Writing - politically correcting history

 There's nothing like righteous indignation to drive along an idea no matter how frivolous or how hastily thought up. In my opinion history is the human race's natural break on making mistakes that have already occurred. So it is a worry when the current trend for wokeness and politically correctness begin to create groups that want to wipe out historical events as if they never occurred. We have witnessed statues being pulled down there have been threats to rewrite stories, which are deemed classical, without any real thought as to the consequences of those actions. 

Love thy neighbour (1972)

Ever since Love Thy Neighbour was first transmitted in 1972, it has been criticised for its poor handling of issues of racism. It was made in an era when Britain was struggling to come to terms with mass immigration, and Love Thy Neighbour was said to exemplify those difficulties. 

This programme ran for four years, 53 episodes and 8 series. In fact that really is my point it was something that actually took place in history over 50 years ago. Irrespective of how poor, how funny or how unsuitable various aspects of the programme were they took place and as such should be learned from rather than burnt or altered to make it politically correct.

Edward Colston statue 

After the statue of enslaver Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol in

June 2020 and dumped into the city harbour, ripples spread across the UK. In the following six months there was an unprecedented public reckoning with the legacies of slavery in Britain – most visibly in the removal or alteration of almost 70 tributes to enslavers and colonialists, including 39 names on streets, buildings and schools, as well as 30 statues, plaques and other memorials. 

There is a childlike naivete in the above actions. We cannot erase all of the bad things that occurred in history. Should we erase all memorials and references to the detonating of nuclear devices over Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Then should we shun all things American because they are the only nation on Earth to attack another nation with such an evil weapon? 

Children's Memorial Hiroshima 

The dropping of the device – codenamed 'Little Boy' – on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, claimed the lives of an estimated 140,000 people. Estimated 35000 children were among the dead. Compare those figures with those coming out of Gaza. Then add those killed in Nagasaki. 

In summation, history is a collection of accounts of earlier human events, some recorded accurately, that we need to study so as to avoid making similar mistakes. Altering history will not allow for future positive development of the human race. 

God Bless