Studying History Helps

As you've probably figured by now, I like intellectual challenges and really smart people. Brainy types don't daunt me a bit. But not all of them can explain their thinking clearly and concisely. So when I have the time, I grab a cup of coffee and devote myself to reading and thinking about what smart people have to say.

When I started studying Irish history I got frustrated with what was published so signed up for a National Archive ticket in Dublin. I got to sit by the same fireplace James Joyce would have when he applied for his reader's ticket. The guy interviewing me told a story about holding a notebook of Michael Collins's. When he opened it, on the back of the front cover were all these doodles.

He looked at me and I looked at him and we sighed. Michael's doodles. A badly maligned historic figure with a reputation for inspiring modern mayhem has left behind something so intimate.

What is the point of that story? I've learned there's a lot of information in archives that goes against current received wisdom. Memoirs are being published and information is being smuggled out of closed archives. Antony Beever (Stalingrad, Berlin 1945) hand copied Russian archive documents and hid them in his trousers. Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor, stuffed original documents down his trousers at the US National Archives. Don't you wish those documents had instantly been published, at least on the web? I firmly believe most of the truth about things will come out eventually. I also believe I can spot people who won't let facts persuade them to change their mind. Arrogant much?

This morning I got a link (thanks Liz) and the first line is:

"Americans have never really understood ideological warfare."

Note: Probably because of their non cynical paradigm.

However, I've lived in cynical London for ages and there are tons of people here who don't understand it either.

That's because it's based on psychology which is still linked to mumbo-jumbo and pretentiousness.

Here's a list from a great blog post of memetic weapons used by the Soviet Union:

Note: after each one, imagine the opposite.

There is no truth, only competing agendas.

All Western (and especially American) claims to moral superiority over Communism/Fascism/Islam are vitiated by the West's history of racism and colonialism.

There are no objective standards by which we may judge one culture to be better than another. Anyone who claims that there are such standards is an evil oppressor.

The prosperity of the West is built on ruthless exploitation of the Third World; therefore Westerners actually deserve to be impoverished and miserable.

Crime is the fault of society, not the individual criminal. Poor criminals are entitled to what they take. Submitting to criminal predation is more virtuous than resisting it.

The poor are victims. Criminals are victims. And only victims are virtuous. Therefore only the poor and criminals are virtuous. (Rich people can borrow some virtue by identifying with poor people and criminals.)

For a virtuous person, violence and war are never justified. It is always better to be a victim than to fight, or even to defend oneself. But 'oppressed' people are allowed to use violence anyway; they are merely reflecting the evil of their oppressors.

(I would fight ANYONE who tried to harm one of my little nephews. Bad guys take note.)

When confronted with terror, the only moral course for a Westerner is to apologize for past sins, understand the terrorist's point of view, and make concessions.

I'm going to end with my favourite tagline, used by Electronic Arts:

Challenge everything.

I'm off to read the work of fiction know as the morning paper.