On Historical Honesty and Integrity

There is a dangerous intellectual activity where it concerns the past, which remains a consistent source of great concern that must be actively dealt with. Especially as modern Pagan practitioners who constantly claim that our religions are rooted within human history in the first place; in the past, our ancestors, and how things were done ‘before’ (and especially “before Christianity”).

That is the danger that personal desire- more than genuine truth- is what often drives our reconstruction. And further, the danger that true evidence of the past often becomes unwelcome whenever it disturbs the romanticized views and notions we’ve formed about these ‘before times’ we place so highly- which, sadly, occurs more often than not.

Or, in short: We have a penchant to romanticize things we shouldn’t, in ways we shouldn’t be romanticizing them.

To romanticize things is quite different than the act of being romantic, despite many modern attempts to treat them as the same actions (or to treat ‘romanticization’ as the derivative verb of ‘to be romantic’). And it is the act of romanticization which is the perennial danger, always.

Romanticization actively turns life into a hyper-idealized version of itself wherein instead of being honest about the realities of the world and fully accepting the complexities and nuance of the moment, one blatantly lies about the way the world is; it is the very act of actively ignoring, erasing, and washing over any of the negative elements and complexities of life- the very nuance of existence- and pretending they don’t exist. And it does this in favor of uplifting a false, hyper simplistic, and overly positive image that itself has never existed; to quote (or echo) Sterling Professor Iain Provan:

This actively creates a false sense of nostalgia for a more placid and ‘pure’ past- which itself actively fosters a form of historical amnesia about the true realities of that past. Such nostalgia and amnesia commits us to imagining the past as we desire it to be, and we no longer become interested in the past as it actually was. Our own personal desires and ideas dominate the narratives of history, then, and true evidence is never truly sought out. When we are forcefully exposed to the truth anyway- and we always will be- it is often actively ignored. Or, alternatively, it is rejected immediately as ‘false’ or “a lie” because it doesn’t suit the narratives that we’ve already constructed (and this is itself a form of confirmation bias). Sometimes there is further movement to intentionally repress, or bury, the information so that others cannot gain access to it either.

The temptation, of course, is well understood as one of an imminent desire for both comfort and safety- especially among those who come to Paganism seeking an escape from religious trauma inflicted upon them by other groups (whether that trauma is real or merely perceived) ... However, as Professor Provan notes, we still have a responsibility to tell the truth about the past as much as we are capable of doing so; we have a responsibility not to erase or distort the truth; we have a responsibility to transmit the past, and our traditions, as accurately as possible into the future. And at all points, we must ensure that our stories of the past are not at odds with the evidence, precisely so that we do not wind up accidentally harming the very people (and often the planet) which we claim our various religions and ethics often dictate we have an obligation to protect.

If we do have an obligation to heal the Earth and its people, then we must take this call seriously. And yet we cannot truly do that without recognizing that even without such a religious and spiritual obligation towards people or the planet directly … We still have an obligation to historical, archeological, and other scientific and sociological truth, honesty, accuracy, and integrity. One which we must also take seriously. Because these false notions of the past are not just regrettable. They are outright dangerous.