More on my online quest for unretouched Presidential photos.

[No Elephants]

It seems we have been deceived, even in the age of widespread TV (Eisenhower), as to what our Presidents even looked like.

And, I have mentioned before, having read bios of Lincoln and Ruth as a kid and making heroes of them as a result. That was because the style of bio writing back in the day was puff piece or hatchet job, even by someone as respected as Carl Sandburg; and I had read puff pieces.

And look at all the bs "facts" that abound on TV and the internet. Why in heaven's name do we assume that histories, modern or ancient, are accurate?

Even a historian as respected as Doris Kearns Goodwin has personal biases and also has to rely on older writings.

On the one hand, this "how do we know if anything is real" kind of questioning leads to nowhere good. On the other hand, we're not doing too well believe the stuff we're fed, either.

[No Elephants]

1. Related story: how much fiction is okay in historical films?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OSCARS_FACT_OR_FICTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-02-19-19-47-29

Again, remember that studies supposedly show that people believe the first version they read, see or hear and corrections serve only to reinforce the original version in a person's mind. (I believed this study result because it was consistent with experiences of mine before i read about the study. Nothing seems so true as agreement with one's pre-conceived opinions, right?)

[Enthusiast]

2. I'm kind of disappointed to learn

that they fucked with history in the Lincoln film. I mean, changing the votes on the 13th Amendment is going too far even in the interest of film making.

The following goes right to the crux of the issue.

"Nothing seems so true as agreement with one's pre-conceived opinions, right?" We see the effects of this every day if we watch political discussions on TV. And some of us can see it in ourselves.

Those pre-conceived opinions are our downfall. Remember what Suzuki said about "conceptions", that man mistakes his conceptual tools for reality. Or something to that effect. We must suspend the conceptual process(which includes the pre-conceptual process). Essentially he is saying that we cannot actually see reality. It must come through Satori, or Zen enlightenment.

We should be striving to perceive as much truth as possible. This is especially difficult in the area of politics when the objective is often to mislead the listener or reader.

[Enthusiast]

3. Even a historian with the best

of intentions will only understand history through the distorted lens of those that came before. That is why I see intentionally misleading people as such an egregious sin.