by Michael Brown

Created on: August 04, 2010

As human beings, in spite of our best attempts at objectivity, there is always an element of the subjective to our actions and the subsequent recognition of these actions. This goes far beyond simple playground elaboration in which the weakling flexes his bicep, telling his beaming father that he stood up to 15 boys, twice his size, when in fact it was a boy of smaller stature who had his back turned at the time.

Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during the second world war was a famously inspirational orator and his phrase, history is written by the victors, resonates loudly in the ripples of history when viewed from any perspective.

The human Ego as identified by the Austrian psychiatrist and founding father of psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud, is a very powerful force in generating human emotions such as pride. The Id pushes humans to strive for instant satisfaction, whether this is food to satisfy hunger, a sexual encounter to satisfy lust or a cigarette to calm wrenched nerves.

The Ego can be considered the regulator of the Id, which has no basis in the real-world. The Id's only concern is to attain the satisfaction it desires. When a people, a warrior, a King or a politician with a desire for a satisfactory outcome, or at least representation of their deeds, it is easy to see how the Ego would come in and frame said events in a way that casts a positive light over their actions.

When this is a practice adopted by the weakest child in the classroom, it is a little sad; sad that he has to lie about his ability to terrorise other individuals rather than rely on his other merits.

When it is adopted by a regime, a country, a civilization that writes this version of events into their history books and teaches it to their children, then it is downright worrying.

Not only is it concerning when events are skewed in the public consciousness so that two versions of the same event occur, but it is slightly more concerning when a polarity is created where an event is widely believed through historical evidence to have occurred, but there are those who uphold the absolute opposite view.

It is understandable, though still not acceptable, to frame the American conflict in Vietnam as any more than a foolhardy crusade to save political face, rather than the lengthy, brutal and pointless war in which many citizens needlessly lost their life. Slightly less understandable, in fact, down right bewildering, is the wave of outright denial of an event as infamous

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