Re-writing history

I'VE BEEN THINKING about our perceptions of people from history. And how fiction finds a way to creep up and intertwine itself with fact. The case is especially so when it comes to people who have changed or are changing history.

When fact and fiction co-exist often those people who have changed the world are beyond human error or fault. There's something to do with the passing of time that immortalizes the positive attributes of these people while simultaneously erasing their faults - no matter how disgusting and real they are. The worst part of this is that despite the fact that we live in the age of information, in many schools today and in the general mainstream media we aren't taught or informed about the reality of these icons.

For example, it should be no secret by now that Winston Churchill who saved Britain and the whole of Europe from Nazi Germany, was also a rather controversial figure. Without going in to too many details here, Churchill has been criticized for his attitudes on race and religion, for advocating the use of chemical weapons in war and his supposed inaction toward the Bengali famine where almost 3 million people perished.

Now, I'm not here to argue that these facts are true. There are experts from both opposing sides to argue these allegations. However, arguments of this nature makes me think twice about how we view heroes of our past and most importantly heroes of our present day and age. Look at Oprah Winfery.

Yes, I know, most of you reading this probably love Oprah. There is no denying the many great things she's achieved and how riveting it is to watch her on the screen, whether she's interviewing someone, talking about her favorite candle or latest book that helped change her life. But, I can't help but think about what sacrifices, what attitudes one has to adopt to reach the level of fame and success that Oprah and other people of her calibre have. I've been watching (rather obsessively) dozens of interviews with the Academy Award winning actress Monique who has spoken openly about the professional and personal breakdown of her relationship with Oprah. Monique played the role of Mary, the abusive mother in the film Precious which, was directed and produced by Lee Daniels as well as Oprah and Tyler Perry.

Despite winning the Academy Award for Precious, Monique claims that a smear campaign was set up against her by the producers. She was depicted in the media as someone who was difficult to work with when she wasn't willing to do promotional work for the film that was outside of her contractual commitment to the project. Monique even went on several talk shows and radio shows and openly discussed how Oprah, who she considered a friend and a mentor, invited Monique's estranged mother and alcoholic father and other members of her family including the brother who molested her on to her talk show to discuss the allegations of sexual abuse. She went on to detail their confrontation after the fact and Oprah's attitude toward the matter. To date, Oprah has never publically addressed the issue.

I don't know how true any of the above is - though I find it difficult to believe that Monique would decide to shoot herself in the foot for no reason - I can't help but wonder why more people don't know about this. Even now when I talk about this story to people they find it hard to believe - 'Oprah? No never!'

Obviously Oprah and Winston Churchill are not the same, but people's obsession with believing the other worldly aura about heroes in the media, de-humanizing them in fact, is a theme that I've found more and more strange. In fact, I find it rather disturbing that many of us aren't interested in examining history or even history as its happening, or make the effort to rewrite it in a more realistic light.