Historical Misrepresentation: How Many "Heroes" Were Really Villains...?

...and how many villains were really heroes? These are serious questions. As they say, the winners write the history. So always look at the reports from biased contemporaries with a jaundiced eye. Politicians who win don't make trustworthy critics of their political enemies. Neither do the losers for that matter. A little time is necessary to evaluate the real impact of movers and shakers. 

I think of all those who insisted Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare. Now we know a lot more about his background. Some of the prejudice was pure snobbishness. Shakespeare wasn't educated enough to write his brilliant plays. It had to be someone else. Now we know, based on evidence, that he was a Catholic and a recusant. He left Blackfriars Gatehouse, which he purchased before retiring to Stratford, to his daughter Susanna who remained a Catholic and was brought before the court at one point as a recusant as opposed to her sister who became Protestant. The Gatehouse became a safe house and center of Catholic activity. See The Catholicism of William Shakespeare. The plays are chock full of Catholic imagery!

There are many examples of "history" that over the years must be revised because of new information and exposure of prejudicial actions suppressing, ignoring, or distorting the past. Errors? Dishonesty? They play a part. Here are just a few examples:

• The Crusades -- They saved Christian Europe from being overtaken by Islam. Without the crusades we would all be kneeling toward Mecca. And yet the crusades today are almost always discussed in a pejorative sense. I would be happy to walk in the footsteps of St. Louis IX, a saint and a crusader. Check out this article, Three Big Myths about the Crusades.

• Francisco Franco -- He saved Spain from becoming the spearhead of Communism in Europe and yet he is, to this day, always labeled a dictator and tyrant. I'm currently reading a novel partly set in Spain during Franco's reign. Not surprisingly, he is portrayed negatively. For a more balanced view, read historian Warren Carroll's The Last Crusade. 

• Abraham Lincoln -- The "Great Emancipator" who never freed a single slave, would happily have maintained slavery if it could preserve the union. In the only court case he ever argued about slavery, lawyer Lincoln defended the slaveholder. His generals (Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Custer) practiced unrestricted warfare against civilians (and the Indians later). Today we would describe their scorched earth warfare against every Southern resident including women and children as war crimes. I used to believe the St. Abraham propaganda until I read Lincoln's own letters and thought, "He sounds like Bill Clinton." Then I read Thomas DiLorenzo's book, The Real Lincoln. What an eye-opener! Telling the truth about Lincoln and the unnecessary war between the states invariably gets me accused of being pro-slavery.

• Joseph McCarthy -- Poor Senator Joe McCarthy has been vilified by the left from the beginning for his bulldog determination to root Communists out of government and expose the damage to our democracy and culture. Are we surprised? Many leftists are, in fact, Communists, using the more benign term today of "socialist." McCarthy was hounded during his lifetime and continues to be a bogeyman to the left today. Do a search on his name and be prepared for an avalanche of sewage. But if you examine the McCarthy investigations ("witch hunt" to the left), he was mostly right. The treatment of President Trump shows that the same smear campaigns are popular today. I plan to read Blacklisted by History (2007) by M. Stanton Evans revealing the truth of the McCarthy era. Howard Phillips interviewed Evans on his Conservative Roundtable. It's well worth watching. Joe McCarthy revealed the truth about Communist penetration of the U.S. government. He was a hero of truth, who loved America. He was "deplorable" before his time, one who became the victim of an organized ad hominem character assassination that probably contribued to his death.

All these examples illustrate how easy it is to blind and manipulate the masses with a tsunami of propaganda, especially from the mainstream media that hypes the lie and buries the truth. You need to know who you can trust among historians and commentators. By all means read both sides. We all have our biases, but who has the proof? The strategy of the left is to smear and attack those they consider "enemies." We've seen it bigtime. It was especially evident during COVID when board certified physicians, leaders in their field were cancelled and attacked for following the science. And how many are dying now because they swallowed the lies? 

Always pray to know the truth. As always, scripture provides the answer:

...sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you. But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience: that whereas they speak evil of you, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

When you love the truth and serve the truth you are serving Him Who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."