I once wrote an article on the problems arising from what I termed “group condemnation.” I believed that in attempting to warn people of dangers lurking in the culture, those who blamed “groups” rather than individuals tended to lose credibility. To speak against the Jews or the blacks or any “group” rather than individuals within those groups often resulted in charges of bigotry and, in consequence, the loss of the transmission of valuable and needful information. But times have changed in ways that intelligent, rational people could not have anticipated even a few years ago.
Today, group allegations are openly accepted even by people who are reasonably intelligent and rational! And this change is across the board; it is not limited to condemnation but also involves support and approval based not upon actions but upon the groups involved in those actions! As a result, today one does not look at individual behavior! In a protected group, its members’ actions are either approved or, if that is not rationally possible, ignored, disguised or otherwise concealed. Whereas, in a targeted group, its members are blamed, castigated or otherwise condemned without any evidence of wrongdoing and, indeed, even when there is clear proof of innocence!
Furthermore, the messenger is no longer immune if the message is unwelcome. Rather, he finds himself in a different targeted group consisting of those who are attempting to convey to the public at large information that is neither welcome nor acceptable by the establishment! As a result, the means by which mankind transmits “information” whether of the past – that is, history – or of the present, has been altered to the point at which people are free to change both history AND the present without consequence. This is diametric to both civilization and reason!
There have always been certain efforts to make of reality both past and present what people want it to be, but never has the revision of mankind’s culture been both global in its scope and mendacious in its intentions. The heroes and villains of today might, in future, change places, but such reassessment has always been a matter of the arising of new cultures that could look with discernment and lack of bias at the past or, in the alternative, the arising of new information that changes existing hypotheses.
Today these gradual and natural changes are no more! They have been replaced by an agenda-driven narrative that begins and ends with the desired conclusions quite apart from the proven facts surrounding the events themselves! We no longer start out with questions, but with conclusions! Of course, such a situation was not unknown in the past but it was usually limited to those with a vested interest in creating a particular narrative that suited their ends. On the whole, however, the “historical community” was, once upon a time, circumscribed by a code of honor that demanded rigorous scholarship and careful research founded upon absolute truth and intellectual purity.
As well, much the same can be said for those involved in more modern concerns. Few indeed were the statesmen who manufactured evidence to prove their particular viewpoint. They existed, of course, but they were anathema to all decent people! However, that reality no longer exists either with regard to the past or the present but rather, the opposite obtains; that is, purveyors of unwelcome truths are banished from the public forum and labeled “revisionists” while liars and demagogues are revered.
Indeed, at this time in history, everything is reversed. True scholars are rejected while frauds are applauded and elevated to positions of power within their particular disciplines. Truth, the former foundation of all knowledge, is now as welcome as a polecat at a picnic and the discovery of it lurking in any written or even oral account of history or current events is sufficient to make what is being written or said banished, never to see public exposure. Occasionally, the desired narrative my contain some element of truth – but it is usually tangential to the main issue. Of course, today’s faux reporters of both the past and the present make very good use of any minor “truths” to validate in total that which is supported only in irrelevant minutia.
In Orwell’s 1984, his protagonist works in a ministry of the government responsible for rewriting history. But this was not what we today call “revisionist history,” for revision is not a bad concept. It simply means to “revise” or “modify” that which has been previously accepted – usually founded upon some new evidence having come to light. But Winston’s occupation was to change history itself, removing from the narrative those who had fallen out of favor! His efforts had nothing to do with truth or facts or information or even history, but involved a situation according to Orwell, that meant,
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Sadly, today we have pretty much reached that same condition. Worse, we have the technology to accomplish it, the political power to implement it and the cultural impotency to prevent it. At present, we’re dealing with open violence to history in the form of the physical destruction of monuments and other symbols and elements of the past, but when these are gone – and who believes that we will be able to stop this planned extermination – our technological expertise will permit alterations in records unknown in Orwell’s day. His “science fiction” has become technological fact, much to the detriment of both truth and civilization.
Of course, most people in the West at least, had no idea how far we had come from what we previously accepted as our culture and social establishments. Our fall has been great and there does not appear to be any way to stop it or recoup our losses if we could stop it. Meanwhile our younger generations seem quite content to exist in this new reality, looking askance at their elders whom they see as a hindrance to the establishment of the New World Order that is coming into existence as we speak. The signs of our extinction as a civilization were there to see for many years but we weren’t paying attention! As well, they came slowly, often hidden beneath cultural distractions used since the days of Rome. The strategy of “bread and circuses” is not new! It worked for the Caesars and now it works for the ruling elites in the 21st century. And in this new bleak future, unlike the story of Adam and Eve, none will remember our fall.
