All those little people who are completely forgotten by history and who will never leave a mark in history books

>all those little people who are completely forgotten by history and who will never leave a mark in history books
>all those nameless conscripted peasants that died fighting in pointless wars waged by kings and nobles
>all those innocents brutally murdered, raped and tortured in "great men's" clashes
>all those lives and destinies who will never be remembered in history, but without whom history would never write itself

Can we have a thread about these poor souls? I feel like they should be honored.

tolstoy pls

"For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." - Luke 8:17

who cares, they lived their life and had no impact, you think people in the future will care about you? enjoy your life now.

I think about these people often too OP. When I look at great monuments I think about all of the laborers who died working on them. Stuff like the Pyramids or Notre Dame are all that's left of these nameless people.

Just go read some microhistory
Start with The Cheese and the Worms or The Return of Martin Guerre

The worst part is
>you're one of them

>I feel like they should be honored.
That's one of the reasons I ended up ditching history for archaeology my second year of college. I realized I cared more about learning what actual people did and how they lived, and that's the main focus of archaeology.

If you're more interested in details about everyday life, maybe try reading more archaeology literature.

These people ARE honored

When we talk about them we need to use statistics and demographics and tie them to eras in politics and tie them to leaders/governments. Simply because it's our nature to compartmentalize everything and analyze it, to understand better.

But anthropology is huge. and at the core of it all, we can still acknowledge that nothing would have happened without the little guy. you could say they're the most important part, but honestly nothing in this world (especially culture/history) operates in a vacuum free from influence.
The things the little guy do, the leaders do, the military does, the environment does, the ancestors did, the church does, they all affect each other simultaneously and shape each other
we can talk more about one of them because it's easier to, it doesn't make any of the others less important.

Listen to "The Other Side Of History" on The Great Courses. It's not necessarily soldiers but provides a detailed and interesting look at "the other" throughout history. Very interesting.

I feel like watching Blade Runner now

>there are only like 200 million people on the planet
>smart people easily shine through

>population 8 billion
>genius dying everywhere and no one even notices

>your light never even had a chance to shine

"They totally bought that Jesus meme lol." -Luke 14:24

I love that movie. Finally got why the 'tears in the rain' sequence is so powerful. It's because when we watch it, we all know the back story to it.

Ridley Scott, perfectionist extraordinaire, directing Rutger Hauer who's speech in that scene ended at "all those moments will be lost in time." But he doesn't end there. Instead, he adlibs a beautiful line that is thematically and literally in tune with the action going on during the main scene itself.

>Butwaittheresmore

What is Hauer's character doing in that scene but ignoring the only rule's he's been given? He should kill Ford, but instead, he let's him live. He's realized the impermanence of things and values life. As we watch the scene, this harmonizes with our foreknowledge of the adlib (Hauer ignoring a "rule" he's been issued because he think's what he feels is more real) and the floodgates are opened.

Beautiful movie. If you can ever watch it on a rainy day with a valium, I recommend

everyone leaves an impact

But my memes and shitposting are eternal

>half the people are below average intelligence
>but we live in an age where they can be easily reached through mass media
>literally billions of people as canon fodder for the ideologies that haven't been created yet
>smart people, rather than living in their shitty village and being unappreciated by the plebs around them, can now shitpost on Veeky Forums

Besides, when you get right down to it, I've met thousands of people in my life, many of them in the 0.1%, and I'd say I've only met about 5 or 6 actual geniuses out of it. It's sort of amazing how rare truly independent thought, or sincere intellectual drive, is to find in a person. Even in our universities, the vast majority of academics are there as a day job.

Who cares about faggots from future?! I certainly care even less about them than they would about me.

I had an existential crisis last night, fuck you op.

How can you honor all the millions of people that have died during your own lifetime that were probably each their own personal tragedy and story, with their own history, friends, family, goals and problems?

You don't.

What you can do, however, is be nicer to those around you, since you're the nameless NPC to them.

Forthwith Ajax, son of Telamon, slew the fair youth Simoeisius, son of Anthemion, whom his mother bore by the banks of the Simois, as she was coming down from Mt. Ida, where she had been with her parents to see their flocks. Therefore he was named Simoeisius, but he did not live to pay his parents for his rearing, for he was cut off untimely by the spear of mighty Ajax, who struck him in the breast by the right nipple as he was coming on among the foremost fighters; the spear went right through his shoulder, and he fell as a poplar that has grown straight and tall in a meadow by some mere, and its top is thick with branches.

So....us?

Meges, moreover, slew Pedaeus, son of Antenor, who, though he was a bastard, had been brought up by Theano as one of her own children, for the love she bore her husband. The son of Phyleus got close up to him and drove a spear into the nape of his neck: it went under his tongue all among his teeth, so he bit the cold bronze, and fell dead in the dust.

>you could have a stroke right now and die, leaving nothing, as nothing but the footnote of a footnote of the most interesting period in history

I don't think I'll be able to relax until I've written at least one book. The fact that my entire existence could just be wiped out, for good, like that, is pretty fucking scary.

He then gave chase to Xanthus and Thoon, the two sons of Phaenops, both of them very dear to him, for he was now worn out with age, and begat no more sons to inherit his possessions. But Diomed took both their lives and left their father sorrowing bitterly, for he nevermore saw them come home from battle alive, and his kinsmen divided his wealth among themselves.

>being such a self obsessed narcissist

wew laddo

> tfw you written a book and can relax and die

>wanting to contribute nothing to history

Look at this cool dude

Yep, so fucking narcissist it hurts. You're terribly cringy, and you writing a book will most likely change absolutely fuck all regarding your historical relevance.

