Accepting Truth, Without Perishing

HISTORY IS LARGELY PERSPECTIVE, and every historian is limited by his own biases, which reflect in his descriptions, explanations, and interpretations. Throughout american history american school children have been brainwashed by a particular type of history called "hagiography", in which  history is written in such a way as to make the subject matter appear unrealistically virtuous. A good example of hagiography is the old testament, in which jewish writers describe jewish history in glowing, heroic terms.

thus the United States becomes the shining example of the highest level of civilization, forever in the right, always struggling valiantly to make the world a better place for everybody, domestic and foreign, always manifesting the highest ideals of human and christian virtue.

Slavery, cruel exploitation of workers, extermination of indians, imperialistic conquest of weaker countries; these things are gloosed over in high school textbooks as growing pains, or necessary expedients to a higher cause. Thus we all grow up believing that our country is a far bettr place than it really is. For consolation, bear in mind that other countries do the same thing.

So we create a world poorly educated in history, in whcih most people do not see the world for the savage place it is. As mark twain astutely said "there are many humorous notions, among them that the white race is less savage than the other savages." In america, hagiography is revised at the peril of being condemned and ridiculed by conservatives refuisng to stop clinging to their hagiographic illusions.

In the nineteen sixties high school students were taught that world war two was triggered by the treacherous unprovoked japanese ataack on pearl harbor, the atomic bomb was absolutely necessary to save american lives, and the cold war was the result od communist aggression. These fundamentsl untruths are still taught today. All  are lies, dear reader.

For forty years the united states had encouraged japan to take the lead in dominating asia, including korea and china, hoping to use japan as a partner for american expansion into that continent.  When in 1931 the japanese did exactly that, the united states feigned disapproval, which astonished the japanese. the united states had conquered, brutalized and taken possession of hawaii and the phillipines, and when FDR realized that american participation in world war two was essential to stop hitler and gain an american share of the spoils of victory, he did everything under the sun, including moving the american navy from san diego to hawaii, and commenced a trade embargo with japan, to force the japanese into war.

The atomic bombs were dropped on a country already totally defeated, which had been asking for surrender terms for months. The bomb was the american way of announcing its new power to the world. The cold war was an excellent excuse to maintain a war time military in peacetime, and the shattered, helpless russians, with their aversion to corporate capitalism, were an excellent choice of a new enemy.

"We resist the truth only because we would perish if we accepted it", said goethe. One can hope that at some remote, glorious time in the distant future, human beings will have evolved the necessary intellectual strength to not only accept truth, but do do so without perishing.