"History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools." This is a quote by Ambrose Bierce. If you don't know who Ambrose is, then you really need to read more! "Bitter Bierce" wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers in the 1870's through about 1913.
In addition to writing for the papers, he also wrote poetry and short stories. Bierce had been a soldier during the civil war and fought in many battles. He was injured grieviously, and his war experience had a huge impact on his writing. In 1913, he disappeared in Mexico while travelling with Pancho Villa. Where he died, why and how all remain a mystery to this day. Enough about Bierce! He was an interesting character. If you want to know more go read about him. If you want to see some of his satire in action, then read the Devil's Dictionary... a tongue in cheek book with cynical and bitter definitions of words. Quite funny actually. Just remember the time period that it was written in since some of the definitions are now outdated. To get back to the quote, I think he has a point. History is an account of events that are usually written by the victor. Thus, while you do get an idea of what happened, you never get the full truth. In fact, I imagine that you rarely get the full truth in most of it! Secondly, many of the things that you learn in history are not overly important in themselves, but when taken in the whole, can help to give you some context towards what has happened in the past. My main beef about history is that it often glorifies war. I think that Bierce saw this as a distinct negative too. Some of his war stories are particularly gruesome. He doesn't write about it to gross people out, but to show what he experienced in war. I think that no one can really read his war stories and come away with the thought that war is glorious. In fact, after reading the stories, you may come away with the feeling that soldiers may be fools for believing that war IS glorious. Read "Chickamauga" to see what I mean. Still, history is one of my favorite subjects. I like to see if I can find facts that differ from what I was taught in school. Oftentimes I find that I can find dissenting views... or at least differing points of view. One thing that I find again and again that is different from what we learn in school is that war is hell. This and other similar quotes are written by the soldiers themselves and their leaders. The only ones who say otherwise are the politicians and the people who have never experienced war first hand. With that said, I tell my daughters to avoid military service. Many of the wars that are fought are not fought for the reasons given. For a recent example, think about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction". Furthermore, think about why did we attack Iraq? The Muslims that were said to be on the planes that crashed into the world trade center were said to be from Saudi Arabia... not Iraq, and the sect of Islam that they followed was not followed in Iraq. So, why did we attack Iraq? I will leave that up to you, dear reader. Surely the fact that they have oil had nothing to do with it. Or the fact that they wanted to start selling the oil in a currency other than the U.S. dollar. History is written by the victor. Assume much of it is bullshit. Did we go to war? Yes. Was it for the reasons the government told us? Doubtfully.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|