Why do they do it?

Why do lefties like to downplay or rewrite history?

Christopher Booker, in his weekly article in the Sunday Telegraph ten days ago , pointed out that Ed Balls, Secretary for Children etc. has a plan to subsume the teaching of history and geography into the study of social themes. The subjects will thus lose much of their integrity in these "general studies" bundles.

In doing this he is following the trend among "progressives"for half a century.

Why do they do this?

1) They can eliminate anything which does not suit their cause, and provide opposition to the promulgation of progressive views. Failures in socialism or progressivism may be avoided.

2) They control the agenda, not the passing of the centuries. (I remember speaking to a history teacher, who admitted that what he was teaching was really "sociology, illustrated by history".) The problem , of course, is that we shall have adults in the future who do not really know who they are, historically speaking. They will have been indoctrinated in the class struggle, environment, the evil of capitalism, collective action and modern government.

They can even re-write history, as Russia is doing in restoring Stalin to favour, or as the EU is doing to the glorious history of the Union. If there are fewer people and writings to challenge the official line, the establishment is more comfortable.