“A nation that forgets its past has no future”
Winston Churchill
This is a unique time in history that exposes a sociological phenomenon that has laid dormant from the beginning of human interaction. What has occurred to me over the years of studying history is the unquenchable desire to seek the truth, and the equally compelling motivation to hide, obscure, alter, or revise truth.
Throughout the evolution of mankind, telling the truth is paramount in maintaining a peaceful coexistence with other members, families, tribes, or communities that cohabit together in some manner or another. The importance of truth telling has manifested itself for all time in religions and cultures. From the earliest times of speaking and formulating thoughts into coherent sentences our parents warned us to “tell the truth or your punishment would add length or more severity if you lied.” For most of us this threat was inculcated into our psychological makeup and our moral behavior. As a factual matter, our whole system of jurisprudence is based on the seeking of unadulterated facts woven together to form an undisputed mosaic of truth.
Modern science has made vast contributions toward the unbiased collecting of data to support the truth. Investigators use various forensic techniques such as handwriting analysis, fingerprinting, lie detectors, voice analyzation, and DNA profiling which have become sophisticated methods to discover the truth. So about now you are asking yourself what does truth seeking has to do with history. For me, history is the chronological collection of events, circumstances and human interactions that form an encyclopedic registry for future generations to learn from.
From the earliest cave dwellers with their depictions on the walls, to the Egyptians hieroglyph, the Dead Sea scrolls, to the Holy Bible, these are but a few examples of man’s attempt at chronicling events and circumstances. A basic historic premise evolves around the question; how do you know where you are going, if you don’t know where you have been? If you buy into the actual depiction of history, favorable or unfavorable, good or bad is of utmost importance you’re probably asking why do we have so many leaders throughout time that feel compelled to change it?
Changing history for me falls within two categories. First, events and circumstances that are about to transpire are choreographed to establish their own set of false data points designed to bypass the empirical inquiry process into why. In other words, change what is about to happen driven from a hidden agenda or ideology in order to predetermine a particular outcome. This type of hoax is the most sinister and destructive. Well represented laws, mores, and social conduct are cast aside to subvert the democratic process for immediate change denying the majority of people opportunity to become well informed and eager stockholders as their own future is stolen. The accepted descriptive term is “Machiavellianism,” the most recent contemporary definition is taken from https://marketbusinessnews.com/, means “a political theory or view which supports the use of any means necessary to maintain political power.” Machiavellianism displays a pessimistic view of human nature and promotes unethical and opportunistic ways of manipulating the population of the country.
Secondly, events or circumstances that have already happened that are so shameful and horrendous they must be hidden from the truth seeker’s past, present, and future. The Nazi book burnings to erase alternative points of view, subvert historic context, propagandize the population, for example. Another despicable example is of Joseph Stalin’s purging of all written material, pictures, or individuals that he deemed a threat to the Communist state. In 1933, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, masterminded the Big Lie Theory:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and by extension, the truth isthegreatest enemy of the state.”
This type of deceit can only be assumed that exposure would destroy the very foundation whatever outcome was sought. In both instances truth and time are the enemy of rewriting history.
As for the Machiavellians, truth seekers must expose their plot in its earliest stages in order to derail behavior that could cause irreparable and irreversible damage to a/the well-established way of life. The most effective way is to make the leaders of whatever takeover movement initiated is to make them articulate their plan for change. Make them stop speaking in ambiguous and nebulous terms and demand the change they seek is very specific from what has been established to what it will become, with a step by step plan on how.
As for the monumental historic hoaxes only archeologist, historians, and modern investigators with the most sophisticated techniques and tools can uncover age old misconceptions and beliefs. Thousands of years have passed, and we are not any closer to solving the great mysteries of what happened at Stonehenge, the H blocks of Puma Punku, or the buried treasures of King Solomon by the Knights Templar. Time has not revealed the pathway to solving of these mysteries yet, but hopefully a new group of truth seekers will emerge.
As for societal misconceptions and misdeeds it will take researchers with great courage to expose deceitful past behavior. I can only hope there is still people that have the ability to expose and set the record straight of past injustices, lies, and prevarications.
Shortly after I finished writing this article, I received an email article titled: “Oxford Rebukes Activists.” The letter is a response from Oxford University to students attending as Rhodes Scholars who demand the university remove the statue of Oxford benefactor Cecil Rhodes.
The Chancellor of Oxford University, (Lord Patten) was on the Today Program on BBC Radio 4 on precisely the same topic. The Daily Telegraph headline was “Oxford will not rewrite history”.
Lord Patten commented: “Education is not indoctrination. Our history is not a blank page on which we write our own version of what it should have been according to our contemporary views and prejudice.”
One of America’s most notable achievements was the initiation of the public education system. The ultimate goal was to educate the entire population thereby making the electorate informed and knowledgeable of the legislation and representatives that govern over them. A population of homogeneous well-educated individuals are less likely to be duped. Who knew that in less than one hundred years the public education system in America would transform from apolitical to highly partisan. After having numerous conversations with my grandchildren over many years I was astounded to learn American history, civics, government, and the constitution are rarely discussed.
If researchers want to be intellectually honest and factually correct the need to rewrite history becomes obvious, the ultimate goal of contemporary educators is to segment society and project their versions of history or societal injustices into their own curriculums.
Congratulations! The dumbing down of America is wildly successful! I started this article with a quote; I’ll end with a quote.
“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present” -Golda Meir
By Thomas Brennan LAFD Retired