> Do you really have to? Think about it. You have an understanding of history. You can't not have an understanding of history, unless you live under a rock. As

> Do you really have to? Think about it. You have an understanding of history. You can't not have an understanding of history, unless you live under a rock. As you study history more and more, you realize that all of your prior understandings of history are wrong. What do you do then? You don't have a past anymore. The only thing that's making sense is the present. So you re-examine the past in light of the present. That's reifying. It's your only option. You're reifying today, you're going to reify again tomorrow. Because the thing doing the understanding is changing every day, so you need new understandings. You're not building, you're constantly demolishing. Logic is only as good as your premises. If your premises can't be trusted, you need to go back to the drawing board.