nations glorified the fallen as heroes
0In 1914, when World War I began, nations glorified the fallen as heroes who died for their homeland, turning their deaths into honorable sacrifices. In 1919, the phrase “The Glorious Dead” was engraved on the Cenotaph in London, symbolizing how the valorization of death became a pillar of national legitimacy. But in truth, it served as emotional manipulation to justify the continuation of war. The fact that someone had died was quickly rewritten into the narrative of the state.
In 1949, George Orwell’s novel 1984 depicted a world where the past was entirely controlled by the regime. Those purged by the Party were remembered not as victims, but as “heroes who died rightly,” their stories edited to suit the state’s needs. The meaning of death was no longer defined by the living, but dictated by authority.
In 1971, Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange portrayed a violent youth, Alex, who is “rehabilitated” through an experimental state treatment. His transformation becomes less a matter of justice or remorse and more a showcase of the regime’s power. Even a change of heart becomes propaganda material.
These stories are not relics of a distant past. War, violence, death, and repentance—all of them can be redefined by those in power. When truth gives way to a narrative that merely feels right, people become ruled not by facts, but by fiction. And that can happen in your country too.