The compression of history

As you may know if you were reading this months ago, I've always been fascinated with the compression of history, how as time passes, events and people are distilled down to a paragraph or two. What is left in, and what is left out define history of this event. It's all kindof 1984.

An extreme example:

The trip comes on the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, an early crisis in the first Bush term that united the nation behind the president.

He was seen as decisive in the face of those attacks but four years later the White House was dealing with a natural disaster that has cost Bush support.

See, I don't remember Bush as decisive. I remember that awful day when he was flying around the country with the awkward statements from the Louisiana military base and one in Nebraska(?) It was not on the first day that he was "decisive."

Oh well, just an example of this phenomenon. And if you disagree with this consensus. you are left to argue your point.

I guess the bottom line is that there isn't a single history. It would be curious to see how the Romans or Lincoln would be presented if they'd had the plethora of voices preserved that we have in our current society.

Update: Here's another example from today, a whole article from the WaPo aying Sept. 11 commemoration will end up like Pearl Harbor day or Memorial day.

Decades ago, Davis couldn't imagine an era in which Dec. 7 wasn't seared on the collective consciousness. But year after year, the dwindling numbers attending the freezing-cold memorial services on that day tell him a different story.

I mean, what are the bare bones facts you know about Pearl Harbor and how does that effect your perception of that day, and , indeed, of US entry into WWII and the eventual bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki. What if Roosevelt knew it was coming?(not much evidence, but some) That's not in the compressed history that validates the Nuking of two Japanese cities killing a quarter million.

This phenomena alters who we are, can be used to validate later actions. It is the power of the party in 1984, to alter history to change the future. Paraphrase. "Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past."