France divided over colonial past

"A controversial law on history education reveals deep societal fault lines."

"Hardly had the fires died down in the Paris suburbs, as the November rioting by immigrant youths petered out, than the flames of another conflict fed by France's colonial past began to sweep through the political landscape here."

"This time they are metaphorical. But the passionate debate under way over whether French history teachers should stress positive aspects of colonialism is generating almost as much heat. The argument reveals the same ambivalence among French politicians about their country's former empire and its peoples which also fuels much of the immigrants' alienation. It has also raised questions about whether a democracy can have an "official history.""

It seems that the French government has slipped into law a provision that requires teachers to "recognize in particular the positive character of the French overseas presence, notably in North Africa.". A question pops into mind, wondering just what a "positive character" of colonialism could possibly be. Only from the viewpoint of the conquerers, could there be anything "positive". Colonialism is nothing less than pure economic subjugation of other people that results in exploitation of their land, it's resources, and it's people, for the sole benefit of an Imperial homeland. To the homeland, there's certainly a positive aspect, albeit temporary, since they reap the rewards at the expence of the conquered. But you can't expect those on the losing end of such a "partnership" to see any benifit at all. Even those few among native populations who prosper by collaborating with the colonial rulers, are only able to do so by aiding in the rape of their own sovereignty.

While it's undeniable that history should teach what benefits rulers exact from conquered lands, the equally undeniable history of the consequences, should also be taught. To that end, politicians should stay out of it, since (in this case) they represent the very institution that benefitted the most, and many of those who were involved during the Empires' waning days, are still living, and some still reaping rewards.

State mandated history has no place in this world. Governments do not dictate history to provide truth, but to hide the truth of it's own actions, and often to spread propaganda to justify whatever misdeeds are already known. Governments don't like to be blamed for anything, so mandating what history is to be taught to it's population, will only be done for political reasons, and that kind of reasoning tends to corrupt the truth and distort historical reality.

That's a lesson that people here in America should learn and remember, as we embark on our own Imperial conquests. We should not just accept whatever curriculum the Department of Education and the individual state and local systems force on our schools. Even then, parents should never assume their children are being taught real history, simply because they attend school. They should look inside those books and see if what they're learning is impartial history, or propaganda, designed to make past misdeeds nothing more than footnotes, if mentioned at all. If there are errors, omissions, or outright lies, and the system refuses to correct them, take your kid to the library or book store and teach them that they can't rely solely on information they're fed, by showing them there's a world of information they will never be taught in state sponsored schools, that must be sought after on their own.

If people don't know their true history, no matter how painful it may be, it certainly leaves open the probability that mistakes in judgementwill be repeated time and time again.

But....then again, people have short memories anyway, so even when they get that deja vu feeling, when they're being led once again down a familiar, often repeated path that leads to ruin and the collapse of society, they gladly go along, as long as they're told there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.