The idea of “Fake News” isn’t new. If it walks like a duck . . . you know how the rest goes. We’ve grown up on it. We’ve been fed it all our lives. It’s called history. Even before writing, we had to rely on someone else’s account of what happened, why it happened and who was the winner.
General A wins the battle. He tells how he and his loyal troops won. General B lost the battle and subsequently, the war. His account doesn’t matter. General A’s account lives for a thousand years and becomes legend. There may be a simple truth to the battle and the war. We will probably never know it. Truth is often not glamorous. Truth doesn’t make anyone a hero.
We are eating fruit of a poisonous tree and still blaming Eve for it. Maybe that was the original spin. A woman subordinate to man, duped by a serpent into sin or so the story goes. The truth is we are all still spinning and drinking from segregated fountains.
History and Truth are not synonymous. Truth comes with balance. History comes with punishment, an indication of right and wrong and hell to pay. Truth supports equal advantage. History does not. History always supports advantage based on some strength or wisdom, some sorcery, magic or a well-placed spy. The loser always suffers loss and disgrace until history is rewritten or until they become winners.
When the benefit to the winners is so great and clear, is there blame in writing false history? There is blame and the losers become lessors. There is always fault but history doubles down and suggests winners cannot be wrong. They won. They are in control. Everyone else gets to drink the Jamestown Kool-Aid.
The de facto and de jure separate but equal world we live in is full of haves and have-nots. Have-nots will not be winners until we understand the game and work religiously to change it. Haves will never hand over the reigns of their horses. Effort must be religious because it will require leaps of faith. History will not support the have-nots ability to make such great leaps. The first step is to consider the waiting room. If it’s not as everyone else’s, even if it’s better, somethings wrong. Work toward fixing it. Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid.
#Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid, #DDKA, #afroticity
Fried Chicken & Philosophy 