Sunday, May 6, 2012

History Is An Illusion All To Its Own - No Matter How Far You Dig Its Answers Are Mixed

I would submit to you that history is an allusion all to its own, and no matter how far you dig to study for answers, you will come up with mixed data, reports, and even recent history with eyewitnesses will show a completely perception based argument for either side. Indeed, it has often been said that the victors of history or wars, or the rulers of civilizations rewrite the history to make themselves and their legacy stand the test of time, but that doesn't make the reality so, you can't just change the actual history by writing something else down.

That's not to say you can't change the history books, we know that's been done in the past, we are doing it today. In fact we are doing it every decade by my estimation. If you doubt this, go to a used bookstore at any of the colleges, and buy one of those history books from last year. They aren't teaching the same things that they were when we went to school, and how long ago was that really, in historical terms? In fact, even the libraries are getting rid of the older books, trading them in and demanding newer books on the same topic, but the further you get away from the actual history, the further you get away from the truth as well. How does this serve the learner?

If we fail to study the actual history, or stop digging, we are dooming ourselves to repeat the very history that actually happened. That's not a good thing. In fact we are told that we must study our history so that we aren't doomed to repeat it, as the famous quote goes from Lord Acton. When we state things as factual, we need to be very careful especially when we talk about historical events. Unless we were there, we don't know, and even if we were there, we don't know what everyone was thinking, only what we were thinking at the time, and over time even those recollections have a tendency to be overwritten in our memories.