Evil Empire 15
at the level of policy in the country’s highest offices is a clear sign
that the battle for history is still on.
And yet many of us, especially those in the ranks of the so-called
resistance, routinely confront this reality with a cavalier, Fukuyaman
confidence that this, too, shall pass, that “sanity” will eventually be “re-
stored,” and that history will stand stalwart witness, attesting to future
generations that we were on the “right side.” But can we honestly, and
with certainty, say that history—as we know it, and as we are capable
of knowing it—will still be there? Can we rest assured that the end of
history will sustain itself, even if history cannot?
We are now fighting on terrains where the old rules of historical
warfare no longer apply. In the hypermediated reality of an endless
political now, the meaning of history is determined and enforced not
by the myriad monuments reminding us of our past, but by those who
employ enough blunt force to occupy our attention in the present. What
this will mean for the “end of history” is by no means clear. For history,
though, only the old truth holds: you’ve got to fight for it.