Ancient History

A warning for our future?

The school teacher paced back and forth across the raised area behind her desk. She was briefing the class on the aspects of history they would cover during the term.

It wasn’t going very well.

‘Over the next three months we will delve as far back into human history as possible’

She stopped moving to better observe the twenty four teenagers’ reactions,

‘We will explore the civilisations that preceded our own to consider their cultures, beliefs and technologies and, hopefully, come to understand their influence on the world today’

She turned from the bored students and penned the identity of the ancients upon the white board that stood at the head of the room. Despite her formal exterior she was desperately seeking inspiration in motivating the class.

‘We will study the creation myths of old and follow their course in becoming the latter day religions of the world- and perhaps we will come to ask if there is any truth in the existence of a divine creator’

She glanced around momentarily to gauge the impact of her words.

Still no luck.

She turned fully to see that each pair of eyes was looking at desktops or fiddling with the books and pens that rested upon them. The thoughts of the pupils were elsewhere- anywhere, but with her and the subject.

She decided that she had no choice. It was her last resort, but she had to help them relate to the topic.

‘But most interestingly’, she began,

‘We will learn of a fascinating story that was told by an ancient philosopher. It is the tale of a lost civilisation that existed and perished many millennia before our time’

The teacher smiled as several pairs of eyes met her own. There was some interest at least.

‘It is a legend that has survived at least 5000 years despite there being no physical evidence to support it. The legend describes an advanced race that died out- largely due to their own stupidity. The story tells us that the people misused their knowledge and became lazy, greedy and arrogant. They did not pay attention to the wisdom of their elders’

She paused while the latter sentence brought ironic laughter from some quarters. The laughter serving to bring those less attentive from their bored indifference. With the entire class listening now, she continued,

'They fought many wars amongst each other and carried on fighting even as their civilisation was reduced to ruins. Eventually, so the story goes, their continental citadel was destroyed and sank beneath the ocean. This was meant to have occurred thousands of years before the first civilisation, that we know to be fact, existed’

She held their attention completely now and used this truth to make her decision. She leaned forward on her desk and spoke with meaning,

‘So this is where we shall begin our studies of ancient history. We will begin by asking if there is any truth in the legend of Earth’

Reviews

[Colt 45 & 9/16]

Was it the story of Atlantis??

[Dane Osborne]

Very clever and ironic. I enjoyed this thouroughly.What funny creatures we humanoids are, our progress and destruction are tied together by our faults and most of us are not even aware of it. We are too busy memorizing tabloids and watching reality tv.

[Constance-Outspoken]

Ooh, I like this. Of course, since you've read Man's Story you have an idea of why. I'm seriously afraid this one will come true...
Then I get to thinking about her bored students... will history repeat itself?