Why is it difficult to know he truth about historical events?
It is often claimed that we would never get to know the real events from our past. In this essay I will argue on how descriptions of historical events vary according to cultural and political influence.
Firstly, we can state to be true that a similar situation might be pictured from different points of view depending a persons´s background, for instance, would the native Americans share opinion with the Europeans about the colonization of America? Definitely not. Natives will surely tell another story,they would speak about murder and fear rather than a civilized cultural exchange. Mostly while talking about a past situation we will approach the topic through a biased view about it and depending on our own world view.
Secondly, we have the political influence. Not only only do politicians create history, but they also benefit from it. The way in which incidents take place has a great impact on them. Therefore, they might retell history based on their outright-lies in order to benefit. Hence, we can argue that politicians will be one-sided or distort the information due to their own vested interest.
Taking everything into consideration, we can say that how past events are told will be influenced mainly on the interests of politics and by people´s beliefs and values. To my mind, our past is and, unfortunately, will always be uncertain since it is difficult for people to leave their ideals a side and be objective.
