power6. It is no coincidence7 that the World Wide Web is becoming a tool in the hands of terrorists, hackers and fanatics of all stripes.

The most obvious fact of our time: the Internet, which has expanded possibilities unimaginably common man for speech and action, lies at the heart of the current “revolt of the masses.” This phenomenon, which arose in the first half of the twentieth century, caused by the vulgarization of culture - material and spiritual, gave birth to both communism and Nazism8. Today it is addressed to the “mass” in any person, feeds from it and satisfies it in all respects – from linguistic to political and consumer9, because it has incredibly brought the desired “bread and circuses” closer to the people, including the lowest10. This confidante, preacher and confessor of crowds turns into “noise”11 everything he touches, gives life to,12 breeds vulgarity, ignorance and aggression, giving them an unprecedented, bewitching outlet not just outside, but to the whole world. The most dangerous thing is that this playful and very intelligent “child”13 of the new civilization destroys the criteria - the spiritual, moral and behavioral codes of the existence of human society14. What can you do, in the Internet space everyone is equal in the most common sense of the word15. And I think: aren’t we paying too high a price for a wonderful opportunity to talk with a distant friend, read a rare book, see a brilliant painting and hear a great opera? Is this grand discovery made too early? In other words, has humanity grown into itself?

(D. Rubina, 303 words

Dictation text 2013. Part 1

The Gospel of the Internet

Once, many years ago,1 I was talking with a programmer I knew and, among other remarks, I remember his phrase that some ingenious thing had been invented, thanks to which all the knowledge of mankind would become available to any subject,2 - the Worldwide Information Network3.

“4 This is amazing,” I responded politely, always getting bored with the word “humanity” and hating the word “individual”5.

“Imagine,” he continued, “that for a dissertation on the production of pottery among the Etruscans, for example, you no longer need to delve into the archives, but just type a certain code, and everything that is required for the work will appear on your computer screen6.”

“But this is wonderful!”7 I exclaimed.

Meanwhile he continued8:

– Unheard-of opportunities are opening up before humanity – in science, in art, in politics9. Everyone will be able to bring their word to the attention of millions. At the same time, any person, he added, will become much more accessible to intelligence services and will not be protected from all sorts of attackers, especially when hundreds of thousands of Internet communities emerge.

“But this10 is terrible...11,” I thought.

Many years have passed, but I remember this conversation very well12. And today, having changed a good dozen computers, corresponding - to the accompaniment of the keyboard - with hundreds of correspondents13, running another query from Google14 to Yandex15 and mentally blessing the great invention, I still cannot unequivocally answer myself: is the Internet “wonderful” or “terrible”? ?

Thomas Mann wrote: “...Where you are, there is the world - a narrow circle in which you live, know and act; the rest is fog..."16

The Internet - for good or evil - has cleared the fog17, turning on its merciless spotlights, piercing with cutting light to the smallest grain of sand countries and continents, and at the same time the fragile human soul18. And what happened, by the way? recent years twenty with this notorious soul, before whom dazzling possibilities for self-expression opened up?

The Internet for me is the third turning point in the history of human culture - after the advent of language and the invention of the book19. In Ancient Greece, no more than twenty thousand people heard an orator speaking in a square in Athens. This was the sonic limit of communication: the geography of language is the tribe. Then a book came that expanded the circle of communication to the geography of the country. With the invention of the World Wide Web, arose new stage human existence in space: the geography of the Internet - the globe!

(D. Rubina, 319 words)

Dictation text 2013. Part 3

Evil for good or good for evil?

Questions related to the mighty Internet can be called existential, as is the question of what we do in this world.

There is no instrument that could determine the obvious benefit and the equally obvious evil that all great inventions bring us, just as there is no way to separate one from the other.1

“I would not rush to criticize the Internet too harshly for all the sins of humanity,” objected my friend, a famous physicist who has lived in Paris for a long time (by the way, we met him through the Internet). – From my point of view, this is a wonderful thing, if only because talented and smart people got the opportunity to communicate, unite and thereby contribute to the great discoveries of modern times. Think, for example, about polar explorers in Antarctica: isn’t Internet communication a great benefit for them?2 And the plebs will remain plebs, with or without the Internet3. At one time, monsters of the style of Hitler or Mussolini, with only radio and the press, managed to have a murderous influence on the masses. And the book has always been a very powerful tool: you can print Shakespeare’s poetry and Chekhov’s prose on paper, or you can have manuals on terrorism and calls for pogroms - paper will endure everything, just like the Internet4. This invention in itself does not fall into the categories of good or evil5, any more than6 fire, dynamite, alcohol, nitrates or nuclear energy. It all depends on who is using it. This is so obvious that it’s even boring to discuss. “Write better,” the professor added, “how difficult it is to become an adult in our age, how entire generations are doomed to eternal and irreversible immaturity...

– So it’s still about the World Wide Web? – I stubbornly clarified. “It was there that I read the other day: “The best thing that life has given me is a childhood without the Internet.”

So what are we actually doing in this world, I think, penetrating deeper into its secrets, trying to get to the bottom of the innermost spring, whose crystalline power will quench our thirst for immortality? And does it exist, this spring, or is each subsequent generation, which has removed the next veil from the great mystery, only capable of muddying the clear waters of existence, given to us by the unknowable genius of the Universe?

(D. Rubina, 317 words)

An account that replenishes itself

It’s good for us civilized people who have learned to use a mobile phone since the age of thirteen. For us_ there are no problems with _owning the whole variety of gadgets_ because we can no longer imagine our life without tablets and the _Internet_. It's more difficult for our parents. For example, my mother, a wise, educated woman, is still wary of a mobile phone, although she can, of course, cope with the simple functions of a subscriber to call or answer a call. As for replenishing the balance, this is a real torment. My eighty-year-old grandfather has no idea how money gets into this miniature device. In a word, the positive balance of all related telephone users is my absolute obligation. But the problem is not to replenish the balance, but to do it (on) time. Whatever I did to avoid forgetting to put money in, I drew magic crosses on my hands, wrote notes, set a reminder on my phone. Nothing (didn’t) help_ no_(no)_ and a warning SMS will come that the subscriber “Mom” called me_ and that now only incoming calls are available to him.

The end to torment and remorse was achieved with the “Autopayment” service from MTS. It turned out_ you can replenish your balance automatically_ the system itself monitors the balance_ and_ when the money runs out_ it debits the (necessary) sum from the bank card.

In order to activate the service, just go to the autopay website. *****_ and click the “Set up auto payment” option. The service is activated for free_ and money is transferred (to) account_t mobile phone(the) same is carried out without commission.

Now it’s easy to always stay in touch with the help of MTS_ hear native voices_ by calling at any time. (In) generally_ everyone is happy_ and I am (in) generally_ _happy_ when I receive an SMS stating that 100 rubles have been debited from my account to pay for my mother’s or grandfather’s mobile phone. Thanks to our “family” operator_ MTS!