Who writes history?

As ever the victors write history.

And condemn the losers as traitors.

It gets more entertaining when the victors swap every few years. Tudor England anyone?
 
As ever the victors write history.

And condemn the losers as traitors.

It gets more entertaining when the victors swap every few years. Tudor England anyone?
I have a deep fascination for Tudor England, well Ann Boleyn actually, as played by the wonderful Natalie Dormer.
 
The victor does write history.

In the books, we are grateful that Russia helped us win WWII.

We tend to ignore the 2 million innocent children, women and grandmothers; gang-raped repeatedly by the Red Army, as they advanced westward.
 
I find it strange that humans that are trained to kill other humans without emotion are then judged on the way they act. Do you think that they only have no emotion when they kill another man in an opposing uniform or do you think the psychological damage caused by being trained to kill with no remorse might run a bit deeper?
 
My old man completed 20+ missions for Bomber Command, he probably killed hundreds of people, many of them would have been civilians. He thought about that a lot, but as he never experienced the consequence of his actions, he found that hard to relate to.

The only death that really troubled him was during the Battle of Britain. A German fighter crashed close by and he and a colleague were sent to pick up the pilot who had bailed out. When approached the pilot pulled out a pistol and my father and the other chap both shot him with their rifles. That really affected him.
 
I find it strange that humans that are trained to kill other humans without emotion are then judged on the way they act. Do you think that they only have no emotion when they kill another man in an opposing uniform or do you think the psychological damage caused by being trained to kill with no remorse might run a bit deeper?

Slightly on a tangent but this reminds me of Ten Types of Human by Dexter Dias, which is worth reading (heavy going though so I tend to dip in and out). There is a detailed section on child soldiers in Africa, for example; really interesting but also disturbing. It was found that many of these kids actually developed essentially a blood lust and ended up enjoying the act of killing and inflicting pain. No different to any psychopath you might argue but these were seemingly "normal" kids (well as normal as they could be in such an environment. Let's just say they were initially without conditioning). They became conditioned to behave in this way.
 
Going back some time in our history, I would say the answer to a large extent would have been the Church and the Monarchy. Recorded history (ie - written down) was the preserve of the very few who could read & write (and could afford pens, paper etc). And they were hardly going to say bad things about the, er, church and monarchy.
 
Going back some time in our history, I would say the answer to a large extent would have been the Church and the Monarchy. Recorded history (ie - written down) was the preserve of the very few who could read & write (and could afford pens, paper etc). And they were hardly going to say bad things about the, er, church and monarchy.
But to go back to my point. Which church and which monarch?
 
we finally find some common ground. its a little upsetting truth be told....
So there may actually be hope for you yet. Agree on the important things, get in the beer and the rest falls into place.

Played exactly the same role in GOT, every bit just as wonderful. (pun intended)
 
The victor does write history.

In the books, we are grateful that Russia helped us win WWII.

We tend to ignore the 2 million innocent children, women and grandmothers; gang-raped repeatedly by the Red Army, as they advanced westward.
I know of no serious historical account of the second world war in Europe which does not refer to these events.
 
A German fighter crashed close by and he and a colleague were sent to pick up the pilot who had bailed out. When approached the pilot pulled out a pistol and my father and the other chap both shot him with their rifles. That really affected him.

Hey, that would be a great idea for a war movie! You need to get a hold of Sam Mendes and...

oh.. wait nevermind. :(
 

A little context into Solzhenitsyn's comment would help.

Bolshevism? Jews.
global media? Jews.

Thanks for your depth of insight, Alex. It would appear a little jail time did nothing for that lunatic. Why he was released, I'll never know.
What Uncle Joe gaveth, Krushchev tooketh away :(
Are you're saying that his opinion doesn't count as you see him as being antisemitic?
 
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