My friend complains about news reports that add adjectives to descriptions of events, as in a tragic fire or an uplifting announcement from Russia. His complaint reminds me of my view of the difficulties of writing a history.
Histories are important, not only as explanations of our past, but also in science. We might say a given experiment shows something, but the report of the procedure and the result, what we did and what happened, are fundamental in showing why we believe a given project shows this or that.
One often hears that history is written by the victors, an indication that the story of what happened is slanted in favor of them. That is probably quite likely, but there are other problems. None of us have eyes in the back of our head. We can't see everything. In tv shows, the assistant is told to review six hours of security tape and after many hours of looking, may stop paying very good attention even when the bad guy clearly drives up and gets out with a gun.
Books on the brain and human perception emphasize that we can't see everything. Some things are too quick or too hidden to be seen. In addition to perception problems, there are memory problems. Did she say "Let's eat at Harry's" or did he? Was it said before or after they walked past the officer?
Alertness and memory are underlying sorts of problems, but we also find lying and slanting. When the kid I dislike trips, I may falsely witness that I observed that other kid I dislike even more, do the tripping.
There is also the matter of focus or center of attention or chosen theme. I can't write about everything, even everything about, say, Abe Lincoln. I can't write more pages than you will read. So, I am not going to get into the happiness of his mother or his marriage. Someone might look at my Lincoln writings and post a criticism that I never touched on his siblings, having just been thinking about birth order, and the effect of other children in one's family.
It may be of some comfort to notice that even we ourselves can't view our own lives from all angles. We have some basic perspectives, the ones we like, the ones our histories and relatives suggest, and maybe one or two we intentionally add in, just for variety.
