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    WHY HISTORY IS ALWAYS A LIE by Joel Sattler

The word “history” has two meanings:

One is the impartial progress of events, a truth tempered by reality.

The other, second, is the telling of said events, the record of which is always a lie.

Sometimes it is a deliberate lie, but usually a mere lie, unknown to be a lie by the teller.

The teller is prejudiced: by his culture, by his understanding, by his own history. In each generation, history is seen through new eyes, and is retold again and again, adjusting each new telling to conform with the biases of the new historians and their readers.

Herodotus, the “Father of History“, took a tale of defeat, duplicity and despair, and turned it into a legend of heroics, honor and heart. And, since we have his book, and not the books of the Persians, his story is the one we are taught.

It is often said that “History is written by the victors” but, actually, history is the story that lasts the longest, regardless of who won or lost.

So, you have to assume that whatever you read is revisionism, no matter how much the writer attempts to be fair.

The writer cannot be fair.

He’s only human. 

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