{"id":1168,"date":"2013-07-26T02:36:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T02:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monochromist.com\/2013\/07\/26\/theres-not-a-lot-we-can-do-about-the-past-but-we\/"},"modified":"2013-07-26T02:36:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T02:36:51","slug":"theres-not-a-lot-we-can-do-about-the-past-but-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2013\/07\/26\/theres-not-a-lot-we-can-do-about-the-past-but-we\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>There\u2019s not a lot we can do about the past; but we should never despair of it, because, as Czeslaw Milosz wisely said, the past takes its meaning from whatever we do right now. The past has a way of sticking to us, of sticking around, of just plain sticking. Even if we wrap the past around us like a snow globe, so as to obscure our many discontents with our dangerous present, that willful act will change our future. Because that\u2019s already been tried. It was tried repeatedly. Look deep enough, try not to flinch, and it\u2019s all in the record. So: never mock those who went before you unless you have the courage to confront your own illusions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class='attribution'>Bruce Sterling, The User\u2019s Guide to Steampunk (via <a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/i-am-the-epitome.tumblr.com\/\">i-am-the-epitome<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s not a lot we can do about the past; but we should never despair of it, because, as Czeslaw Milosz wisely said, the past takes its meaning from whatever we do right now. The past has a way of sticking to us, of sticking around, of just plain sticking. Even if we wrap the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-video_graphics","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5sGHy-iQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1169,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2013\/07\/26\/my-past-is-everything-i-failed-to-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":0},"title":"My past is everything I\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"July 26, 2013","format":"quote","excerpt":"My past is everything I failed to be. Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet\u00a0 (via ratak-monodosico)","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4931,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2009\/06\/22\/history-is-a-strong-myth-perhaps-along-with-the\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":1},"title":"History is a strong myth,\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"June 22, 2009","format":"quote","excerpt":"History is a strong myth, perhaps, along with the unconscious, the last great myth. It is a myth that at once subtended the possibility of an \u00bbobjective\u00ab enchainment of events and causes and the possibility of a narrative enchainment of discourse. The age of history, if one can call it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3559,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2011\/03\/19\/as-this-wave-from-memories-flows-in-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":2},"title":"As this wave from memories\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"March 19, 2011","format":"quote","excerpt":"As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira\u2019s past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1644,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2013\/07\/09\/la-vie-mooblog\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":3},"title":"\u00bb La Vie :\/\/mooblog","author":"monochromist","date":"July 9, 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"\u00bb La Vie :\/\/mooblog\u201cTourism is a journey back in time, to our lost\u00a0origin, our primitive past\u201d","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2013\/09\/12\/for-culture-is-a-possible-pattern-of-meanings\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":4},"title":"For culture is a possible\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"September 12, 2013","format":"quote","excerpt":"For culture is a possible pattern of meanings inherited from the immediate past, a canopy for the interpretive needs of the present. Douglas & Isherwood, The World of Goods, p43 (via rykalski)","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5171,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2011\/03\/18\/dhiraagu-have-tried-to-login-at-3-hotspots-in-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1168,"position":5},"title":"@dhiraagu have tried to login\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"March 18, 2011","format":"quote","excerpt":"@dhiraagu have tried to login at 3 hotspots in 3 weeks & failed.have paid 4 a service I didn\u2019t get. #fail Twitter \/ @Munshid Mohamed","rel":"","context":"In &quot;motion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}