Recently the PBS American Experience series broadcast a three part program, The Great War, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States entrance into World War I. It was a very well executed and produced exercise in court history regarding this conflict, which nevertheless contained unprecedented incisive criticism of President Woodrow Wilson and the savage conduct of this bloody and futile war (part 1); (part 2); and (part 3). It is evident from this series that the “official line” on WWI is undergoing much revision due to new truths and factual assertions unearthed by vigilant opponents of the scholarly status quo.
Court historians are the intellectual bodyguards of the State. They shape and defend the “official line” or interpretation on the State’s wars, its presidential regimes, or other key historical events and public policies. As a result they enjoy high esteem and recognition in mainstream media and academia. As defenders of the status quo they frequently attack and label their critics as “conspiracy theorists,” “revisionists,” “isolationists,” “appeasers,” “anti-intellectuals,” or other boogie men, rather than engage in civil discourse or discussion.
As the economist/historian Murray N. Rothbard noted:
7:53 am on April 22, 2017All States are governed by a ruling class that is a minority of the population, and which subsists as a parasitic and exploitative burden upon the rest of society. Since its rule is exploitative and parasitic, the State must purchase the alliance of a group of Court Intellectuals, whose task is to bamboozle the public into accepting and celebrating the rule of its particular State. The Court Intellectuals have their work cut out for them. In exchange for their continuing work of apologetics and bamboozlement, the Court Intellectuals win their place as junior partners in the power, prestige, and loot extracted by the State apparatus from the deluded public. The noble task of Revisionism is to de-bamboozle: to penetrate the fog of lies and deception of the State and its Court Intellectuals, and to present to the public the true history of the motivation, the nature, and the consequences of State activity. By working past the fog of State deception to penetrate to the truth, to the reality behind the false appearances, the Revisionist works to delegitimize, to desanctify, the State in the eyes of the previously deceived public.
