Thesis: “There are no “should-be’s” or “will-be’s” in History, only “can be’s”. History is shaped by the intersection of the past and the present, action and inaction, by big and small events.”
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You are in control of your own page, a master of your own Facebook destiny. You can choose how much or how little you want to reveal about yourself, choose different privacy levels so that only your friends can view your more private moments captured on camera - your privacy is at your own fingertips, molded and shaped at your own will.
I think the same rationale applies with history. Yes it’s true, that history suggests what and how things can be in the future. But let me tell you, the ways of history will never be enough as an indication of what and how things must be in the time to come. No matter how nasty or satisfying our history shows us, we still have the power to change or unchange it. We still have options to entertain further deviations, to entertain atypical breakthroughs.
In the Social Network movie, the fact that nothing is inevitable until it happens has become evident throughout the story. Can you imagine anyone thinking back then that Mark Zuckerberg, a young man who demonstrates a certain amount of social awkwardness, would incredibly come up with a brilliant way to transform the basics of the human social urge into a pioneering computer code? What makes it more surprising is that this seemingly socially-inept man – this Harvard drop out so to speak – has in fact become the present’s youngest multibillionaire! His being genius and gifted in the field of programming may give people a guarantee, perhaps a survival assurance even after quitting school. But really, who knows what of? Who would equate a drop out to a billionaire at the first place?
Even if you use real and valid facts from the past, you still cannot predict the future with 100% accuracy. All you can do is to give it your best guess. For instance, when the Winklevoss twins eyed for a programmer to work on their “ConnectU” scheme, do you think they considered one with a losing record or one that has proven significant feat in the past? Of course they had gone with a programmer who has already proven something incredible and superb. Having created Facemash in just a night while drunk, no wonder why Zuckerberg has been offered this qualification. The Winklevosses thought this will bring all, especially themselves, victory. But then, does it absolutely guarantee them their most awaited ultimate success? Of course not; remember, we live in a dynamic world where everybody equally has the chance and the ability to make things change even at an instant. In this case, however, the Winklevoss twins still gave it their best guess; they felt they are giving themselves the best opportunity to win.
The tagline of the movie itself is also a clear manifestation of how unpredictable, how uncertain things can get. “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making few enemies.” In the movie, we can see how this strong force of unpredictablity pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then later split them apart. Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to fortune and fame did not necessarily stem from upright occurences. He needed to deal with two legal troubles – one against the Winklevosses, and the other against his former bestfriend, Eduardo Saverin. All these unfortunately lead to ultimate settlement payments, and an unpredicted disintegration of friendship with Eduardo. See, successes do not always come sweet. And indeed, what can happen in the future is completely uncertain because for most part people tend to react differently thay they did in the past; men can always think of new ways to yes, somehow screw up.
The invention of Facebook is another proof. Did Zuckerberg realize back then that he was witnessing merely the larval stage of his creation? Did he even recognize that he will be the next pioneer of a social network that will sooner or later ‘eat the world’ and join the ranks of the Web’s great superpowers? Let me just point this out again: history may show us where we have been; it may give us an appreciation of where we are; it may enable us to envision what might come in the future. But at the end of the day, all of these won’t matter for only one thing is certain in history – there is no such thing as sure thing. “We don’t even know what it is yet. We don’t know what it can be. We don’t know what it will be.”
They said that we are a sum total of our past. Incidents from long ago continue to influence the present. Whether they are actual physical repercussions of the past, or an effect caused by the memories, the events that have happened in our past still affect us here and now. Besides the fact that people can better visualize what’s to come through understanding the fabrics of history, the past can as well define the way we look at the world in the present and future. In effect, it does influence each and everyone’s thoughts, perspectives and the decisions all of us make in our present life or for our future life.
In fact, Mark Zuckerberg himself epitomizes the same logic. In the movie, Mark is just a guy who wants to be part of the club. He reveals himself to be not only brilliant, but also condescending and full of ego, incredulous at the idea that people are not instantly taken in by his genius. He’s always on the move, looking for the next big thing. It seems as if all he can dream of is doing something that will earn him popularity and recognition. Once in the movie he said, “Did you like being nobody? Did you like being a joke? Do you wanna go back to that?” Having that kind of thinking and attitude, he has found a reason to invent something that would be ‘the thing’ in a world where social structure was everything – the Facebook. He wanted to provide this exclusive club for Harvard students, and he wanted himself at the center of it. “I’m CEO, Bitch.” The past, as you can notice, influenced and dominated his decisions, later actions and present motivations that led him to the creation of Facebook.
