Walter Benjamin "Theses on the Philosophy of History"

                  There is a famous phrase which states that those who do not know their history do not have a future. When we speak of history, this and other such phrases are ones that have worried me in my few years of life, not because I was unable to comprehend it but simply because it’s difficult to explain or define something with which you have not been a part of from its beginning. Thus scientists and other such minds are left to simply speculate and theorize but in so doing they leave room for judgment. In the first section of Walter Benjamin’s work he attempts to tackle this same topic and essentially disproves every notion which I had previously existed in my mind. In his work he purports a dichotomy between the past and present: a significant separation in fact. In the present our happiness is defined by one of the seven deadly sins known as envy. Essentially envy suggests that there are those who are better than ourselves and thus in attempting to attain of something greater than our current state we are simply attempting to redeem ourselves. Benjamin makes a tie with this idea and the relation between the past and the present in relation to historical material. In his eyes history is not defined by its culture or its mere interaction but by the materials and economic transactions which existed. This develops the idea that if the present really does and can lay claim to the past it must also entail the same definitions and limitations.  In which case there is an explanation for capitalism which it seems underlies this entire thesis.