Who Decides What is History?

"Justice" has been one of the themes of my life.  It goes right back to my Dad, yelling at the television news when I was a kid over a perceived societal injustice.  My Dad is an old fashioned socialist, one who believes in a better world for all, as opposed to a Socialist, who believes that the individual is to be feared and society planned and controlled down to mediocrity.

I recently read an article on Veterans Today about Adolf Hitler that got me thinking.  Are we told the truth about who Hitler was, the times he lived in and what he did?  I think not.

The answer to the question "Who Decides What is History?" is , in my opinion, those individuals and groups that seek to hide their own historical criminality behind convenient scapegoats.

How do we discern historical reality?  Keep an open mind and read all viewpoints, whilst accepting that those who write history may do so with an agenda in mind.

I have copied the first paragraph of the article below to illustrate my point; please do read the whole thing.

    
When I was twelve years old, I had it out with the Mennonite Elders – I asked why the Devil was not given a fair hearing.  I knew he was a villain – everybody knew! – but nowhere in the Bible did I find a forum where the poor sob could argue his case. 

I was, in essence, pleading chivalry.

I had been raised to take it for granted that an accused be treated with fairness and not be dismissed out of hand.  As you can imagine, that argument fell on deaf ears.  As a matter of fact, I found myself under suspicion that Satan himself had infested my mind.

 It was an experience I have never forgotten – my first introduction to the fury unleashed by conformist belief.

Reason did not enter into it at all.

More decades than I care to admit have turned me into a lady of decorum, but I still feel inside as I did then – defiant about unexamined dogma.  In my book, it’s just not fair to dump buckets of slime on a scoundrel without allowing him the slightest chance of defense.

I speak of obligatory Hitler Bashing.