historical personification in theory

To get the "big picture" of a wide time time range of historical events, one learns the "most important" things, and tried to make sense of why large groups of people did the things they did "over all".

At what point was it that there was so much history one had the resources to learn of that one was resorted to personifying countries and social classes as individual people? I know it seems kind of redundant to be personifying people, but it's just as one personifies a bug. You guess what they are thinking by their actions, for have no way of knowing their thoughts

Do large groups of people really act as one? Are we referring to the majority of the population of that country or the governmental decisions alone? If it is governmental standings then yes, small numbers of people and wide statements representing a large population can be said to have dialogue. But still, how accurate are we in those examples? Quite a bit of history is inferred and deducted from hazy scriptures, badly translated texts, dug up toenails and word of mouth passed down from prostitute ancestors. I am not debating science. I am just saying; 1) who cares? and 2) aren't we all just people going around doing things? How would you feel if you never mattered in the story of 21st century society in textbooks later on? That no matter how much you went against the majority or the anti-majority, that you would never be remembered as a blood-thirsty absolutist tyrant would be remembered and mentioned in textbooks?

An individual rarely thinks about how an outsider would view the changes in trend and political movement, and how they are either part of the majority or against it. There is the now, and there is the then. The now is the now, and it will always be the now. Hell, even the then is the now for an individual, it's not too often that someone sees the changes they are taking part in as a historical event. Or perhaps the opposite; everyone sees everything going on in the now forevermore important, even though in a 26th century textbook it will be viewed as a bland, peaceful, perhaps even treacherous time that that child will yawn to. It makes me so mad at that futuristic 8th grader. PUT DOWN YOUR VIRTUAL SUN-BATHING GOGGLES AND PUT ON THAT HELMET THAT SHOOTS INFORMATION ABOUT THE 21ST CENTURY INTO YOUR BRAIN!!! Spoiled little brat. But the horrible thing is that I don't wish that I could learn more intensely about past times, because there is no intense information out there for me. Those times are boring in theory as these times are boring in theory.

But I do like the idea of speeding through all of history in such short summary. The idea that I have been everywhere and know what happened even though in reality I would need a time machine and a boat to know is pretty cool...in theory. Sometimes I just really don't care. I mean sure, it's interesting, but there is only so much interest I can have before i get tired of being interested. I want to be confused and angry and pleased and relaxed. I don't want to be constantly trying to know how the hell this or that lead to this thing and how 37 years went by with nothing theoretically important happening.

The very fact that I can get bored means I am not going fast enough and putting in enough personification for it to make sense and be interesting. I like social issues between people. So when countries and social classes are displayed as individual people, I can see why they ended up doing what they did and how they went about doing it.

But this does cause problems. Certain things do not make sense until I have a reality check and remember that these ARE very large groups of people, and that they will act differently than an individual. Things are harder to be kept secret, it isn't as easy to begin and end fights as instantaneously and it isn't as easy to stay in mental stability. If countries were individuals then they would all be bi-polar and crazy and homicidal and suicidal and dominant and submissive at the same time. These would be some very messed up people with some serious issues.

Heh...what if I were a country? Would I play nice with the other countries? Would I share my juice box with them at snack time?