JON GABRIEL: Why you should never say someone is ‘on the right side of history.’
‘Right side of history’ means the side that won
To flesh this out, I’ll concoct a pair of 20th century Russians.
In 1910, Dmitri was a conscientious church deacon who fully supported Czar Nicholas II. Was Deacon Dmitri on the “right side of history?” Sure … at least until 1917, when Nicholas was forced to abdicate and was later shot. I suppose the deacon was on the wrong side of history from then on.
His brother Ivan joined the Bolsheviks in 1910, so surely was on the right side of history – at least once the revolution was secured. He soon became an officer in the Cheka, was given a roomy Moscow apartment and enjoyed the perks of party membership. Dmitri ended up in the Gulag; Ivan grew fat and happy.
During Stalin’s terror, Ivan watched nearly half of his friends – loyal Bolsheviks all – purged via the bullet or the labor camp. He gently raised concerns to an NKVD comrade, who turned him in. All of a sudden, Ivan was back on the wrong side of history despite never changing his views.
Pampered Ivan didn’t survive long but Dmitri did. After his release and internal exile, he remained loyal to the church and prayed for Ivan’s soul and the end of communism. At the ripe old age of 101, he saw the USSR collapse.
Looks like Dmitri was on the right side of history after all!