浙大宁波理工学院外语平台第五学期6.doc

?History is written by the victors.” This famous phrase reverberates throughout of the halls of the history, constantly reminds us to take all that we learn with a grain of salt, knowing that the information provided for our dissemination was provided, shaped and influenced by those left to open the pen that record it. In that respect, one of the worst crimes against history is the revision of it, the altering of record of the past so as to reflect the viewpoint of a biased group who stand to benefit from the altered version. By revising the lens by which history is judged, valuable information is lost, to the detriment of both students of the field as well as the awareness that comes from experience. Without an accurately recorded account to serve as a guiding light, nations and societies are left to stumble their way about their affairs, ignorant of what has and hasn’t worked before, and unaware of what past events shaped and determined their present situation. Such dismal emerge from simple pride, as well as the desire of the revisionists to depict themselves in a better light to posterity or to cover up an embarrassing legacy, no matter the cost to the future. Recent attempts by nations involved in the Second World War to minimize or erase altogether certain shameful incidents from their history textbooks has been met with international outrage and protest, and rightly so. By allowing future generations to forget or never even learn about how their ancestors stumbled on the path to progress, the experiences of those who suffered as a result of those mistakes are trivialized and made to be in vain. Also, a false sense of national identity emerges, inconsistent and inaccurate in its formation. Both are heinous results for both nationals of that particular nation as well as those of the international community, whose story intertwined to form the larger picture. When a single string in the tapestry of world history is unraveled by revision, the entire piece beco