August 12 - The Daily Battle

Looking at the threads over the last two weeks, one could get the impression that the course of history is nothing else than a never-ending sequence of battles, assassinations, coronations and heroics of all sorts.
And sure, on each day of the year incidents took place that are quite rightly remembered and have entered the history books, but at the same time, on those very days events occurred that are hardly ever mentioned, �.the daily battles.
On August 12, of any year, in any period, in any country, the vast majority of people just went about their ordinary daily business and tried to survive.

They went out hunting, they harvested their crops, milked their goats, fed their chickens, baked bread, cooked rice, brewed some beer, built houses, made some pottery, opened their shops up for trade, went to work in factories and offices, gave birth and buried their dead.

Day by day, the ordinary people worked their fields and their machines to create the wealth that would allow their masters, chieftains, nobles, generals, kings and emperors, and presidents to arm their troops and go out to war, fight battles, invade their neighbouring countries, commit heroic deeds and enter our history books.

Day by day they drudged on, so their lords could build palaces and temples, castles and churches that have survived the ages when their own huts and houses crumbled away.

Day by day they would go out to produce that little extra bit of food that would allow some people to stay at home and write poems, and think new thoughts, paint wonderful pictures and compose wonderful music.

So, this day is exclusively to remember all the people who laboured day in day out, that we�ve got something to talk about in our history forum.


Here is a poem by one of my favourite German authors , the great playwright, poet and novelist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), who could express very much the same, much better:

Questions of a Reading Worker

Who built Thebes with her seven gates,
In books you will find the names of kings,
Did the kings tow the stones ?
And Babylon, destroyed so often,
Who re-built it so many times?
In which of the houses of golden Lima
Did the builders live?
Where did the workers go,
on the night they finished the Chinese wall?
Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arcs.
Who erected them?
Whom did the triumphant Caesars conquer?
Did famous Byzantium
Only have palaces for her people?
Even in legendary Atlantis, in the night when the sea swallowed it,
The drowning cried for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India.
On his own?
Caesar conquered the Gauls.
Didn�t he at least have a cook with him?
Philip of Spain cried when his fleet sunk.
Was he the only one?
Frederik the second was victorious in the Seven Years War.
He alone?
A victory on each side.
Who cooks the victory meal?
A great man, every ten years.
Who payed the costs?

So many stories.
So many questions.

Now that I got that off my chest, we can carry on as normal tomorrow.


Edited by Komnenos