Consciousness and History

Over the last two years, the truck’s clutch has reminded me that it despises cold weather – much like my back, all sorts of problems come to light as soon as shorts become a silly idea for daily wear. Finally having enough of this nonsense, I took it in for repairs as well as tire rotation/alignment. In the process, I remembered why listening to podcasts as I drive is a benefit to this blog…

Last month, I happened across a RAND report which resonated with me on an academic and intellectual level – National Will to Fight – Why Some States Keep Fighting and Others Don’t. Academically, this report is sort of a “concept glue” which I feel has been an elusive component of many of my seemingly unrelated papers, blog posts, and Quora answers. Intellectually, it created even more questions and avenues of focus for future endeavors; a fuel for the ever-burning fire of analysis and creativity which illuminates many late-night musings.

With this report lurking in my mind this morning, I started the TED Radio Hour podcast from July 15, 2016 – “What Makes Us… Us.” To many, these two ideas may seem disparate and incongruously paired. For me, though, my love of history makes it not so complicated and unnatural.

Taking a brief look at the RAND report is nearly impossible. While the PDF is only 154 pages long, it makes up for relative brevity in overall density of potential. To understand the overall intent of the topic as well as the tone of the report, the definition of national will to fight is simple:

…[T]he determination of a national government to conduct sustained military and other operations for some objective even when the expectation of success decreases or the need for significant political, economic, and military sacrifices increases.

Broken down, it looks at the factors, contexts, and mechanisms which shape and influence a nations’ participation and direction in a conflict. While the findings do not offer any sort of predictive formula for either victory or success, the researchers are clear on one important factor: “will to fight is poorly analyzed and the least understood aspect of war.”

Similarly, human consciousness – on an individual level – remains somewhat of a nebulous concept which has been wrestled with for a long time by everyone from ancient philosophers to present academicians. Covering this topic, the TED Radio Hour podcast, therefore, is not recommended as idle background noise. In fact, it could be nicely prefaced with a quote by jazz musician Eddie Harris:

…[I]t’s geared for you to think. So, for those of you who don’t think too much, I’m just tellin’ you about that shit before we drop it on ya.

For me, national will and history could be looked at as a form of social consciousness. Anil Seth’s interview from the podcast proved to be the “lightbulb” moment for me when it came to tying everything together. “…[T]he truth is that all perceptions are acts of interpretation” is a statement which is applicable when discussing national will of the present/near future, as well as when studying the motives and rationalizations of the past. In a way, these interpretations create the reality of a situation, regardless of when it takes place.

Over the years, I have developed a fascination as to the “why” and “how” behind individual and group motivation when it comes to history. During the last week, my reading has been varied in both topic and scale – from Tony Booth’s Cox’s Navy – Salvaging the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow 1924-1931, to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2019 China Military Power Report. Subscribers and frequent visitors to this blog have been exposed to my own interpretations along similar threads:

 Charles A. Lockwood: The Great Captain of the Silent Service

Another Opportunity to Talk about Ernest Cox

Who is your favorite figure in American history and why?

Waffle House, Leadership, and Lucien Truscott

Alexander Suvorov – Determination and Unrelenting Simplicity of Action and Purpose

…and more.

The common thread here is buried – each individual and/or group had a clear sense of how they chose to interpret their role in the events surrounding them, which influenced their will to continue in the face of – and in spite of – adversity.

Again, from Seth’s portion of the podcast:

We don’t just passively perceive the world. We actively generate it. The world we experience comes as much, if not more, from the inside out as from the outside in.

And every action that we experience as voluntary is shaped by our whole history of previous voluntary actions that we’ve executed during our lifetimes of our social and cultural context, of our developmental and even our evolutionary heritage, indeed. All of these factors play in to every action that we do, whether we experience it as volitional or not.

A nation is a collection of individuals just as history is an aggregate of events – this much is obvious. However, they share the problems of perception and interpretation… both which mandates action. Perhaps consciousness is much bigger than is commonly thought, as it takes shape in a variety of forms – from individual initiative to collective national identity to present foreign/domestic policy to a larger understanding of the role of history’s influence in all of these aspects.