All History Is Written By....

(While I have included many conversations in the blogs preceding anecdotes and stories, generally I have been able to recall the actual conversations or the ‘jist’ of them at least. The following comments are probably no more than a paraphrase of the conversation I had with Mr Walsh. Or more appropriately, the monologue he had with me (with the odd contribution I made. I recall ‘the message’ more than the exact words, but please appreciate the crucial nature of what he said to me, despite the situation I was in. This was one reason I believed he was one of the best real teachers I ever had)

He looked at me. He sat and thought for a moment. “History is a strange thing, Mr Dwyer.” He began. “There is a famous quote, History is written by the winners,” he continued. I looked at him curiously. “You must have realised by now, what you may read about, in non-fiction, will never be the whole truth. It will always be someone else’s version. With descriptions of battles for example, usually, it’s the person who didn’t lose at whatever happened. Or, perhaps they were the person who was in the safest place, when history actually happened. Perhaps it was written by someone, who held someone else in very high regard and wanted them to be remembered.” He paused. “Did you know there are no writings by the famous father of philosophy, Socrates?’ Then possibly remembering I was only nine years old (even though we were well read back then), He continued, “Well, you wouldn’t yet, But, he is only known to us, by the writings of his students, such as Plato, and the later philosophers?

He had paused. I looked at him for a moment. “So, perhaps Socrates didn’t actually exist, Sir”, I suggested, almost forgetting why I was there.

Mr Walsh looked back at me seriously. He considered what I said. “Perhaps. That could be argued, Mr Dwyer. But, I am sure ‘a’ Socrates existed, in some form. It is through the history we have of him, how he was written about, that we know ‘of’ him. Someone else of course, may write about someone. (Had he foreseen this blog? I wonder if he had ever dreamed a student of his would be writing about him) That is how history is written, by the winners, or, the survivors.” He paused again and looked at me. “Many ‘famous’ wars were, no doubt, very different at the time they were fought. But when they took the time to write about them, they probably changed one or two things to what suited them, the winners, to ‘tell’ the others. Other things they simply hid by omission. Famous events in history are usually no different. Someone wrote the history, sometimes a long time after the actual event.”

He paused and looked out the window. I looked at his face seriously for the first time. He was old. Well, older. Well, compared to we young students, he was very old (But I am sure, he was younger then, than I am now). He was certainly an older man compared to many of the other teachers. And how he managed his class was different to the other teachers. He had a way of talking ‘to’ the students, rather than ‘at’ the students, and he got their attention. He had my attention now. As I sat facing him after he had obviously identified me as the thief. Then he continued. “Things change over time. Such as the history, story or ‘the legend‘, that we know and the actual reality that was ‘Robin of Locksley or….?”

“Robin Hood” I supplied.

‘Robin Hood” He replied. “Exactly”.

 (Continued tomorrow)