There is an intimate connection between who we are and where we came from. The latter often informs the former. And while every man has the individual prerogative to make his own life excellent, human beings are naturally social creatures who need a sense of identity that ties us to those around us.
And that social sense of identity is based on factors that existed before we were even born. We all have a concept of being American, for example, and that concept likely includes ideals such as freedom, self-efficacy, greatness, cultural achievement. It likely includes the nation’s history, from the colonists to the War of Independence to the settlers of the western frontier. All of these things took place hundreds of years before we were born, and yet they form the basis for our national identity.
The Left is in the business of corrupting things in order to acquire power and further their political agenda. They understand that founding myths and histories influence a people’s character and future — but they manipulate these things like scientists in a lab in order to socially engineer an easily controllable populace.
The Left’s assault on history, which has become apparent within the last decade in the form of historical revisionism and the war on public monuments and the historical figures they represent, is an important aspect of that social-engineering agenda. What they seek is the power to tell us who we are. Once they have it, they will, simply, tell us to be their slaves.
We cannot allow them to win the war for history. As the saying goes, the victors write the history. But if we allow the Left to win and thus rewrite our history, they will do so in such a way that effectively writes us — or, at least, all we care about — out of existence.
Remember, the end goal of the Left is to destroy the West’s Christian tradition, lead the nation into moral decay, and replace republicanism with a tyrannical system they anticipate controlling.
Not only is the Left’s plot diabolical; it is also against nature. For it is human nature to think fondly of our past, of our ancestors’ achievements, and of our identity. The individual is strong when he has a healthy self-esteem — it enables him to confidently meet life and thus be efficacious in accomplishing his life’s goals.
In the same way, a society is strong and prosperous when its members think well of who they are and where they came from. This is why, throughout history, nations have come up with idealized founding “myths.” In our modern superhero-obsessed culture, storytellers recognize that every great hero needs a great origin story. In the same way, a great nation needs a great origin story of its own.
And it is notable that societies, or those in power, have historically updated these origin stories to suit the changing ambitions of the people. As Rome grew in stature, for example, it was no longer enough for the city to be descended from the legendary Romulus, who, along with his brother (Remus), was the half-god son of Mars and raised by a she-wolf.
No, Rome needed a founding myth even more splendid to match their increasing glory, so Virgil, in his Aeneid, introduced the idea that the Romans descended from the mythical city of Troy via Aeneas.
The Renaissance epicenter of Florence in Italy similarly reshaped its founding myths as time went along and the city grew into a powerhouse. As documented in Donald Weinstein’s Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet:
Hand in hand with the expansion of the territorial state went image building. Writers forged a new version of Florence’s history, rewording the old myth of Florence, the daughter of Rome, heir to Rome’s imperial mission. In the second half of the thirteenth century a pseudo-prophecy of French origin predicted that a king named Charles would rule the empire, reform the Church, and conquer the infidel in the East, uniting the world into one sheepfold under a single shepherd (Ezek. 37.24) before laying down his crown on the Mount of Olives. In the next century Florentines adjusted both myths to their own legend. That their city had been built by Charlemagne after its destruction by the barbarian Totila reflected the reality of their strong economic and political ties with France.… Thus, by moving Charlemagne several centuries they made him a hero of the renewed republic and agent of its future glory.
The Left is going against nature by reframing America’s history as one of white oppressors who came to America to pillage the land, genocide the natives, and enslave minorities while persecuting women and homosexuals. They have also created a history for blacks that makes their victimhood as the descendants of slaves central to their racial identity.
Rather than lifting up, as founding histories and myths are supposed to, these narratives bring everyone down emotionally and render the people weak, guilt-ridden, bitter, angry, self-loathing, and atomized — all of which makes them so much easier for the establishment to control.
