Revisionists Kill The Past

Saturday, May 14, 2005 Revisionists Kill The Past Why is it so important to the Left to rewrite history? Because to them, America is a big problem that needs to be fixed. They see America as a broken work-in-progress, that needs to be reformed, reshaped and rebuilt. The idea that America has ever done anything good is anathema to this program. If America can do good all on its own, why do we need progressives then? And of course the defeat of Nazism is the greatest good the United States has ever performed. The Left cannot leave this legacy unsullied, for that would foster an illusion that America is good. This simply will not do. And so when history is unkind to the Left, as it often is, it is not the Left that must change - it is history that must change. The survival of the Left is more important than mere history. In fact the survival of the Left is more important than anything, including (and especially) the survival of the United States. The loss of history's lessons would be the greatest casualty here. What does the toil, the destruction, the mass deaths, the cruelties mean, if we can't wrench some wisdom from it all? It is one of our most valuable and hard-earned human resources, it is our legacy, and those that find it inconvenient to their cause would just flush it all down the memory hole and replace it with a sterile marxist misinterpretation of history. Revisionism is a type of cultural genocide that seeks to denigrate the colossal sacrifices of our elders, and seeks to villainize their very motives. It needs to be uprooted wherever it is found. Heh, now that I have made you read my little rant here, go read a far better one by Victor Davis Hanson. Ken Says: Dean Esmay has had me thinking alot lately about issues of genocide and its place in history. North Korea has been on my mind much also, and it is not an unrelated issue. There we see the very same sociopathic impulses that drove Hitler and Stalin, and the means to carry out the mayhem. All this talk about judicial filibusters and John Bolton and so on seems important, until you remind yourself of the awesome horror of mass killings. It can happen again. Also, I am surprised that the issue of revisionism doesn't rankle heritage democrats more. I mean, these people go apoplectic at the mere suggestion that FDR would have even contemplated private social security accounts. You would think the accusation that he incinerated 300,000 innocent civilians just to show Stalin who's boss would, um, generate a little more outrage? [oops, just remembered it was Truman who dropped the bombs]. Linked to Mudville Gazette's open post. 2:37 AM | | |