I love to read! Started with Trixie Beldon and the Hardy Boys, and then, suddenly the world opened up a treasure chest of travel, facts, and the most fascinating..history, that was available at my fingertips. I do not claim to be smart..my head is filled with an incredible amount of trivia which truly does little in day to day life, but, it is so much fun to learn how life was lived long ago, and also, to understand times have changed, somewhat, in some cases, for the better, and sadly, for the worse in other cases.
So, because I lean towards the past, and....because I ingest a sh*t ton of salt (potato chips), all of these bits and pieces are retained in my memory "chip" and rise to the surface when something sparks. I like facts!! The advent of Google has been a thrill, because, I can instantly check almost anything out, and dig for the truth. Yes, the internet quickly posts a photo that someone decides relates to one of their new causes. Oh...we have never been such a society for the unjust, as we are today..but along with this, comes misinformation, taken for fact without investigation. Why? Because it inflames, and it suits the trend, but more often than not, it is either false, or it is twisted, to suit political correctness for the moment.
Our media is the biggest culprit. Headlines without research, sending the whole world into a frenzy, and then...quietly, after the story spreads and creates havoc , hidden away, the truth comes out, far too late, damage has been done, and no one cares who has been hurt, they are onto something else, which interests them. What happened to following a story? Are we suddenly so vapid we don't really want the facts, if they don't follow our opinions? Would the world turn off the news, if it was based on facts, instead of fluff?
I see this daily on FaceBook..yes..I am a prisoner of social media, like the rest of the world. But...I have a friend, called Snopes, and I will visit that friend when something is posted that inflames. I seldom trust anything I see that appears to be incredible. Again, if Snopes doesn't have the answer, off I go to my friend Google and I scroll through a pile of bits and pieces until I am secure in the facts..and....generally those facts come from a source from the past. See, the past is over...time has elapsed, and facts have had a chance to become known. No reason to hide things, because nothing can be done to change them..they are what they are! They cannot be twisted to suit agendas, because..they are finished.
Today, it seems everything is focused on such few agendas. There are two things in life that are impossible to get facts on, until too much time has passed, and nothing can be done. These are Politics and religion. The two most powerful entities in the world! Religion used to control politics..now not so much, in fact, religion has been made the focus of politics beyond belief, lately. One religion is clearly under government protection, the rest are vilified. Not quite sure who is going to win this battle, but one thing is for sure, politics now rule the media, and that, in itself is scary.
Politics have become so very powerful, they are now beginning to rewrite history. How is this possible? Clearly the voices of the few, decidedly chosen to be coddled for election purposes, now carry the ability to destroy that which offends them. First we haul away statues, then we reword offensive (to the few) official papers, ensuring truth is buried, because it is non-biased, and simply states fact. Then we have the media, that which is suppose to report facts, changing format, and reporting assumptions which are not researched.
The media used to be the voice of reason. An entity that gave facts, and allowed the public to make personal opinions. Now, it , instead, tells the public what those opinions must be, to suit the present political opinion. No one must question ...they will be slapped with the labels racist, hater, and the latest Liberal favourite, white supremacist. WTF is with that? Nasty labels, simply because some chose not to follow the latest political trend, and ask questions.
So..what does history have to say about this? One does not have to look very far to see where this is all leading. If a person does not like to read, well maybe, somehow, they will miss the clues, but, they are flashing neon now.
When a government decides how society is to think, feel, and act..when a country is told they are being monitored on social media, by government...when personal opinions become unacceptable, if they do not conform, and citizens lose the ability to expect honest answers to questions, in fact, they lose the ability to even ask those questions..we can find some examples of the end of this road, without looking very far into history.
Clearly our freedom is being lost. It is almost out of reach now. A government that claims to despise bullying, has become the ultimate bully. It has created such hatred among the population, with the thoughtless labels thrown at any who do not follow it's doctrine. It decides who will be sacrificed for the betterment of those within the fold. It never apologizes, even when blatantly wrong. It now decides which rules are to be followed, and which are not acceptable ..
Again, history has seen this before, more than once. When a power decides to erase aspects of the past, because they are offensive, they simply open the door to these offences repeating. They do not understand that without these historic moments, progress will not occur. One of the saddest results of erasing history is going backwards. The mistakes of making one specific group of humans treated as less than another, is not fixed by removing the facts, because they are offensive. Worse, this is not fixed by allowing the offended group to suddenly switch gears, and treat another group less.
What happened 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years...2 weeks, a day..that is history!! It happened!! It was a learning lesson, fact, truth, and often in our times, offensive. After our lessons from mistakes,this history cannot, and should not, be forgotten.
Each of us, as humans, has had our own personal lessons from our own history(past) ..If we refuse to learn from them, we suffer the exercise of making the same mistakes over and over again. Most of us clue in, maybe it takes a few repeats, but, at some point we realize our mistakes, and change, so we can make life better. We can't erase those mistakes, we must learn to live with them, and that is our own personal history. If we cannot erase our pasts, why on earth can a whole Country pretend this is possible?
Again, if you have some time, pick up a book, maybe a suggestion, George Orwell 1984, or Animal House, or take a moment and consider this quote "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "
History is more than often, offensive, but the biggest offense of all is to pretend it did not happen, and refuse to believe the facts. Our past is full of Nasty Truths..without them, our future will simply repeat those facts!
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