But just as the individually experienced biography must be repeatedly restructured to produce a continuous narrative, room must also be made in history for the experiences of succeeding generations. Here, at the latest, proper time meets history: Whatever is mustered, especially in the way of statistical methods, it continues to be a question of finding long-term changes or lasting assumptions in order to be able to comprehend the uniqueness of one's own surprise.'28 Surprise indicates that the time-curve of history cannot simply be extrapolated from the past, that there can be discontinuities and breaks. The approximative simultaneity which this century, with the aid of its technologies, has made a reality and used as an illusion may certainly represent a surprise, in the sense of having to have an experience. As such, it deserves to be included in the process of writing down, extrapolating and rewriting history.
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The Illusion of Simultaneity