Are We Losing Our Appreciation for the Past?

We live, as the Indian essayist Saeed Akhter Mirza has put it, in an age of amnesia. Across the world, most notably in the West, we are discarding the knowledge and insights passed down over millennia and replacing it with politically correct bromides cooked up in the media and the academy. In some ways, this process recalls, albeit in digital form, the Middle Ages. Conscious shaping of thought—and the manipulation of the past to serve political purposes—is becoming commonplace and pervasive. Google's manipulation of algorithms, recently discussed in American Affairs, favors both their commercial interests and also their ideological predilections. Similarly, we see the systematic de-platforming of conservative and other groups who offend the mores of tech oligarchs and their media fellow travellers. Major companies are now distancing themselves from offensive reminders of American history, such as the Nike's recent decision to withdraw a sneaker line featuring the Betsy Ross flag.