“In fact history does not belong to us, but we belong to it.
Long before we understand ourselves through a process of self examination, we understand ourselves in a self evident way in the family, society and state in which we live.
The focus of subjectivity is a distorting mirror.
The self-awareness of the individual is only a flickering in the closed circuits of historical life.
That is why the prejudices of the individual, far more than his judgements, constitute
the historical reality of his being.”
—Gadamer (1975)
