What's wrong with the term "revisionism"? (or revisionist)
From the dictionary:
revisionism - 1. Advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine, especially a revision of historical events and movements.
2. A recurrent tendency within the Communist movement to revise Marxist theory in such a way as to provide justification for a retreat from the revolutionary to the reformist position.
Forget the second definition. It's no longer operative, in the same way that Whig and Tory have shed their origins:
Originally “Whig” and “Tory” were terms of abuse introduced in 1679 during the heated struggle over the bill to exclude James, duke of York (afterward James II), from the succession. Whig—whatever its origin in Scottish Gaelic—was a term applied to horse thieves and, later, to Scottish Presbyterians; it connoted nonconformity and rebellion and was applied to those who claimed the power of excluding the heir from the throne. Tory was an Irish term suggesting a papist outlaw and was applied to those who supported the hereditary right of James despite his Roman Catholic faith. [Encyclopædia Britannica]
Cheney and others are beating the drum "accusing" some folks of revisionism. But there has been a whole lot more learned about the politics and intelligence leading up to the Iraq War. Revisionism is therefore appropriate and, in fact, mandatory.
posted by Quiddity at 11/23/2005 10:22:00 AM
What I like about the term "revisionist" is that it sounds so much like soviet insult. Remember the old days when their critics would be called things like deviationist factionalists engaged in adventurism?
By their language shall ye know them. There's more than one way to skin a shibboleth
Maynard Handley
Reflection and revision are good, but what people mean by revisionism these days is an Orwellian modifcation of the past without admitting you're doing it. Such as practiced by the White House.
When history is revised to expose the truth it is revisionist. When it is revised to hide the truth it is put in school history books.
I'd prefer we open the books of the CIA and the White House and reveal the truth so we can revise history accurately. Our servants shouldn't keep secrets from us.
