On Narratives
By: Taha Brich
Tags: Propaganda, War, History, Narrative

It is often said that history is written by the winner, the winners of the last great war were the Allies , they tell a story of good vs evil, of light vs darkness and if their accounts were to be taken word for word , one call only imagine how people with such close geographical locations turned out to be complete opposites in the moral spectrum. We do not know how the story would have been told had the Axis won, but we can imagine the Allies beeing labeled as evil with a couple of bonus warcrimes attached to their names.

Since historical narratives are written to glamourize one side and demonize another, they fail to stick to a congruent narrative and as a result fail to provide a coherent story. For instance, Germany faced extreme poverty and hyperinflation as well as an accumulation of debts at the end of World War 1, the situation was so dire that people in 1923 had to resort to burning money in order to stay warm. Yet with the rise of nationalism and Adolf, Germany managed to go through a miraculous recovery, restarting its economy, rebuilding its army and opening up more fronts for war than its predeccesors.

How did the Germans pull it off? Was is it cheer-hard work, brilliance, or even something as silly as Aryan genetics? Was it a combination of all three? And if we understand the driving force behind this miracle, could we replicate it? Could we pull such a recovery today say in Syria or other war thorn countries?

Future generations should know about these savages!

Historians generally put quite the emphasis on a story’s climax and its end yet its roots and origins are barely glanced at. Gaps in the narrative allow historians to make generalizations about a group of people using one event or instance in history without linking it to others.

There are countless examples in history of this phenomena, the Japanese are bad because of Pearl-Harbor, the Japanese are good because of the rising Chinese threat. The Soviets are our allies against the Axis of evil. The Soviets are commies and represent an existential threat to democracy.

What’s even more perverse is when historians use identity politics, correlating people’s beliefs, actions and attitudes with their race, religion and class.

Taliban mocking U.S Marines.

The only benefitors are those who push for violence, for the questions Why and How do not have to be answered. This can lead to perpetual violence, such as the case in Afghanistan, what was supposed to be mission to take out Osama Bin Laden, turned into a 20 year all out war with the Taliban. The U.S sticking to it’s ‘We will not negotiate with terrorists’ Motto kept pushing the goal post, on the otherhand Major news networks ramped up their propaganda efforts, giving the illusion to the American- Tax payer that this was a moral war, a war for women rights, a war for democracy (albeit knowingly that it could not be won).

The result was the transfer of 100’s of billions of taxpayers dollars to the military industrial complex, the only ‘winners’ of the Afghnistan war were private contractors.

America has already adapted its ‘See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil’ policy with the Taliban, blaming it’s rushed and disastrous exit on the unwillingness of the afghan people to fight between each other. Tomorrow, like in the past, the Taliban could be our greatest ally against the soviets, Tomorrow, like in the past, all can be forgiven, and a new blank page can be written aslong as the right pockets are filled.

I leave you with with a definition of war from the Pulitzer prize wining reporter Chris Hedges ‘War is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of idealists by cynics and of troops by politicians’