That chip on your shoulder must be uncomfortable. It sure is unpleasant ;’)
I am not seeing as how I have a chip on my shoulder. From my perspective, it appears as if we have been misled about the truth regarding various historical events. As I pointed out before, I grew up revering Lincoln. It was only after my best friend who is black, and a History Major, told me that he had just learned that Lincoln had cleverly engineered the start of the civil war, that I came to have misgivings.
He thought that made Lincoln awesome. I thought it made Lincoln disturbing. What sort of man would play such games with so many people's lives? 600,000 men killed? A huge area devastated? A legacy of excessive Federal control ever since?
While he was laughing and explaining, I was searching inwardly for some explanation that could square such Machiavellian acts with what I had been taught about a man who is considered one of our greatest Presidents.
Yes, I could see how he was thrilled with the notion of Lincoln the manipulator who outfoxed those stupid racist Southerners, but at that time it was not so long ago that I had read "Red badge of Courage" and had nightmares about being conscripted into fighting in that horrible war.
Feeling as if I had been there went a long ways towards making me feel revulsion at the idea someone would have intentionally caused it for any reason other than unavoidable necessity, and that is when I began to doubt Lincoln's motives.
Later I discovered that Lincoln was quite willing to let the South keep slavery, and so another bit of his legend was tarnished. Now I am highly suspicious of the "history" we've been taught over the years, and I have began to realize that then as now, we are always being fed propaganda that suits the interests of whomever is telling the tale.