Ignoring History

I am disturbed when I read the morning paper along with everyone else. Why are people not getting vaccinated, putting themselves at risk along with others? Why are governments now promising to do something about the fallout of residential schools, when the evidence has been in plain sight for so long? Why are some so unwilling to face the truth about the outcome of the US election?

While we fuss about these issues, the historian, Timothy Snyder has some cautionary reminders. In a recent New York Times Article he reminds us that a war on history is a war on democracy. Dealing with the suppression of agriculture in Ukraine in 1932, he notes the suppression of the story of the Ukrainian people themselves - as many as 3.9 million of them died of suffering and starvation. The official story was the triumph of industrialism. Real history was suppressed and rewritten.

Snyder goes on to review the current attempts to rewrite the history of slavery in the US. Suddenly in some states there are new laws of what teachers may or may not say. One of the dangerous elements relates to emotions. Teachers are not to relate parts of the story that some might find upsetting causing “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex.”

History, Snyder says, is not therapy. Becoming upset and dealing with it is part of growing up. It’s dangerous when becoming upset could call a halt to hearing the truth. Things become particularly upsetting when it affects groups - white Americans and African Americans, white Canadians and indigenous people or people of colour, respected leaders and things they said and did.

Snyder has strong words for denial. “When we claim that discrimination is only a result of personal prejudice, we liberate ourselves from responsibility.” he says. We have to face reality. Authoritarianism tries to shield us from that. By saying that we are not racist, we may think we have escaped. The only way to change the current situation is to face the past one honestly. That has to happen before anything changes.