Sarah Gibbard Cook
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The Wrong Side of History

10/19/2020

2 Comments

 
Will history be the judge? Does the arc of history bend? Figures of speech both reflect and shape our expectations.

My constitutional law professor thought the courts should have ended “separate but equal” education not by finding it unconstitutional, but by enforcing equal funding for all schools, making segregation financially unsustainable. It is easy from this distance to consign him to the wrong side of history. We call “the right side” the one that wins out in the long run as accepted and wise. Three problems with this notion:
  1. Accepted and wise may not match. Thoreau wrote, “Our inventions . . . are but improved means to an unimproved end.”
  2. Hindsight helps. Had the Civil War, World War II, or the Cuban Missile Crisis ended differently, might that change how we judge the strategic choices leading up to them?
  3. The long run doesn’t exist. Years move on, we bumble along, and judgments can shift as we see what happens next.
2 Comments
Rebecca link
10/19/2020 11:07:40 am

The phrase "history will not be kind to..." is one I use when I disagree with a President or Congress' actions, but there seems to be a lack of knowledge or political will to do something about it at present.

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Sarah Cook link
10/19/2020 08:13:11 pm

As an expression of one's feelings of anger or frustration, personifying history in that way can work pretty well. As in, "I can't do much about this now but history will get revenge."

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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