It’s a trick question, right?

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Lenny Appadoo

Aug 19, 2026

If you could erase one event from history, what would it be?

Being able to erase events from history seems quite handy until you question why it’s necessary and who benefits.

Imagine if Nazis could erase the holocaust from history? That would sanitise the movement which is still very much active today. It would rid them of some very nasty baggage which irredeemably taints their image. Nazis could have free reign to commit newer acts of savagery because nobody would be expecting it.

Meanwhile, Zionists have been trying to eliminate Palestinian history for nearly 80 years. They have had surprisingly good success because it’s only in the last few years that the Palestinian plight has started receiving the attention it needed decades ago already. They’re not out of the woods (or concentration camp) yet, but the entire world is now fully awake to one of the most egregious travesties of justice in human history.

It’s far too convenient wiping out unsavory man-made history that’s uncomfortably embarrassing to certain individuals or groups. It’s bad enough that we are not learning from history as we should.

Another genocide is currently happening before our very eyes because people are either in denial or don’t think the consequences or international law applies to them.

Imagine if we could just wish history away with the flick of a finger? It’s open season on making every form of bigotry and injustice great again.

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6 responses to “It’s a trick question, right?”

Bob Lynn

Aug 19, 2026

You’re spot on, Lenny. Erasing the crime just hands the criminal a blank cheque. We don’t even need a magical eraser when a robust propaganda machine does the job just fine by sanitising school textbooks.

But here’s a wrinkle. If wiping the historical record only protects the oppressor, what about the psychological toll on the oppressed? Let’s say you could erase the generational trauma of an atrocity without altering the actual historical facts. Wouldn’t you take that deal? Or isn’t stripping away the visceral pain just a fast track to the exact same historical amnesia you’re warning about?

Bob

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1. lenny unencumbered
  
  Aug 19, 2026
  
  Well put, Bob. Thanks
  Your wrinkle reminds me of the questions I faced while taking an introductory course in Philosophy several years ago.
  Philosophy allows us to examine possibilities. It’s always wonderful to imagine what it could be like if take back recorded history.
  Unfortunately (or fortunately – another philosophical conundrum) reality dictates that we obey the laws of science. It is indeed a reality that histories can be manipulated by wicked men for wicked purposes and that was my angle or the gist of my essay.
  
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  1. Bob Lynn
    
    Aug 19, 2026
    
    Fair enough on the philosophy front, Lenny. But let’s pull on that thread about reality. You say reality prevents us from physically taking back history, yet allows wicked men to manipulate it.
    
    But isn’t successful manipulation just erasure by another name? If a regime rewrites the narrative so the victims’ suffering is minimised or omitted entirely, haven’t they achieved the exact erasure you warned against, just using ink instead of a magical time machine?
    
    If that’s true, where exactly do we draw the line between ordinary historical bias and deliberate erasure? And if philosophy lets us examine these extremes, shouldn’t we be using it to figure out how ordinary people can spot the early stages of that manipulation before it becomes an accepted reality?
    
    Bob
    
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  2. lenny unencumbered
    
    Aug 19, 2026
    
    That’s precisely what I mean. Manipulation through erasure. It can take many forms, one of which I have already written about in Israel. Another example is my own personal experience during apartheid where our history was not only taught through a colonial prism, but the the defeated Native population were painted as the villains.
    
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Mary K. Doyle

Aug 20, 2026

So true, Lenny.

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1. lenny unencumbered
  
  Aug 20, 2026
  
  Thank you, Mary.
  
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