History’s task is to detect the ruses and lies that mask power’s origins
Evidence
These unjust and biased kings tried to make it look as though they were acting on behalf of all and in the name of all; they certainly wanted people to talk of their victories, but they did not want it to be known that their victories were someone else’s defeats: “It was our defeat.” The role of history will, then, be to show that laws deceive, that kings wear masks, that power creates illusions, and that historians tell lies. This will not, then, be a history of continuity, but a history of the deciphering, the detection of the secret, of the outwitting of the ruse, and of the reappropriation of a knowledge that has been distorted or buried. It will decipher a truth that has been sealed. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 89
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Counterhistory functions to disinter truths that power has deliberately concealed — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 89; Whole-trend historical explanations often mask escapes from responsibility; Power remakes the Orient through expedient knowledge that erases real histories (+7 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- Whole-trend historical explanations often mask escapes from responsibility
#corroborates(0.82) - Power remakes the Orient through expedient knowledge that erases real histories
#exemplifies(0.80) - Founding myths substitute fabricated narrative for genuine history to serve ruling classes
#exemplifies(0.80) - Origin myths function as political arguments about power, not historical records
#exemplifies(0.78) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 132 - Conspiracy-society structures are valued for their capacity to sustain a fictitious world through lying
#exemplifies(0.75) - Foundational myths reinterpret the past to justify future political claims.
#exemplifies(0.75) - Secrecy suppresses knowledge, enforcing historical amnesia.
#expands(0.72) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 1085