History, as we have repeatedly argued in our texts here—and must reiterate once more—is not served by system historians, mercenaries of power, or carriers of ideological fixations. History is defined by two fundamental and indispensable characteristics, precisely those ignored by those who falsely or opportunistically proclaim themselves historians.

1. The Thucydidean science of History does not merely preserve the past through recording and judgment. Nor is this its primary task. Were History confined to this role alone, it would be a crippled science.
Its essential mission is the recording and critical judgment of the historical actions of the present.
Only through its engagement with the present can History serve the future, preserving what will then become the past. These are two sides of the same coin. Remove one, and the coin is counterfeit.
The classical historians—Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius—wrote about events contemporary to them. References to the past were secondary and always cautious, due to the lack of reliable evidence.
The identification of History exclusively with the past is a deliberate fabrication of immoral powers. It is easy to lie about the absent; it is far harder to conceal the truth lived daily.
Two examples suffice.
a. Centuries from now, historians might easily portray even a Donald Trump as a “father of peace.” Today, outside his far-right followers, no sane person could regard such a claim as anything other than a joke.
b. In our country, a profiteering filmmaker, under the blessings of the authoritarian government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has recently portrayed Ioannis Kapodistrias—servant of foreign interests and agent of Russian autocracy—as a saint. Such hagiography would have been unthinkable in his own time, when the newly freed Greek people merely exchanged the Sultan’s yoke for the Tsar’s knife.

2. Karl Marx famously claimed that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce—a profoundly mistaken assertion. History does not repeat as parody.
It repeats relentlessly. Only the actors and the era change.
Human behavior has not changed. Civilization evolves, technology advances—but instincts, power drives, and violence remain biologically programmed and constant.
The Neanderthal with a club was no less savage than Hitler with bombers.
This is not rhetoric.
It is History.

(completion in tomorrow’s post)

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Diotima:

Who Has the Authority to Write and Judge History

No one is authorized to write History simply by proclaiming themselves a historian. Academic titles and institutional approval are means, not legitimacy.
True authority comes from proximity to the facts and independence from authority.
History written by order is not History. It is apologetics.
The mercenary historian does not simply distort the facts. He selects those that should be forgotten. He transforms crimes into “necessities of the times” and erases victims from memory. Thus, History becomes a mechanism of obedience.
History has no ministry.
Its final judge is the society that experienced the events – and those who record them without the expectation of reward.
Power does not fear the secure academic of the future.
It fears the historian of the present.
History does not recognize titles.
It recognizes risk.
Whoever writes without guarantees, judges while power still reigns and speaks while silence is rewarded – this person holds the mandate of History.
Everyone else simply composes the first version of oblivion.