Like Mark Zuckerberg, other characters in the movie strongly illustrate the intersection of the past and the present. Sean Parker, being obsessed with his own greatness but is secretly ashamed of his inability to have created something lasting, latches onto Zuckerberg and Facebook as a ploy to recapture his lost glory. Roy Raymond [from the accounts delivered by Sean in the movie] came up with the idea of setting up a high end place called Victoria’s Secret because he doesn’t want to be embarassed again for buying his wife some lingerie at a department store. Erica Albright’s refusal to listen to and accept Mark’s apology in the middle of the movie was because of what the latter has done in the past.
See how the present deliberations of these people are strongly shaped and influenced by the past? I have read a quote that says “The past did affect the present and the future, in ways you could see and a million ones you couldn't.” Time wasn't a thing you could divide easily; there was no defined middle or beginning or end. We may not notice the connection of both; but there is a connection, a common point, an overlapping of these two no matter how we deny or escape from it. The past is something which we can't really have an absolute control of. But we can, surely can, to some extent, control the way we lead our present and future. How? Simple – change its meaning in the present, for some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes, and that error of the past will serve as the wisdom and success of the future.
History is shaped not only by the intersection of the past and the present, but is also shaped by one’s action and inaction. There are two lines in the movie which I think can already summarize this point (1) “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook,” and (2) “You didn’t think of it, I did.” The Winklevosses may have come up first with the idea of (something similar to) Facebook, the idea which is potentially worth a million dollars, but it is their own fault not to act upon it; it is their fault to waste time, prompt inaction, and promote failure to seize opportunity. Larry Summers, president of Harvard University during that time, said, “..inventing a job is better than finding a job.” True, finding or thinking about something is not enough for someone to be worthy of recognition. It’s not Mark’s fault to be intellectually or creatively capable of doing the same – or perhaps even better – thing. “A guy who builds a better chair doesn’t owe money to everyone who has ever built a chair. They came to me with an idea, I had a better one.” The difference is just Mark responded and acted upon it immediately for he knows that a goal without an action plan will and will remain to be just a daydream.
Even supposing that knowledge is easily attainable today, unfortunately, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take a little trouble to acquire it. Majority of the people today are like the Winklevosses resembling that of an iron rusting from disuse, that of a water losing its purity from stagnation. This inaction, as Leonardi da Vinci puts it, saps the vigour of the mind; it spoils the intellect. I guess we should be aware that life is not long, and too much of it should not be spent in idle deliberation on how it shall be spent. Inaction, as we have learned, breeds doubt and fear while action breeds confidence and courage. “If you want to conquer fear, do not just sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” To refrain from regrets, we have to constantly remind ourselves that the price of inaction is indeed far greater than the cost of making a mistake.
So as long as we exist, there is simply no escaping the profound effects we can and will have on the future or in the long run. Since inaction and action can both have immense consequences, there is no way out of responsibility. Our only option is to do the best we can with what little knowledge we do have. According to the famous John Kennedy, “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comforable inaction.” Exactly.
Finally, history is not solely about the next big thing. It also mirrors even the smallest of things. It is true, small things lead to big things. An example would be the creation of Facebook itself! A simple break up has led to the effortless hacking into the university’s computers to create a site that forms a database of all the women in the campus, thus resulting in the discovery of Mark’s skill as a programmer, which then leads to his affiliation with the Winklevosses that later on prompts him to the conception and completion of Facebook, a site that ends up ‘eating the world’ with its dominance in the social networking set. The features of Facebook, such as having ‘Walls’ and ‘exclusivity’ to speak of, also springed from simple, small incidents in Mark’s life. Sometimes we aren’t aware of these things. Sometimes we tend to just focus our attention on the big things when in fact, without all these small occurences, they wouldn’t occur at all. History is not defined as something that is shaped by big OR small events. But is instead shaped by big AND small events. These events go hand in hand in the formation of our past, of our present, and of course our future.
I heard a song that says “We may never see tomorrow / there’s no written guarantee / and things that happened yesterday belong to history // I can’t predict the future / I can’t change the past / I have just the present moments to treat as my last.” To sum these all up, we should learn how to apply the wisdom of the past to the problems of the present in order to change the future. The events in the past are to be respected and of course acknowledged, but it is still in the future in which we will find our own greatness.
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Hi18--Western History Class, Ateneo de Manila University
Reflection Paper Inspired by the Movie The Social Network
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