
A diary written on castle floorboards - pmoriarty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-44265475
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Ecco
Very interesting, thanks for sharing this. Out of curiosity I dug a little bit
and found a much more comprehensive writeup on this amazing piece of history:
[https://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-economie-et-
societe-20...](https://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-economie-et-
societe-2014-1-page-72.htm)

~~~
knight17
Great link.

"Happy mortal. When you read me, I will not be any more, "writes Joachim
Martin on one of the found plates, clearly showing his will to leave a trace
of his existence, but also of his thoughts. "My story is short and sincere and
frank, because no one will see my writing is a consolation for forced to be
read"

Under the floors of the castle of Picomtal. The posthumous writings of a
carpenter from the Hautes-Alpes (1880-1881) by Jacques-Olivier Boudon

Google Translate:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https:/...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https://www.cairn.info/revue-
histoire-economie-et-societe-2014-1-page-72.htm)

~~~
mafm
Awesome link. Thanks.

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munfred
That's quite a fantastic story. To me it especially underlines how biased
historical records and our views of the past are. These entries may be only
138 years old, but I think the metric that matters is how many lifespans they
are removed from our current reality. There is so much that goes unrecorded,
and once people die the tape is effectively erased... I often think about the
fact that World War II ended 83 years ago, and that the very last people that
remember what it really meant are about to die. And once we lose that kind of
memory, there's little to prevent us from going fullcicle and doing everything
again...

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Ultimatt
I call bullshit on this. Literally they are the generation who fostered war in
Europe. Look at Brexit its the younger people defending peaceful and gradual
unification, the older people want Britain to be "great again". We've learnt
in a deep way post WWII not to repeat that. Look at the history of war in
general and its happening way less often especially between countries, most is
civil wars now. The loss of historic memory of old ill-will is more likely to
enable further peace than hinder it.

~~~
grappler
Some food for thought regarding old people leaning conservative:

[http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/poor-people-
oft...](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/poor-people-often-dont-
survive-to-become-seniors-who-vote.html)

~~~
scottybowl
The whole article is based on the premise that poor people don't live to old
age. What a load of nonsense.

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grappler
The phrasing used in the article is “the fact that mortality among the poor
increases during middle age”.

Are you saying this isn't a fact?

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pcblues
For the sake if the original owners I hope he wasn't paid per hour.

