Discerning the Repetition in the Disruption of History

History is assumed to have a Hegelian point. It is thought that it takes it to its telos. This is why German philosopher of history Reinhart Koselleck names it as a secular version of eschatology. to him, history , therefore, is hiding its theological teeth. In Walter Banjamin’s terms, we may say that history is pushed by a messianic thrust. It seems that it has to always move towards a progressive Chronos and Topos . Neither, we can think of history as merely circular repetitions akin to Fredrich Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence. History is marked by repetitions as well as ruptures. Only by understanding what repeats that we can discern what is novel and unprecedented.

Koselleck invites us to sort out what repeats in the moment of rupture. We are propelled into an open and unknown future but we strive to tame it to suit our ends. Our conception of temporality makes us think that it is our time or wait for our time to come. Our attempt to domesticate an open future is built on the power of expectations that makes us sense that our time is come or not come. Therefore, it is the future that dictates how to act and not the present exigencies or the past experiences. It is the future expectation of gains or losses that is accelerating our society. We have indeed become part of an accelerated society. We seem to be in a hurry living in a fast lane . it makes our present look blurred. We are simply and blindly are running towards a future. It is therefore, our felt imperative that we understand what is going on in our society.

We may ask what is propelling Goan society? Is it our past experiences or the present exigencies? or future fears or hopes? Let us try to understand our society through the lens of Koselleck’s view of history. We can call this way of understanding society as doing historical anthropology of Goans. Goans do have wounded as well as resourceful experiences of the past. There are also opportunities and challenges in our living present. Do these matter?

Koselleck’s view will hold that what most matters is how we see our future. Thus, reflecting along these lines of thought, we might get an insight in how a Goa of a future is imagined by us. It is this foreclosed future which otherwise without this anticipatory closures is open that is coming to control our present. This is why we may repeat the same mistakes of those we may regard as traitors of the past.

Maybe with a serene mind, we need to reflect and discern what repeats in the ruptures of our days. in several ways, we seem to be repeating the villainous actions of the colonizers that we have come to detest. The desire for a reformed future propels us to these repetition. It is paradoxical that in our innocent desire for a new future, perhaps a future that is thought to have been aborted by the rapture of colonization , that we unknowingly mimick the colonizer .This desire to reproduce a lost future undergirds the present and we lose sight of moral calculus as we are ready to repeat the wounds of the colonial pasts.

May be that Goa and Goans are experiencing colonial trauma in our post-colonial times. May be have transmitted this trauma inter-generationally. May be with the help of psychoanalysis we can say that we are seeking healing and therapy by repetitions that inflicts the same traumatic experience on others. This is why there is an afterlife of colonization in our society. Colonization was not just as political colonization. It was a colonization of our mind and our psyche. This is why the colonizer still comes back to haunt us in our living present. We are mimicking the colonizers in different ways and at different levels.

Let’s take the case of the what is happening in Sancoale. Come the feast of St. Jose Vaz , the lone Goan Saint, we experience an attempt of rapture. Catholics of all walks of life and devotees of St. Joseph Vaz gather from all over Goa to celebrate the feast peacefully at the façade of the Old Church of Sancoale. But every year there is an attempt of rapture or disruption by some fanatics who claim that it is a site of a temple .

Following Koselleck, we might try to seek what is repeating in this attempted disruption. We may clearly trace how Goans seem to be suffering a colonial hangover. Just like the colonizer disrupted the religious harmony and sacred spaces of colonial era, we too may be able to discern how a colonial instinct in on display in those acts of disruptions that we have come to see in recent years.

Perhaps, when we learn to see our society, with the eyes of Koselleck that we might become aware of our follies. This awareness is the first step towards therapy. When our quest for peace and harmony in the present begin to rule our society, we may truly find healing. Let our present be directed by present and not the future of our imagination. Let the future stay open. Let us not close it with our imagined fears or hopes. Living for each day for peace and harmony, will give us a future of harmony and peace. Goa does not have to put all the eggs in the basket of the future but has the challenge to give peace and harmony a chance in the living present.

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GREETINGS

Attention is a generous gift we can give others.

Attention is love.

- Fr Victor Ferrao