On the erasure of history
On the erasure of history Perverting or erasing a people’s history is, in my opinion, a crime against humanity, and perhaps one of the most common such crimes, often committed unwittingly by well-meaning individuals who simply repeat what they were taught. History ought never to be suppressed, twisted, or erased, but this has been done in some form by nearly every government that has ever existed. The job of an honest historian is to use any and all sources available (such as the citations which follow this essay) from which to distill the most faithful explanation of a time, event, or figure. The written word is the most common resource, but artifacts are also useful. From the dawn of civilization, monuments were commissioned to glorify what a people or its leaders valued, typically rulers, religious figures, and heroes, and to symbolize the power of the state, edifying its supporters, intimidating its opponents. There is presently, and has been for some time, an effort