> History is always the tool to justify the status quo.
Strong disagree on this one, especially on the _always_ part. Many times it is, in state propaganda especially. But history is the study of things that have happened and there are many facets and things in the past worth knowing and thinking about. It need not be the only about the things thaught in schools. It is much more, much richer than that.
This isn't really true though, if you look through the historical record you can find plenty of sources from people who lost. Usually what's missing from the record is people who were illiterate (which is a lot of people as soon as you go any significant length of time back).
"History is written by the victors" doesn't mean it is only written by the winning side at that time in history forever. It means history is written by those currently in charge today. Meaning today's victors get to choose what is history and how to view history.
Imagine if there is a war between the US and Mexico and we lose and mexico takes over. The history of the alamo, mexican-american war, annexation of texas, etc will be quite different even though we beat mexico in the 1800s. Imagine if the south does rise again and the south takes over. The history of the civil war will be remarkably different even those the north won the civil war.
Doesn't really matter who the victors were back then. What's important is who the victors are today.
I think this outlook is informed by getting choked with history force fed by state propaganda rather than actually reading history books and listening to respectable historians.
You have it backwards. State propaganda was what tricked me into believing history was truth. It was only when I attended college, a respectable historian educated me about history: "his story", "victor writes the history", etc.
Even if you can remove bias/agenda from man, the fact of the matter is only a tiny fraction of "histories" are recorded and of those only a tiny fraction of it survives.
I like history and think we need it to form societies, nations, institutions, etc, but it most definitely isn't truth in any real sense of the word.
Strong disagree on this one, especially on the _always_ part. Many times it is, in state propaganda especially. But history is the study of things that have happened and there are many facets and things in the past worth knowing and thinking about. It need not be the only about the things thaught in schools. It is much more, much richer than that.