>My life is unimportant, and I aspire towards bland mediocrity, because that's just how MATURE I am, kiddo

>not being a narcissist

Gotta play the game to get the prize. The only reason you know the names of anyone who lived before 1700 is their pure, unstoppable self promotion.

Enjoy being bones in the ground, faggot

Oh man, I can't wait until the children of the future start learning about such extraordinary individuals such as yourself.

>Yep, so fucking narcissist it hurts. You're terribly cringy, and you writing a book will most likely change absolutely fuck all regarding your historical relevance.

>Yep, so fucking narcissist it hurts. You're terribly cringy, and you writing a book will most likely change absolutely fuck all regarding your historical relevance.

Me neither. I can't wait till your own grandkids forget your name.

I once saw a monument decicated to dead fishermen that perished with their ships and I related so hard to them it made me cry, no joke. No right when I saw it but later in my bed.
Also when I go to the cimetary and I see really old graves full of rust which imply that nobody come to see them anymore because they're probably all dead and their lineage died, or people of their family simply forgot about their existence, some of them are even dead prior to ww1, it activates something in me that makes me heavily melancholic. Life ain't fair.

>Yep, so fucking narcissist it hurts. You're terribly cringy, and you writing a book will most likely change absolutely fuck all regarding your historical relevance.

This guy didn't even write a book, just strolled up and scratched his name into the history books for the laughs.

Just how far in your ass do you have to be compare yourself to fucking caesar?

Now, I'm genuinely curious, what is the thing that fuels such delusions of grandeur, what do you do exactly that you're so cock sure you'll be recorded in the annals of history?

Caesar broke down crying in front of a statue of Alexander for literally the same reason we're even having this conversation.

You haven't answered my question.

>all these depressed people on a Friday night

Y'all need to learn how to decompress.

Time and place, mostly. We're living through a historically turbulent time, in many regions of the world, that will inevitably be studied.

If you record these events, have an eye for symbolism and subjects of interest that aren't captured in the mainstream media, then embellish them with an interesting/exciting enough narrative that it would be worth reading regardless of the socio-political backdrop, then bang, you're left behind something for historians of the future to feel somewhat excited about.

If you're lucky a couple of your friends will get famous, I mean, that guy who wrote the book about knowing Hitler in highschool will be remembered for a thousand years, just because out of the 20 or so plebs in his class that weren't Wittgenstein he was the only one with the half a brain to put his pen to paper and cash in on his life experiences.

But like I said, I'm not sure. I've accomplished nothing yet, I've barely got an outline for my book, and I could die in a car accident tomorrow.

But hey, it's better than getting pissy because anonymous strangers on the internet have higher aspirations than you do.

>those men whose lives' works were reduced to mere footnotes in history or even forgotten outright

famous people may leave written works behind, but everyone great and small leaves their trash behind.

Even if you did it would be irelevant desu.
Een if you book sold millions.

Archeology is great and all but it sounds like you're missing out on the entire fields of microhistory and rural history or the Annales School's history of mentalities.

"what you do in life echoes in eternity"

>the majority of racing fans in 30 years won't remember Alonso but will speak with reverence about HAM-MERC

Fux this gay earth

>tfw you're one of them

maybe I should join ISIS and blow up london, at least in 200 years I'll be venerated by radioactive islamic mutants

Assuming islamic extremists manage to conquer the world, they will wipe out all history besides the names of their martyrs.
Assuming they get crushed, we will still remember the follies of extremism and the monsters who massacred innocent civilians, just like we remember Hitler or Torquemada.

It's like Pascal's Wager. If you want to leave your name in history there's only one surefire way.

>I feel like they should be honored.
lel why?

Great men become great on the backs and blood of those forgotten.

Alexander didn't conquer anything by himself. Nor did Caesar or Napoleon or any other figure in history.

>radioactive islamic mutants
thanks for the good plot-hook for a post-nuclear setting

And yet everyone will die.
It doesn't matter if people remember you or not - dead men are dead men.
No praise will raise you from the grave.

And let's not forget people remember only a picture of these "great men.
They were different in real life.
You will never know what kind of person they were really like.

Oh, by the way: even the universe will die, one day.
Suns will collapse, galaxies will fade away.

Earth is just one little planet (of many).
Mankind is just one species.

Individuality is overrated.
... but you still feel special, and it's absolutely ok.
Individuality is both a curse and a blessing.

(My 2 cents)

deep and original

>implying the "forgotten" are the ones truly responsible for greatness in civilization
Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon all rightfully take their places in history as men powerful enough to shape society into civilization and greatness.

That's not the point, no one denies their greatness. But would they ever become great if it wasn't for numerous nameless soldiers aiding them? They would be nothing.

Alexander was forced to return back when his soldiers refused to march further into India. Great leaders are nothing without great soldiers fighting under them.

>half the people are below average intelligence

people who say this are trying to be pedantic and don't understand the concept of "average intelligence"

>They would be nothing
>Great leaders are nothing without great soldiers fighting under them.

People exist. They go this way and that. Why point out the obvious?

Without order, the masses are formless and accomplish little. Giants of men impose their stamp on history. They make something powerful from the scattered. Unify with direction and purpose.


The virtue is in greatness and accomplishment. Not in simply existing.

The greatest heros and the greatest villains always occupy places of extraordinary power.

>The virtue is in greatness and accomplishment. Not in simply existing.
Soldiers do not simply exist, they fight, bleed and kill. Is this not an accomplishment?

OP has made the point.

Most importantly, HOW do we glorify these "poor souls" if we're so desperate to recognize them?

>he doesn't have one every 12 hours.
Fucking, I don't have time for this. . .