I disagree. I think it's called great men of history theory or smth, and I think it has merits. The idea that a single human is capable of altering the course of history is supported by examples like Alexander the Great, Cesar, Napoleon, Hitler.
Discussion
I think that’s what I’ll call the “Man’s Ego Fallacy”
It always takes a village
I think you're onto something in your first note when you point out that military feats are "convenient" to document and thus get a disproportionately large place in history. But it's also undeniable that there have been and there are today individuals who play larger roles than anybody else around them.
War is the clearest example because it involves incredible levels of centralization and organization of the economy, when the natural course of things is towards decentralization and coordination instead. Think about what it takes to manage to make people literally march to their deaths.
With the development of the modern State, there has historically been a lot of pure and simple physical organized violence ("conscription"), but historically that hasn't been the case, and most armies have been and currently are composed of volunteers and professionals.
Again, that's the "village" merrily marching to their deaths, but it doesn't happen unless there's a leader to make them.
Thank you for the response! It IS fascinating that there are figureheads credited with capitalizing off humans’ suicidal tendencies lol
People are bizarre right?
I don’t believe in true dictatorships, my observation is that there are always multiple individuals behind a disguise as one.
History consolidates in order to make sense. There was probably some unknown factor which mattered more than an individual’s whims which drove people. I like the Greeks- they spoke of mysterious things at play as opposed to an ego’s “strategic” desires- like Helen of Troy’s face or because someone didn’t sacrifice their daughter or whatever. Makes no sense, but probably holds a lot of truth tbh because when does war ever make sense?
“History Consolidates” is going to be the name of my band.