Rewriting history in name of leaders is dangerous

It is a truism that history is written by the victors. One could also argue that it's often rewritten as a kind ofa refresher course when the truth becomes stale or the narrative needs tweaking, for geopolitical reasons.

- FRANK GIUSTRA

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't!"

And it usually goes hand in hand with the glorification of political leaders. Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with patriotism. I love my country, but brainwashing is altogether different and dangerous. So, why do leaders feel the need to rewrite in the first place? 

It's simple: Control. In the days of hunter-gatherers, a king's physical strength was enough to keep his tribe in line. As societies became larger and more sedentary, high priests claimed the power of God's wrath to scare the populace into conforming Eventually, kings hijacked the process, becoming deities themselves.

The first Mesopotamian ruler who declared himself divine was Naram-Sin of Akkad. Naram-Sin reigned sometime during the 23rd century BCE and claimed to take the title of "God of Akkad" at the request of his citizens.

As population centres grew and the rabble clued in to priestly magic tricks, so too did the evolution of control mechanisms. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church exercised control by establishing itself as the sole conduit to God's ear.

That worked well until Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church's role as intermediary between people and God, which set off the European wars of religion during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Three hundred years of religious wars weren't fought over the interpretation of scripture. It was about power and who had control over the people.

A more subtle method of exercising control is to foster nationalism, which begets loyalty.