Hey, remember the early 1990’s and all that “End of History, Final Triumph of Liberal Democracies” claptrap? Well, despite all the noise from the mainstream media, things didn’t exactly turn out that way.
Collapse of Soviet Union, yes. Final triumph, err . . . not quite . . .
And how about that “They hate us for our freedoms” and “Things are different in a 9/11 world” brouhaha? A litany of scare-monger slogans to herald the new millennium, tossed in amidst a confused muddle of the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the War on Whatever.
Some say the world is coming to an end.
Hey, not so fast. True, the end of year 2010 is drawing apace. But it’s not the end of history or even the world. Not even close.
Perhaps a survey of the three major types of history might shed some enlightenment, and even some encouragement.
Triumphant History
- Victors are right. Victors are also write. They write the history. And the history they write is always triumphant.
- Columbus discovered America. Woodrow Wilson made the world safe for democracy. FDR rescued the economy.
- The paint by numbers version offered up in American middle school textbooks is an all too pathetic example.
Victim History
- History from the viewpoint of the poor, the defeated, and the disadvantaged, often resurrected from the trash bins.
- Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States comes to mind.
- Also Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown and The Conquest of Paradise by Kirkpatrick Sale. Along with numerous other accounts of looting, atrocities, and genocide.
Objective History or History As Is.
- Often referred to as Revisionist History.
- Why American History Is Not What They Say by Jeff Riggenbach is an excellent work.
- Also such “follow the money” accounts as The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin and Murray Rothbard’s A History of Money and Banking in the United States.
- Although there is probably no such thing as a totally objective history since everything is related from a particular point of view, much of the revisionist history published in the latter twentieth century makes an honest effort to debunk various myths and fairy tales spoon-fed to the public.
Hey there! Seeing as we’re striding into this Information Age, why not make use of that Revisionist History or History As Is or whatever you want to call it? Anyone can get carried away from time to time, but there’s no need to get caught up in all the hoopla and hysteria pendulum sways of public opinion.
A little learning from History As Is and get on with it. It’s the end of the year not the end of the world.
Life goes on despite the Mayan calendar.
