Wrong side of history

I’ve heard the phrase “on the wrong side of history” a fair bit in the last several years. I know it’s meant to express vindication for an idea or movement that is coming into its own. Anyone opposing that idea/movement is on the wrong side of history. Time has proven that the right side has won out, etc.

But there’s another quote that is also relevent here: history is written by the victors.

So being on the wrong side of history doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with whether you were right or wrong, but rather whether your won or lost. It also, you would think, means that there is a clear winner and loser already.

In many of the cases it’s not so clear anyone has won or lost yet, let alone who was right and who was wrong. And as anyone who studies history can tell you, even when written by the victors it’s not always clear who really won or lost.

I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s when the Japanese were the global powerhouse. It seemed like their products were clobbering American-made everything, and their wealthy class were buying up everything in sight. I remember people on several occasions wondering, “hey, didn’t we win the war?” Well perhap the war wasn’t over after all, or perhaps in the long run our defeat of Japan and subsequent rebuilding efforts put us both on a win/win course. But even today we can’t really say who won. Our military defeated Japan back then, but since that time it’s not so simple to describe what happened between our countries.

I can’t help but think, therefore, that those throwing around accusations against others of being on the wrong side of history aren’t really thinking things all the way through. You may be winning at the moment, and you may be doing your darnedest to write the history books your way, but the jury of time is still out. History is not complete.

But one thing seems certain. If you’re able to declare you’re on the right side of history, that means you are the ones in power, holding the power, etc. That makes you the enemy against which you are fighting, not those on the “wrong side of history.” You’re the lack of change you want to see in the world. That means, for starters, that it’s your fault if things aren’t going the way you want. It also means, you break it, you’ve bought it. It’s hard to claim both victory and victimhood.