There is a difference between the truth and our understanding of it. Each individual sees the world based on his or her mental framework, developed over a lifetime and influenced by every experience, relationship, and internal conversation. Our understanding of that world and its people can and must change over time as our experience deepens, but the underlying reality hasn’t, doesn’t, and can’t change.

Babylon was a large city with many thousands of people. After 3,700 years, that fact has not changed. Its people fought wars, raised families, ate meals, and otherwise lived their lives. Though we might not know all of the details of what the city was like, what we know or don’t know doesn’t change the reality of thousands of years ago. An activity or event becomes history the instant after it occurs. There is no changing it. We can change the present and we can influence the future, but the past is cast in stone. We can only try to understand it better.

Our knowledge of those events is colored by what historians, the story-tellers of history, bring to our attention. Some are good writers, some are good researchers, some ignite the imagination with vivid images, but every historian carries baggage. Each one has his or her own framework for viewing the past and the present, just as we all do. In order to make sense of the billions of events, the unimportant stuff must be filtered out. That filter shades our understanding, but it doesn’t change what happened. It only changes what we remember about what happened. Thus, when you read the work any historian, you should question what is the bias that filters what is important and what is not.

Today there is an influential school of thought that proposes that all truth is relative, that truth is imposed by society, or that truth and reality can be changed based on a whim. These very confused people are mistaking truth for interpretations of reality. Interpretations can be flexible, and people can think whatever they want to think about anything in the world, real or imagined. I can change my opinions about reality, but when I put my key in the car ignition, I have a pretty good idea of what will happen. If it doesn’t happen, I know that something is not functioning correctly and it needs to be fixed. People can fix broken ignition systems because reality is real, not relative. A loose electrical connection will always be a loose connection unless it gets re-tightened.

Historical events and the present are intimately connected, because the reality and truths of the past are the same as those today. Events in modern, advanced society, which have no precedent in days of old, can be understood very well using the same concepts that influenced those of the past. Even ancient Babylon, and the even more ancient Sumeria, were subject to the same laws of economics that we, in the present day, are. People who shot an arrow or threw a spear were guided by the same laws of physics that we are in order to hit their target. People cried, laughed, cheered, sneered, and did everything we do now, and for the exact same reasons.

They did so because the world then was made of the same elements and forces as today. Yesteryear’s human nature and the resulting social and economic forces offer the same limitations and opportunities as our own. The only difference is that, as time progressed, we have learned to better harness reality. We have learned new methods of dealing with each other, which allowed the flourishing of societies, but the potential was always there, because reality and truth do not change.

Dan McLaughlin is the author of “Compassion and Truth-Why Good Intentions Don’t Equal Good Results.” Follow him at daniel-mclaughlin.com