[quote=scaredyclassic]a person may experience something directly and yet know way less about the phenomenon than someone who did not, or a person froma completely different era

this is why novelists and historians can virtually always explain and make more real an event than someone who has lived through it.

Someone in the middle of or directly experiencing an event may actually be in the worst possible position to be able to understand an event, due to emotions, lack of research, overview, emotional intelligence, etc.

a jew getting shipped off to the death camps has direct experience of antisemitism, yet may also be lacking in a big picture overview, may not even have seen certain signs of impending disaster for many psychological reasons.

so, no, living through an event qualifies one to only give a personal narrative, which may or may not be more widely applicable. it might inform further research, but it cannot replace it.[/quote]

Do the historians really know more, or do they just think that they know more?

I’ve studied certain subjects, and have a particular perspective based on that research, but when I talk to people who have direct experience with the subject, I always learn more from them…far more, and my perspective is almost always changed. I would *never in a million years* tell a Jew who lived through WWII in Europe, that I knew more than they did about the Holocaust. It doesn’t matter how many books I read, there is NO WAY that I would know more about it than they did.

And guess where all those novelists and historians got their information from, assuming that it’s accurate? In all likelihood, they got their information from books or other sources that cite those who actually lived through it.

But we aren’t even talking about an expert vs. an “average” person. We’re talking about ZK and me. There is no way in hell that he knows more about sexism and misogyny than I do.