The Terror of History (Part 2)
The reformulation of cyclical theories reveals an intention to justify historical events beyond history itself and to find their meaning. Since Hegel, however, all efforts have aimed to defend the historical event as such and assign it intrinsic value. Things are necessarily as they are; they are neither products of judgment nor chance—they must be as they are. Hegel reconciled himself with his historical moment, seeing in every event the manifestation of the Universal Spirit. The everyday relationship with events can guide individuals in their relationship with the world and with God.
How did Hegel know what was necessary in history, meaning what had to happen precisely as it did? He believed he understood the will of the Universal Spirit. However, this removes human freedom from history. For Hegel, the historical event was a manifestation of the Universal Spirit, inherently as irreversible and valid as another manifestation of God's will. The history of a nation always bears a significance beyond history, as the entirety of history reveals a new and more perfect manifestation of the Universal Spirit.
With the advent of Marx, history was stripped of all transcendental significance and became merely the manifestation of class struggle. Successive events are not arbitrary developments of chance but form a coherent structure leading to a defined goal: the abolition of the terror of history, or "redemption." Thus, at the endpoint of Marxist philosophy of history, one finds the golden age of archaic eschatologies. Marx brought Hegel's philosophy back to earth, placing the golden age not at the beginning but at the end of history. According to Marxists, the necessary evils manifested in history are merely precursors to the ultimate victory that will forever end historical evil.
How can one endure the "terror of history" according to historicism? How can one tolerate and justify the suffering and destruction of so many people? How can humanity endure the catastrophes and horrors of history if there is no meaning beyond history itself, if these merely appear to be the blind play of economic, social, and political forces?
In the past, humanity regarded suffering as God's punishment and saw in them signs of the decline of the era. These had a meaning beyond history, making them bearable. Every war repeated the struggle between good and evil; every social injustice was identified with the suffering of the Redeemer; every massacre echoed the glorious death of martyrs. We cannot determine whether this defense was effective, but this perspective enabled tens of millions of people to endure the pressures of history for centuries without despair.
In contrast, the relativistic and nihilistic worldview of history brings intellectual barrenness, leading to suicide. Even Marxism can provide protection against the terror of history. It is assumed that as the terror of history becomes increasingly unbearable and existence increasingly endangered, historicism will lose its authority.
When history threatens humanity with destruction, there may be attempts to ban historical events by re-integrating humanity into the world of archetypes (the original forms of events) and their repetitions. For humanity's survival, people might renounce shaping history and abandon all spontaneous actions with historical consequences.
M. Eliade "The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History", Princeton University Press 1974, (ford. Nagy Zsolt)