HISTORY IS AN ILLUSION AND DOES NOT REVEAL OUR FUTURE IN A USEFUL WAY
David Lance Goines August 18, 1994
HISTORY IS BUNK
Meanwhile, I don't think that the lessons of history are worth, in the immortal words of vice-president John Nance Garner, a pitcher of warm piss. History just plain changes the rules on you all the time.
See, it's an illusion: you think that you should be able to predict the future from learning about the past because you can look back along the inevitable path that events actually took and see what made them happen. But, looking into the infinitely branching tree of the future is quite another matter, if I may say so.
HISTORY IS BEING REWRITTEN CONSTANTLY TO SUIT THE NEEDS OF THE DAY – EXACTLY WHAT OUR OPPONENTS ARE DOING
David Lance Goines August 18, 1994
HISTORY IS BUNK
Another big problem is that history is constantly being re-written to suit the fashion of the day, becoming, in the words of Matthew Arnold, "that huge Mississippi of falsehood." How can you learn anything from something that isn't even vaguely reliable? Was Columbus a saintly adventurer or a satanic creep? Does it matter? Did he discover America by accident or by design? Are Native Americans indigenous in any proper sense of the word or were they just here longer? Do the descendants of Sioux Indians have any valid prior claim to any of this real estate? Are the descendants of Europeans responsible for the bad stuff that their ancestors did? Are the descendants of Black Africans entitled to some sort of reparation for things that did not happen to them personally? Is an understanding of history of the slightest assistance in any of this wrangling?
HISTORY IS BUNK WHEN IT IS USED TO FUEL A SPECIFIC AGENDA, LIKE THE ANTI-BUSH LEFT WING AGENDA OF OUR OPPONENTS
Paul Walfield 12. 30. 02
When History is Bunk...
When history is used not as a lesson, but rather as a diversion to further an agenda, that history is bunk.
America's real or imagined missteps in past foreign policy decisions is being used to further the Left's agenda to diminish American sovereignty and nationalism in favor of a more sensitive approach to present and future foreign relations. Unfortunately, in the case of Iraq, a more sensitive approach will only defer a catastrophe it will not deter it. What the Left fails to understand, or more precisely, what the Left purposefully ignores is the present reality and the reality under which the United States made foreign policy decisions in the past.
HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS, THEY ARE WRONG, AND THERE IS NO WAY TO UNDO THAT
Kitashia, 2002
History is Bunk
It seriously makes one wonder what else is wrong in the history books. I know they say that history is always written by the winners. But what happens when you realize that the winner was wrong? What do you do when you know what has been believed is not true? Do you rectify the problem and go about teaching people the truth? Apparently not. Instead, we'd rather fill everyone's head with falsehoods. Why change a few history books to illustrate the facts. He's just an old dead guy who can't possibly care anymore, right?
RE-INVESTIGATING THE REAL MEANING OF HISTORY IS INFINITELY REGRESSIVE
Kitashia, 2002
History is Bunk
And that concerns me. Being a history buff, I have to rethink everything I have ever known. Re-research every fact that has ever been fed to me. If we can't take the time to change something like this, then I seriously doubt we can take the time to change anything else.
You know the saying, don't always believe what you read? Sadly, this now holds very true for something as fundimental as history.
HISTORY IS BUNK – IT IS UNAVOIDABLE
W.A. CARTO, Institute For Historical Review 1983
Toward History (Paper presented to the 1983 International Revisionist Conference)
I have always thought that Henry Ford's concise definition of history sets forth more wisdom in fewer words than anything else I know. He observed, "History is bunk," and in three short words the great populist industrialist spelled out one of the most profound problems of our time.
THE HISTORY WE RECEIVE FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT IS BUNK
W.A. CARTO, Institute For Historical Review 1983
Toward History (Paper presented to the 1983 International Revisionist Conference)
`We have to recognize that when Ford said that history is bunk he was referring to history as related by the Establishment; he was not speaking of history as it should be. And because you are here tonight I am sure that you must agree with his profundity: the history we are given by the Establishment is. indeed, bunk; that's literally the best we can say of it.
HISTORY IS USED BY THOSE IN POWER TO ENSLAVE US
W.A. CARTO, Institute For Historical Review 1983
Toward History (Paper presented to the 1983 International Revisionist Conference)
We have been accused by some critics of wanting to rewrite the history books. Apparently, this is a great sin, to want to rewrite history books. In fact, we have even been sued for daring to challenge "established historical fact"! I must admit that our critics and the gentleman who has sued us are right. We do seek to rewrite the history books. We do aim to bring history into accord with the facts. We do object to propaganda as history; to history created for the benefit of the greedy pressure groups which control our country and our destiny, which is another way of saying that we object to being force-fed history as a weapon or a tool - history written for the purpose of subjecting and enslaving us.
HISTORY IS BUNK BECAUSE IT IS TOTALLY WRAPPED UP IN THE USE AND EXERCISE OF POWER
W.A. CARTO, Institute For Historical Review 1983
Toward History (Paper presented to the 1983 International Revisionist Conference)
If Henry Ford said that history is bunk, another perceptive observer I admire had an entirely different definition and he, too, was right. Francis Parker Yockey said that politics is activity in relation to power, and if we are now speaking of what history should be, rather than what the Establishment has perverted it into, we must admit that history is the chronicle of that activity.
SIMPLE EXPLANATIONS OF HISTORICAL PROCESSES ARE ALMOST ALWAYS FALSE – HISTORY IS TOO COMPLEX FOR THAT
W.A. CARTO, Institute For Historical Review 1983
Toward History (Paper presented to the 1983 International Revisionist Conference)
The fact is that all great historical events in a so-called "democracy" are produced by an alliance. Alliances are the very warp and woof of politics. There is no one pressure group strong enough to dominate all of the others. If you wish to know why we entered World War II or for that matter World War I look for an alliance of devils, not for one devil. If you wish to know why Willkie was nominated in 1940 and Eisenhower in 1952 or why the Senate ratified the Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1963 or gave away the Panama Canal in 1978 or why the Congress consistently votes foreign aid or forced racial busing or why any number of things happen in America even though the voters may overwhelmingly oppose it, you must look for an alliance of pressure groups.
THE ONLY HISTORY WE CAN BELIEVE IS THAT WRITTEN BY ONE WHO WAS THERE
Michel de Montaigne Essayist (1533-1592), Of Books .
"The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs of which they write." -
HISTORY IS MOSTLY A BATCH OF FALSEHOODS PREPARED BY KNAVES AND FOOLS
Ambrose Bierce, American artist and writer The Devil's Dictionary , 1911.
"History (n.) An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools."