The Problem With History

History is a bitch.  It would seem to be an easy matter to go back in
time, study what happened and why it happened, and learn lessons
to help us with future decisions.  "Those who don't learn the lessons
of the past are bound to repeat the mistakes in the future".  If only it
were that easy.

The problem is that history is pretty tricky.  For everyone who gains
from an event, there is someone who loses from that same event.  For
every intended action there are unintended consequences.  There can
never be a change in society without someone winning and someone
losing.

If you teach history from the perspective of those who lost something
and do not compare those results to the perspective of what was gained,
you are not teaching history...you are advocating your personal opinion.

For example, it is true Christopher Columbus unintentionally brought
diseases that decimated the Indian population when he arrived here.  That
was bad for the Indians.  He also unwittingly opened up a pathway that
eventually brought outcasts from England here, and caused a lot of suffering
for those early immigrants.

But in the end, all that suffering finally led to the birth of the Constitution
of the United States, and the institution of the freedoms that we all enjoy
today...freedoms that did not exist in the times of Columbus, and freedoms
that would arguably never have existed without the discovery of America.

If a college professor is going to damn him for decimating the Indian
population, shouldn't he also be given credit for opening the door to
modern day America?  True, he didn't know what America was going
to turn out to be, but he didn't know about the diseases either.

Or, if a college professor is going to denigrate America for the practice
of slavery, and for endemic racism and white supremacy up to current
times, shouldn't they also compare that against all the changes that have
been instituted since the times of slavery.

According to the Civil War Trust, the number of "killed, wounded, captured,
or missing" was 490,309 soldiers from the South and 596,670 from the
North.  I'm assuming that all of the 490,000 soldiers from the South were
white, and predominately all of the 596,000 soldiers from the North were
white.

Have 596,000 white soldiers fought and died to free slaves anywhere in
the world before?  Or after?  How about the millions of blacks who have
persisted over the years, carrying on despite facing real, overt, institutionalized
racism?  Blacks and whites together fought to make today a better day.

Would anyone argue that today black lives are not better off than during the
periods of slavery and institutionalized racism?  How many black students
in college now really feel their lives are not infinitely better than in the
old days?  Or are they being taught that there is still no hope for them
because things are still not much different from the old days.

Yes, there are still white racists, but they are in a small minority of white
people.  Yes, there is still discrimination, but more and more fields
are open to black Americans than ever before.  The history of America
is that of evolution, and today is much different from yesterday.

My point regarding these examples is that if history is not told in perspective,
it tends to foster resentment and hate over the injustices that happened in the
past, and does not encourage the students to appreciate the opportunities in
life before them.  Without perspective, one will never realize how bad things
were, how much suffering was borne by those who changed things, and how
grateful they should be that others carried that load for them.

The purpose of studying history should be to learn from the past and continue
to improve on it;  not to breed and instill racial, ethnic, or gender resentments
in order to stoke and inflame identity politics.

Whatever Happened to John Wayne?

I've always believed it's better to be a good listener than a fast talker, and
it's always better to speak up when you can add something important to
the conversation, not just to take over the conversation.

My idea of a perfect day is to sit in a boat with a friend listening to the wind,
the birds, the sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat, talking
a little bit, catching a few fish, and watching the clouds go by.  Actually,
I don't even need to catch any fish.

Whenever possible, I like to "live and let live", and it seems to me that motto
always summed up the point of our Country and our Constitution.

So how did we get where we are today?  From the time we get up until the
time we go to bed, we're told what to think, what to eat, how to dress,
what's important and what isn't, who to vote for, what's in and what's out,
what to do to save the environment, what to say and how to behave...in other
words, what to do if we know what's good for us.

Have we reached that tipping point where we need experts to tell us all how
to live our lives?  Are there that many people that feel they need gurus to
run their lives?  Or are there just too many gurus who want to run people's
lives?

When did education morph from teaching students how to think, to teaching
students what to think and what to do?

What cataclysmic event fused the educational establishment, most of our
politicians, special interest groups, big business, and the media into a mighty
conglomeration of holy rollers...dedicated to preaching to the heathens until
we all see the light?  Why should we begrudge them if they get richer as we
get poorer, as long as they get us to Heaven?  Sing Hallelujah!

When did the government make that ever-so-subtle shift from giving its
citizens the best information available to make correct decisions
for themselves, to forcing decisions upon them.  I've been around long
enough to have seen that the "best information available" doesn't always
stay the correct information, and that good intentions of governments
don't always provide good results.

Over the years, our government has moved further and further away from
the Anarchist end of the pendulum to the "Nanny State" end.  It's time to
swing back and find that sweet spot more in the middle, before individual
freedom drowns under a sea of good intentions and an army of elitist,
hypocritical, politicians.