THE EVER CHANGING PAST
“The future is certain; it is only the past that is unpredictable”. This old Soviet joke points out to the authoritarian regime’s habit of editing and airbrushing history books and controlling the narration over history as the key to political legitimacy. Therefore, the unpredictability of the past is no laughing matter, neither to historians nor the general public. History is a fluid creature and can easily be contaminated. The temptation to use it for particular ambitions is not exclusive to non-democratic systems. The battle over the narrative is as important and real as the political arguments and armed conflicts. Nowadays with widely available technology and means of communication, history revels even more dangerous potentialities. It’s increasingly often used to polarize society, to end the dialog and exclude those who present different points of view.
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