Erik Schimek

Historiography

When I took my first college history class, my professor told us that history began with the age of writing ~5500 years ago. Everything beyond that was anthropology.

As I studied history and political science, I learned that there are many historical events that don't fit cleanly into the common narrative.

These events aren't difficult to curate: 

- Visit any ancient history museum and ask to look at the parts of their collection that they never show, because they can't explain how the artifacts fit into the timeline.

- Research labor history in the age of the Pinkertons, or Jewish resistance to public mass schooling, or income inequality in the USA since Bretton Woods II and the 1970s oil embargo. How do these events fit into the common narrative about our shared history? 

 

Academic Studies

In my college research and writings, I sought to understand how people interacted with large intractable systems and created change. I sought to understand how people can be motivated to embrace change.

I expanded my understanding by working on several political campaigns, and interning at the Minnesota State legislature.

While attending graduate school, I studied public administration in hopes of better understanding how our systems worked.

I was in the process of developing an anarchist perspective on educational and bureaucratic theory when I became very sick and had to live in complete isolation for several years.

Understanding Civilization

After I was too sick to continue my work in academics, my interest in simpler living became an immensely practical concern.

My perspective on civilization and history was also shaped by the work of Daniel Quinn, who wrote about 'other ways of living' in eloquent ways.

History is interesting to me because it shows the diverse ways in which humans have thought, fought, cooperated and lived.

History is a vital reminder that the well of human possibility is much deeper than we've been taught to believe by our propagandistic educational system.

Like John Taylor Gatto, I believe that the tools and technologies of modern civilization have limited the growth of our creative, humanistic sides.

This has led us to become disconnected us from the soil our food is grown in, from the wild rugged landscapes our dreams are forged in, from the healthy and diverse communities that our ideas are shaped in.

Fragments of Pre-History

I have come to believe that my community college history professor was wrong, that history can be traced back beyond 5500 years. We have fragments of humanity's deep history.

It's a history of rising and falling civilizations, a cycle of golden ages and dark ages, a cycle of catastrophe and rebuilding.

It's a history of deep diversity in ways of living and interacting with other human beings.

It's a history where humans thought differently, with different kinds of technical and social technologies.

Perhaps our ancestors even saw the world differently -- what color does does 'wine-dark sea' refer to?

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