History is a lie agreed upon.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

Four Chinese university students were recently shown the famous ‘Tank Man’ photograph and none had any knowledge of the event. According to the PBS interviewers the students thought perhaps the photo represented a military parade. They had zero idea that June 1989 was any different than June 2006.

Injure 30,000 peaceful protestors (and kill 2300 of them) and erase their memories as if they never existed. As if the actual event wasn’t bad enough. Oh, I forgot, nothing happened.

I was reminded of this story upon hearing about the plans for the George W. Bush post-presidential library. The bulk of the $500 million budget for the library will be to create a think tank dedicated toward putting a historical perspective on the actions and policies of the Bush administration. Never mind the plethora of jokes about a 1/2 billion dollar LIBRARY for George W. or the notion of using the term ‘think tank’ in anything associated with Bush. The point which jumped out to me is the purpose of the think tank: to alter history. To take a period of idiocy and put a glossy coat of spin which ought to make for a good bit of fiction for future 4th grade text books.