Adopting moral view of history
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By Mark Schulz
The question concerning how to view historical events is almost as old as the study of history itself; we have all heard the age old adage that, “History is written by the victor.” While this may be true, it is also apparent that history is revisited, and revised on an almost constant basis in concurrence with political expedience and shifting morality. This trend somewhat undermines the most valuable view to take of history.
Indeed, if we are to learn anything by looking back at history, it should be how to construct a strong moral framework with which to judge our own, current ideas and actions. If nothing else, the historical record is a testament to the ideas of people, carried through to their ultimate conclusions.
This author is of the opinion, therefore, that history should be correctly viewed as a morality tale, instructive for current and future generations to steer the course of their own affairs in a more just direction.
The first task that faces the individual that is interested in adopting the correct view of history is to extract the aforementioned moral framework. Before we can determine such a framework, we must first establish what is meant by “morality.”
There has to be an ethical standard that our correct view of history must follow. This author holds that the standard of morality is human life; that which humans require to sustain their lives.
Consequently, whatever humans require in order to survive must be regarded as the good, or the moral.
The human race’s crucial tool of survival is its ability to reason, for the individuals that make up the species to use their minds. The mind is our only means of dealing with reality, grasping facts and acquiring reliable knowledge. The mind is the basic source of every pro-life value. Whatever ideologies and resultant actions we find in history, therefore, must be measured against this standard.
Examples that enhance human life by providing more prosperity, security and freedom for mankind as a whole must be celebrated, while those responsible for the parts of history that have plunged the world into darkness, and resulted in death and destruction must be condemned without exception, or justification.
Looking at history through this prism will enable us to maintain a steady, moral gaze on various historical events.
The analytical framework diametrically opposed to this calls for the sacrifice of an individual’s reason, wellbeing, and life for a greater cause; this forms the cornerstone of the ideas of fascism, imperialism and authoritarianism and must be rejected as an inadequate interpretation of history.
It is the latter framework that allows modern countries to whitewash past atrocities as being perpetrated by people who, at the time, thought that they were “doing the right thing” or “just following orders.”
It allows certain countries to go so far as to honor convicted war criminals as “brave soldiers that sacrificed their lives for their nation.” We can also not be led astray by those using the former framework to defend the initiators of violence against others.
It is a state’s supreme moral duty to protect its citizens’ lives from other states that subject their own people to the deprivation of their human rights and would do the same, elsewhere, if given the opportunity. It would therefore have been immoral for the Allied powers to do nothing while the Axis spread its influence all across the world.
When we examine World War II as the ultimate expression of conflict between these two ideals, we can see that the Axis powers first made victims of their own citizens before exporting this terror to any nations weak, or unfortunate, enough to fall under their sway.
Germany terrorized Europe, robbing the Czechs of their sovereignty and gutting Poland before embarking on a genocidal campaign to rid the continent of “undesirable” people. Imperial Japan rampaged through the pacific region, even before 1939, bringing pain and misery to millions of people, in particular to the thousands of women it took from their families to serve as sex slaves, and the countries it stripped of their national identities and heritage.
The immorality of the Axis powers can never be questioned, or explained away as a “moment of madness.” We must hold these violations up as lessons, so that they never happen again. It is therefore imperative that the correct view of history does not make space for revisionism, moral relativism or outright ignorance of the facts.
In conclusion, any appropriate view of history must encompass the recognition of the basic moral standard of human life, freedom of thought and physical wellbeing. This view also requires a clear memory, immune from the distortions of relativism or revisionism.
The writer is an English teacher at Hanmin High
School in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.