Wildfeuer

April 20, 2010

LAR-112

Bryan Bonhorst
False Histories

From a very young age, the populaces of the countries of the world are raised to

believe whatever is spoken from those who supposedly know-- where they received this

knowledge does not matter to the receiver. We, the citizens of the world, have to fine-

tune our skills for listening, but not leading. All the while we are told that we are great,

that we are free, that our world is big and bold and unchangeable: static, so no effort

should be made to alter our surroundings. That goal is not our duty but that of our

leaders. We are receptacles to those who speak -- nothing more -- for even if we do speak

our fellow receptacles have honed in to that of a special frequency, a frequency reserved

for those who have a certain “quality” to be heard. They are comfortable listening to this

frequency so they wish not to be disturbed in their slumbering ignorance. Our history is

biased towards those who rule, not those they rule, even as the works accomplished on

their humble backs can be credited to a majority of humankind’s progress. The people,

not their leaders, have made history. This crime is not centralized to a specific culprit, (as

it has been the status quo for all of our histories,) and not a policy put forth under one

regime. As of now, and as in the past, we hear only whose message is acceptable, all the

other messages -- the bulk of humanity’s cry -- have been tossed into the flames of the

forgotten, and now all we know is their soot, their residue on our society.

From the dawn of man, it has been important to tell the story of those that have

come before us and to learn from them through their trial-and-error. This is why we have
brought our story with us through time, to make the future a better place by learning from

our past. In theory this is quite a positive force; in practice it is far from the truth

(Diamond). Our modern history, or the bulk of it, is drowned in facts pertaining to leaders

and their decisions as key turning points. This indeed has been the case at certain points

of history, but the overall narrative of our history books casts an illusion of singular

leadership deciding the fate or policy of a nation. But history as a whole has not been

decided by that of leaders -- they are just the face of their country, of the mass of people;

they are just a symbol: if the citizenry so choose, those that have such jurisdiction can be

easily quelled. This seemingly harmless adherence to the ideal leader is a serious problem

as it paints a picture of an ineffectual citizenry -- those with no power. Students and

citizens alike who read into this false history through repetition and tradition start to truly

believe what they are told, even though it is not exact but altered. With these twisted

histories in their heads, they start to further mold the template, spreading the plague of

inaccuracies and generalizations. This allows for easier adherence to false prophets and

leaders who claim to be like those figures of old. The tainted citizen will easily rally to

this leader’s cause. Another effect of such a storied history creates bigoted prejudices that

lead to atrocities against people whose false history conflicts against that of another

(Diamond, 422).

Abraham Lincoln -- labeled as the Great Emancipator -- did not find interest in

freeing the slaves but was pressured by the abolitionist movement (Zinn, 284). The

peasantry of France finally had enough of the Middle-age era treatment, overthrowing an

ancient monarchy that did not fulfill its population’s wishes and initiating a revolution

that altered Europe forever. In the end strikes and protests against government and
industries gave workers the rights they demanded. (Zinn, 253) Why are these acts not at

the center of our history, but pushed to its fringes, facts only known within staunch, dark,

dank libraries? These acts are only those we know about; there are countless other failed

attempts that have been washed away with the blood of those who died fighting for lost

causes that will never be known. Our history needs to incorporate these aspects because

even failed movements have a message to be heard – a message of injustice, dissent, and

a demand for rights. (Zinn, 683)

Instead of these unheard cries given by those who have fallen, our history books

are filled with those of imperial trumpets blasting the sonic sound of empire far and wide,

conquering savages and the untamed, bringing the civilized world to the uncivil. Our

histories are saturated with dominating powers over weak states, industry over suffering,

gain over justice for lands that are conquered (Diamond, 287). We only hear of the

positives of the empires of the world and not the hidden ravages that accompanied such

gains, not the genocide, not the exploitation: all lost to the annals of forgotten events that

did not fit the narrative the conquerors construed (Sowell, 119). What crimes go

unpunished? What crimes go unrecognized? What crimes dealt does our history even

know?

History has been swirled with the excitement that fiction brings, and with that trait

exaggerations follow. Readers seek a happy ending, a hero, a villain or other literary

devices, and historians tend to give it to their audience as a way to make their line of

work more appealing. This strays from the purpose of history, destroying humanity’s true

legacy in its wake, replacing it with the hubris of a handful of men at the heart of the

human struggle for advance. Storytelling does not belong in history and this, dreadfully,
has been its fate. It is not lucrative to give a lesson akin to the true progress, as it would

be more scientific: without flair or drama. This still does not give the stewards of our

history an excuse to muddle the story of our progression. It insults those who gave their

lives under the banner of social, economic, and political freedoms that we now so

willfully take for granted.

This act of summarizing and dramatizing history not only sells our legacy short,

but also shaves the standards we hold ourselves too. Without the true history in the books

we learn from and the tradition that is a part of us, we are without moral compass or

direction (Sowell, 304). It does not allow for those of us alive today to have any source of

connection to our ancestors and their accomplishments. We have become alienated from

our forebears in title and tradition. We can no longer look to history for our guide if its

path has been altered to reflect that which did not happen as it is told.

The right to know where one came from is paramount to that individual being

able to do as he or she chooses. When people are isolated from their past, they are then

isolated from part of their identity. The freedom to know one’s history is important

because it gives that person an idea of what is right, what should be allowed, and when to

rise up to challenge an incursion on their rights. Without history as a guide, the majority

of our population does not know what is to be accepted, what needs to be cherished, and

what needs to be defended from tyranny. When one does not know her or his past, those

who hold power have greater influence on her or his current and future presence. Our

civilization is certainly at a loss if it does not know its past, because then its future looks

that much graver. Being learned in the history of the world immerses that individual

deeply into the importance of his actions, allowing the individual to make intelligent
decisions for oneself and society as a whole. True history is humanity’s one accurate

guide of expectation while ascending into the unknown waters future brings, without it

we are bound to repeat past mistakes redundantly. If we do not listen our future growth

will be stagnated, rife with failure and destruction caused by failure to solve societal

problems already experienced throughout history.

Works Cited
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: Norton , 2005.

Sowell, Thomas. Intellectuals and Society. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. HarperCollins, 2003.