Walter Benjamin 1940 On the Concept of History

V

The true picture of the past whizzes by. Only as a picture, which flashes its final farewell in the moment of its recognizability, is the past to be held fast. “The truth will not run away from us” – this remark by Gottfried Keller denotes the exact place where historical materialism breaks through historicism’s picture of history. For it is an irretrievable picture of the past, which threatens to disappear with every present, which does not recognize itself as meant in it. - Walter Benjamin

Benjamin is saying in this quote that historians have an uphill battle that they will ultimately fail at.  History can not be told over in second hand accounts especially when the person is in another time.  People do things at certain times because of the times they are in and the situations that they are dealing with.  Many times historians can not know the whole story of what is going on at that time and they interpret situations incorrectly.  However as the quote says that a picture is only good at the time it is taken, this is saying that even first hand recounts are not a hundred percent accurate.  Many times when we ask people what they experienced in the past they do not fully remember what happened and when we interpret their accounts we are interpreting on false accounts.  I choose this quote because I feel it is sad that this is true.  Historians try to tell the past with the most truth as possible but it is impossible for them to get the whole truth.  We as a nation try to learn from the past and their mistakes, but if we are not getting the whole truth how can we properly learn from our mistakes.          

The Great Dictator

In the Great Dictator Charles Chaplin makes a parody of Hitler.  Chaplin uses Dadaism through out the film to make his points.  He does this even before the United States declares war on Germany.  People around the world knew that Hitler was not a good person but they did not know the full extent of his evil until later.  When Commander Schultz saves the Jewish barber and Hanna he realized that the man who saved his life at the end of WWI was not an Aryan but rather a Jew.  This is showing that the Jewish people were not bad and did not do anything wrong to the Germans and yet they were being killed as if they committed a crime.  Adenoid Hynkel becomes obsessed with taking over the world and there is a scene that we see him jumping on a inflatable globe.  This is to show that Hynkel is trying to take over the world if he does he does accomplish this he will destroy the world and there would be no world to be a dictator over.  Hynkel later in the film continues to kill the Jews and when one of his top men Schultz objects to him he is captured and put into the camps with the Jews.  This show that Hitler killed anyone who opposed him and considered them as if they committed treason.  Hitler did not take to opposition very well and he killed anyone that did. At the end of the film when the barber takes over power and tells the people that it is a new day that they are coming out of the darkness and going into the light.  This is showing that the only way for there to be peace in the world is if Hitler is removed from power and another leader takes over that understood the pain of the people.  Chaplin was telling the American people that Hitler needs to be removed and by the barber talking to Hanna in his speech Chaplin was talking to each person of the public and telling them that they have a responsibility to do something to stop Hitler.       

Walter Benjamin: "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership. The traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses which it is impossible to perform on a reproduction; changes of ownership are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation of the original. - Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin is saying in this quote that anytime an artist pants something or draws something and he or she has a meaning of their work, the meaning of the work changes on the perspective of the viewer.  These views change as the times change, what a painting means in the early 20th century could have a very different meaning when someone looks at it in the late 20th century.  For example the swastika in 1900 had a very different meaning that it has now.  Today it is impossible to show the swastika in a good light after all the evil it has attached to it.  

This quote relates to the media today because the media has the power to make interpretations on something and make people believe it.  This is a very powerful power because many people these days do not have the time to look at something in many different ways.  Rather people hears what the media says and they believe it.  However if a person does look at the situation from an objective view they would most probably have a different view than someone else.