The perversion of the historical accuracy of how our ancestors lived, and how we currently live, is created by preserving only expensive possessions — tokens, icons, valuables – and in the purposeful construction of indestructible architectural monuments used by the privileged few.

History is skewed by this preservation technique because it only pretends to tell future generations how people actually lived. When we visit museums we are only seeing what the powerful majority of the culture of that time deemed important enough to save and pass down.

We only get to know what they thought was worth saving and inevitably those things are the expensive, the pretty, the unique and the tokens of the wealthy. Even pioneer and Native American museum dioramas are idealized with hardy items and the most beautiful things. The ordinary is forsaken for the power of the inherent value in the preservation of the perceived best.

Only the rich could afford to be photographed. Poor and middle class cultures were not worth preserving because they lived temporary lives where none of the iconic resonances of the environment and the neighborhood were able to live on because Ghettos were gutted; middle class valuables wore out under reasonable, everyday, use and were thrown away. A disposable culture creates forgotten people.

Continue reading → Worthy of History: Only Expensive Things Survive