by Carol Noble

Created on: May 15, 2007   Last Updated: December 12, 2011

I would love to think that history can be objective. The farther away from the actual event we are the easier it is to be emotionally distant. When we are closer to the time period in question we find it difficult to say what we want to say because some people involved in the situation are still alive and we don't want to cause offense, or we are so far away we allow different social attitudes to colour our perception of what actually happened.

But there are some instances when "facts" can be more accurate, such as when proving or disproving if someone did or did not own a property, that a law has been passed, or that certain rights and privileges were in evidence at the time, even if people like to think they were not because not everyone made full use of the privileges. Proof that someone was born, married, or died also falls into this category. 

There are also proofs such as gravestones, architectural remains, and archaeological discoveries which often belie what people had previously thought was the historic truth.

Yet the main reason why history is not as objective as it should be is that some people want personal power, and they don't care how they achieve it. If that means they have to destroy, distort, or amend history, then so be it. They will do it, and it proves difficult sometimes to convince the rest of the population that a lie has been stated; all evidence that comes to light "disappears" before it can have its full truth effect, leaving people in doubt, but accepting the old history because it suits them to do so, and then it is forgotten.

How often has a piece of evidence come to the fore and rather than embrace it it is ridiculed, considered to be a fraud. Sometimes this may be the case, but not every time.

I know of several bits of history which are not as the official line likes to put forward, and even when the evidence is put to them it slowly disappears out of the limelight only to be suppressed in the future. This is because those who have built up their livelihoods on what is later proved to be a false history are afraid of the new truth and so to preserve the status quo do their best to destroy the truth.

History is a fascinating subject, but is one of the most difficult to enlighten people about its truth rather than its fiction.

As long as people continue to twist and distort the truth for their own ends history will never be objective.

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