This has been bugging me for quite some time now. The cost of history!
History? Cost? Am I confusing? Alright, let me explain.
Economists use a term called the 'Opportunity cost'. Opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. Let me give you an example; If I go to a movie tonight, I spend some time and energy and money for that. The time cannot be now spent on spending with family or reading a book or the cost spent on the movie cannot be spent on any other thing. So a benefit, profit, value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else is called the opportunity cost.
Now coming back to our subject. History has a cost. Every time we celebrate a historical leader, there is a cost spent. Whenever we build a statue, it incurs a cost. An opportunity cost. The cost which could have been spent elsewhere. So every time a policy decision is taken we calculate the opportunity cost and then take a call on the worthiness of the policy.
My mother died 5 years ago. I remember that clearly. I can even now recollect every minute of her final hours. I know she died of cancer. I remember her for all she was to me many times and thank god for her life. Once a year we think about her and celebrate her life. I do these because I believe the opportunity cost in doing those is not as important as the memories and the time spent remembering her.
But imagine, if after 100 years there is a doubt whether my mother died of cancer or cardiac arrest! And my grandchildren decide to do research on it, and fight with each other for it, do you think the opportunity cost is worth it? Or after 500 years somebody in my genealogy decides to do a 500 feet statue on it, the opportunity cost is worth it?
I can hear you say, having a statue for your mom is not worth it, but what if it is Mahatma Gandhi! Or Jesus Christ? Do you think to have a statue in celebrating their contributions is worth it? Ah, even then the opportunity cost in reminding a generation of their history by spending thousands of crores is way too expensive.
And our way of expressing our gratitude to our history does not stop with statues. We rename cities, towns and spend time and money and energy doing that! We fight in the name of history for all sorts of reasons. We shed blood in the name of historicity, the authenticity of history. We frame laws based on things which happened aeons years ago and fight again in trying to prove its historicity.
History is costly! Historicity is costlier. But we have only finite resources. Every time when history is being invoked let us count the cost; I'm not against spending money on history. But just to remind ourselves that history is costly and we have to count its cost before celebrating it.
If we don't count the cost of history we will end up losing the present!
History? Cost? Am I confusing? Alright, let me explain.
Economists use a term called the 'Opportunity cost'. Opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. Let me give you an example; If I go to a movie tonight, I spend some time and energy and money for that. The time cannot be now spent on spending with family or reading a book or the cost spent on the movie cannot be spent on any other thing. So a benefit, profit, value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else is called the opportunity cost.
Now coming back to our subject. History has a cost. Every time we celebrate a historical leader, there is a cost spent. Whenever we build a statue, it incurs a cost. An opportunity cost. The cost which could have been spent elsewhere. So every time a policy decision is taken we calculate the opportunity cost and then take a call on the worthiness of the policy.
My mother died 5 years ago. I remember that clearly. I can even now recollect every minute of her final hours. I know she died of cancer. I remember her for all she was to me many times and thank god for her life. Once a year we think about her and celebrate her life. I do these because I believe the opportunity cost in doing those is not as important as the memories and the time spent remembering her.
But imagine, if after 100 years there is a doubt whether my mother died of cancer or cardiac arrest! And my grandchildren decide to do research on it, and fight with each other for it, do you think the opportunity cost is worth it? Or after 500 years somebody in my genealogy decides to do a 500 feet statue on it, the opportunity cost is worth it?
I can hear you say, having a statue for your mom is not worth it, but what if it is Mahatma Gandhi! Or Jesus Christ? Do you think to have a statue in celebrating their contributions is worth it? Ah, even then the opportunity cost in reminding a generation of their history by spending thousands of crores is way too expensive.
And our way of expressing our gratitude to our history does not stop with statues. We rename cities, towns and spend time and money and energy doing that! We fight in the name of history for all sorts of reasons. We shed blood in the name of historicity, the authenticity of history. We frame laws based on things which happened aeons years ago and fight again in trying to prove its historicity.
History is costly! Historicity is costlier. But we have only finite resources. Every time when history is being invoked let us count the cost; I'm not against spending money on history. But just to remind ourselves that history is costly and we have to count its cost before celebrating it.
If we don't count the cost of history we will end up losing the present!
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