White Washing History

[PanzerBob]

I started this as a response to a thread I can't find now and I think I was heading off topic anyway, so bear with me.

The white washing and sanitising of history is one of my pet peeves, to be PC and freckin' ,,,,(almost slipped) nice about it.

It seems when someone goes public about it, they are told to sit down and shut up and get with the programme. Even here in Canada the Good, our schools still teach how we gently brought our First Nation's peoples civilisation, and the wars we fought are several page sound bites, Hell the whole book is only about 250 pages with a lot of pictures and only taught in one grade at High School level.

OL'Fart time.... when I went to school we had history every year. It is no small wonder why kids and young adults are easily duped by Hollyrot and the casts of thousands of other charlatans when they have no idea what has happened in their pasts.

Where O where will this all lead us?

Bob out

[TRDG]

What got you all "excited" and up in arms here in Canadian schools buddy, I have no idea, some specifics please>>??

Cheers, god knows what the US is doing. LOL

Tom

[PanzerBob]

Well, it started as a response to another thread as I mentioned, about history and I can't find it. But I had written part of the above and was called away.

Part of my rant was born out of my own experiences with my son's schooling and their dismissive attitude towards History in general, and specifically their P*ss Poor resources. I was the guy told to shut up. Needless to say it didn't end well. One of the last things I was called was a "psychotic warmonger". :I left before some one got hurt!!

Does this make me a bad man?!!

[PanzerBob]

I found the other thread it right under my nose "Credit where credit is due"

Bob out

[Geek44]

Bob, I think these things are very, very important. But then I read. My partner (bless her) does not despite the fact that she's a highly educated (I'm not) academic. If I had a dollar for every time I was told to 'shut up' because I got agitated about some falsehood, lie, bending of the truth or whatever, that I see in every day media (including Hollywood) I'd be able to afford that investment property. It makes my blood boil that it seems like I'm the only one who sees history repeating itself, people getting more ignorant and not less, how folks are let off the hook rather than held accountable, how everything is somebody else's job, fault, problem or responsibility. Man I hear you.
I met a woman once who told me something I thought was pretty kooky at the time. She said that there weren't many real people in the world...just millions of 'extras' if you will. They act like people but they're motivated by less sophisticated things like the need for sex and a plasma TV...beyond that, they don't really give a damn. I begin to think this woman was way wiser than I was. She also advised me to 'Be in the world, not of the world'. I've since read the same thing in Buddhist and Hindu texts.
Peace.

[cyberia]

White washing history is something that has been with us since men were first able to record their version of events, and I honestly don't think it will ever change.

In my opinion white washing starts with governments setting down their official version of facts, that are then passed on by the majority of the population and upheld for a variety of reasons; national pride, lack of proper education on the matter, and in some cases pure stubbornness to accept any other view.

Case in point: My father-in-law. An Archie Bunker type if ever there was one. A proud, patriotic man who considers himself well informed in matters of history. Especially American history.

What follows is a paraphrased transcript from memory of a conversation he and I had at my dinning room table some 20 odd years ago. The discussion started out as one on the Iranian hostage crisis...

Him-"The problem with a lot of these little countries is they are jealous because American has never lost a war or been invaded."

Me-"What?"

Him-"American has never lost a war. That's a fact."

Me-"What about Vietnam?"

Him-"That was a draw. If there's no formal surrender then there's no official loss. Same goes for Korea."

Me-"But the United States was invaded by England in the War of 1812."

Him-"They were just just trying to get back what the lost during the War of Independence. They didn't get very far."

Me-"They got as far as Washington and burned the White House."

Him-"To hell they did."

Me-"Its a historic fact."

Him-"If its a historic fact they would have taught that in school, wouldn't they?"

Me-"And Pancho Villa invaded New Mexico with an Army in 1916."

Him-"That was not an army, they were bandits."

Me-"There were thousands of armed men. And they had artillery."

Him-"That's still does not make an army."

Me-"The Japanese invaded and occupied the Aleutian Islands off Alaska during WWII."

Him-"It doesn't matter. We didn't care about those islands."

Me-"But still, it was an invasion."

Him-"You know, you wouldn't talk like that if you were born here."


That conversation went on much the same for over an hour. Since neither of us gave in, and there was no "formal surrender" by either side, I guess it was a draw.

Either way, in the interest of peace it had been decided (by both wives) that there would be no more discussions on history either when we visit there, or they visit here.

[gi-rene]

Originally Posted by Geek44

I met a woman once who told me something I thought was pretty kooky at the time. She said that there weren't many real people in the world...just millions of 'extras' if you will.

A man passed on some interesting wisdom from three sages once:


"All the worlds indeed a stage and we are merely players, performers and portrayers, each another's audience outside the gilded cage.

O-T wise:

Best history class I'd ever had was with my favorite teacher. He likes to dig, he likes to investigate, if he has an oddball idea he would put it forth and see what we think. He's not that cliche progressive teacher, because he's willing to see the other side and will be willing to research it out.

We need more teachers like that.

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by gi-rene

Best history class I'd ever had was with my favorite teacher. He likes to dig, he likes to investigate, if he has an oddball idea he would put it forth and see what we think. He's not that cliche progressive teacher, because he's willing to see the other side and will be willing to research it out.

We need more teachers like that.

Absolutely!!!

And we need them soon.

[McCoy]

We need 'em like yesterday n' then some...

[Holly6]

Geez guys, ya got Slug and me. 1 pinko, and 1 facist. What else ya need??