Use and Abuse of History

Use and Abuse of History

It is said History is written by the victor...i think there is ample evidence to support this view. In the UK the demonizing of Hitler is a national sport. There is the BBC channel called the History channel..it should be called ‘The hate Hitler channel’.Hitler was a bad actor among a number of bad actors during world war 11..including the Allies who committed war crimes by bombing civilians and food and fuel supply routes..war crimes !!.

The British Empire was far worst responsible for the deaths of millions..India alone suffered many man made famines during British rule estimates of deaths range from 14-25 million. Professor Margaret MacMillan in her book ‘The uses and abuses of history’ makes the point that there two often conflicting views of historical events..the classic event being the Israeli/Palestinian conflict...or more accurately The Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.the Colonization...land theft and murder which has been going on for over 75 years.

The nutty Professor also made the point that the History profession is in denial and is like an Ostrich has its head in the sand...as the internet enables people access History which is not taught at Universities. The profession is unable to deal with counter factual facts.

Having a social science degree in Geo-Politics...my analysis is that social science degrees are politicized. What is taught is selective use of evidence so that the student does not get the full picture. A simple example... having studied Empires ..The British passed a law to prevent/contain sexually transmitted disease very prevalent among the British Soldiers based in India. What is not mentioned from who they are getting the disease.

What the British did was forced local women into prostitution to serve the needs of theses sex starved soldiers. Singapore under colonial rule was a brothel….this was taught ..what was not mentioned these women were forced into prostitution.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has two narratives...the Israeli position is according to the Historian Benny Morris (state sponsored Israeli historian).The Palestinians refused to accept the partition of the land between Jews and Palestinians which the United Nations resolution had passed. The Palestinians resorted to violence and resulting conflict lead to many Palestinians being displaced.

The counter narrative is the British Mandate which ruled the region had no right to give their land to another people. The Balfour Declaration was in effect a transfer document which gave their land to the Zionist Jews. This lead to the Ethnic cleansing of Palestine ...over 700,000 forcibly evicted in 1948.They see Israel as Settler colonial state imposed upon them by Western Powers ….land theft and murder for over 100 years old.

The Con

Each side believes its view is the right one. The Con is the History Profession who should be neutral and present facts as they are...is not?.The History Professor Niall Ferguson being one such person...in his works believes the British Empire was a good thing because it brought stability and a common political economic structure..which benefited both the colonised and Colonizer ?.

The History Profession relies on government funding for their living..so being too critical of the British Empire can lead to problems for them in their career advancement. Political scientist Norman Finklestein..a world leading scholar on the Israel/Palestine conflict..has been denied a full tenured Professorship...there are many like him who have suffered for telling the truth...or trying to provide a counter narrative to the conventional wisdom.

Kind Regards

Tiger Moto