Why you should visit more museums

A lot can be gained from glimpsing at the past. There is a dismissiveness that comes about whenever a guy talks about history. The internet trend denotes it as this “Roman Empire” thinking. Almost looking down on the idea that if you explore the past you opinion doesn’t matter.

I find that a little comical.

Maybe that is my own emotions being attacked, as I enjoy looking into history.

Especially Chinese history.

I have always been interested in it, it is so rich. Another main driver of that is that I used to live there for 3 years. So I was able to get it from the “source”. Being in the home country made it more fitting.

I was always this way, I never liked going to art museums or going on school trips to institutes. Maybe it was my own immaturity or just that my attention span was shot to hell (still is, WIP...). As I have grown older I realize just how valuable they are.

The more you age, the more you understand just how much of your past effects your present. All the little things snowball, and make you who you are today.

Same goes with ancient history. All the sentiment of the world has been piling on the last “event”.

Lets make our way into our exhibits.

Exhibit 1: China

Let’s take Chinese history for example, as I am trying to deepen my knowledge and love for it.

The modern Chinese Communist Party or CCP, was founded in the 1920’s. In the party of that revolution was Mao Zedong. He is sort of the grandfather of all of this. He is on the RMB(Chinese currency). The most famous is that CNY 100 note, that is red, and has his face plastered on it. Actually his face is on all the currency.

There was really only two political parties at the time. It seems that is pretty common across all politics, but anyway. Maybe I am drawing some conclusions.

The Guomindang was the other party at the time. They were sort of anti-imperialist, nationalist, but not Communist. So you didn’t have the socialist vs the capitalist that you see rising in America’s political climate today.

The mid 1920’s was a moment where it started to heat up. The KMT(another name for the Guomindang). There was a moment where a unified China might be possible. From 1926-1927 the KMT and CCP marched North to take out/confront the warlords.

Then something shifted, the KMT’s turned on the communists. Chaing-Kai Shek (the leader of the nationalists) saw the CCP as a threat to his power. He attacked his own people in an event called the Shanghai Massacre/White Terror. Killing around 5,000-10,000 people.

This caused the CCP to retreat into more rural areas of the country. Where Mao escaped to, and begun to build up his base. He experimented with land seizure, taking it from landlords. Redistributing it to the peasants and farmers.

He built a base that would support him, although he is not a the top of the power food chain with the CCP. His support was slowly gaining speed.

You can infer the rest on what happened, although there is a lot deeper detail that I plan to go into in another piece. China is communist today, so his campaign won.

Exhibit 2: Salvador Dali

In stark contrast from the above exhibit we wander into the art section of the museum.

Wandering the halls of the Dali museum, you see just how prolific the guy was.

He was born in 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia. He died in 1989 in the same place.

He was a surrealist artist that was known for creating these hallucinatory images. My take on it, that dude was messed up. I really don’t understand how he came up with these ideas.

You have one image of a melting clock and another of an eye that is melting into the sky. It was truly amazing to see, but still I was weirded out.

One thing is for sure. That dude was mentally tortured. I guess like a lot of the great artists. Painting was just his medium. A way to express the thoughts in his head. In a way to escape it, perhaps. It did teach me a lot about myself, and how there are a lot of things that fly under the radar. Within ourselves, or more conveniently we omit.

I do wonder what was going on in his mind. How did he process the world? What were his relationships like?

We will never know. All we have is the interpretations of his life, through his art.

Exhibit 3: AI... Under Construction

This exhibit is still in progress. It is the age we are living in now. Only with time will we be able to see how it plays out.

One thing is for certain. That if you don’t use the medium or technology. You will surely be left behind, but that is like anything throughout history. Time keeps going forward.

Perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way. Maybe we will all go back analog. Maybe we’ll all get off our phones and interact in person more. Maybe we will write on paper, and read more physical books.

Maybe that is what the exhibit will show.

My prediction of the future.

A lot can be gained from staring into the past. Just like the emotions brewing from the thousands of years of rule by the Chinese dynasties. No doubt contributing to the uprising of the communist party.

Wandering the halls taking in the past, so that you can apply it your present. It helps build your future. So wander into a museum once in a while.