Chapter 12 'Who Controls the Present, Controls the Past'

Chapter 12 was yet again another eye-opener for us students.

The reality of the process these American textbooks are made is rather frightening than disappointing especially what Loewen wrote here> 'United States has wound up with the largest gap of any country in the world between what historians know and what the rest of us are taught.' (p303) This reminded me very much of the evening News in Japan. They select the most meaningless topics such as which celebrity said what or what colored tie the PM was wearing, when in fact they actually know about the situations in Syria or the controversial riots that occurred that day. How can a report about a dead man be reported in less than 2 minutes when a report about a cheap dessert is 5 minutes. I was told during our orientation here in ICU that the signs of a religious cult is that they don't let you think freely. A similar thing is happening within the Japanese media and high school textbooks. They are not providing us with the chance to think. As Loewen recites, this is what is shielding us from prospering our critical thinking skills. 

 I guess this is done within the selfish and reasonable intentions of the authorities of today because studies show that Americans who graduated from college are less patriotic than those who stopped education at high school. This is primarily because in college, you find out more about the reality; and the reality is that America like other countries has messed up big time in the past. However, those who say they are patriotic about the country without knowing the real deal, are just caught up in a pretend or should I say, unsubstantial patriotism.

The fact that these 'authors' who claim they wrote the textbooks aren't actually the 'authors' is unacceptable because this means that the authors nor the publishers understand the importance of these textbooks and how much responsibility they hold towards making them. Textbooks are not just books. They are a way of fostering the generations of tomorrow. They are absolutely not tools to brainwash those children in order to make today a bit better for themselves.

However, as long as these textbooks remain the way they are today, I guess we students have no choice but to go get the information ourselves...