Episode details

Available for over a year
Good morning. The publication this week of David Cameron's memoirs, For the Record, inevitably has provoked much political and emotional debate concerning Brexit and the nature of leadership. Taking a step back from the politics, memoirs do pose questions about how we write history and how we are shaped by its legacy both as individuals and as a community. The quote 'History is written by the victors' is attributed to a number of people including Churchill and George Orwell. Certainly Churchill in the House of Commons did say to that he was confident that history would find the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wrong 'because I shall write that history'. History is written from a particular perspective and that has often squeezed out the voices of the powerless - female voices, black voices and the voices of the poor. However a recognition of that bias has increasingly led academics and the media to use the digital age to hear those voices. In another new book this week, 'She Said', reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey tell the story of their investigation of Harvey Weinstein that launched the MeToo movement. History told by the memoirs of leaders, whether political or religious, sometimes has a further problem. It is how to represent success and failure. In the delightfully titled book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, the social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson deal with the way all of us are tempted to shape history to justify ourselves leading to bias and in the extreme fabrication. They argue that individual and community life will only flourish if we have the freedom to admit our mistakes. All of this leads me to think again about my own Christian tradition. It's interesting that the memoirs of those who knew Jesus of Nazareth were written in the gospels with a particular perspective and purpose, and therefore it is right that they should subjected to rigorous historical questioning. Yet I am impressed that they were accepted in the days when the early Christian church was led by disciples who were recorded as weak, powerless and often mistaken. But further, in their encounter with Jesus they discovered forgiveness and a hope that the future was not completely constrained by the past. In the light of that, as I tell my story in everyday life I am challenged to be open to scrutiny, to confess mistakes and not be accused of leaving the truth at home.
Programme Website