Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This lingers long after the last page. At its heart is a truth we often ignore: history is rarely fixed. It is rewritten, softened, and sanitized, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously. Revisionist history gives comfort to those who wish to see themselves as always on the “right” side. It allows a culture to erase complicity, silence dissent, and frame moral clarity only in hindsight.
The Comfort of Revision
This shaping of memory is not just academic. It is deeply personal. Societies—like individuals—have a tendency to rewrite their stories to make themselves feel better. Governments revise records. Media re-frames events. Public narratives are edited until the version that survives is the one that reassures. The truth, especially the uncomfortable parts, becomes negotiable. What is remembered is often less important than what is socially safe to remember.
Witnessing the Uncomfortable
Reading the book, I kept returning to the ways we, as a culture, accept these revisions. For so many years, I accepted the revised history and not what I was seeing. In subtle ways, gaslighting occurs at the societal level. We are taught to doubt our own eyes. To mistrust our instinctive sense of right and wrong. What we witness firsthand is questioned, softened, or dismissed in favor of a narrative that feels safer for the collective conscience. This is how revisionist history survives: by aligning truth with comfort, not fact.
El Akkad challenges us to confront this dynamic. It is a call to witness, not just to consume information. Spiritual and moral integrity demand we remain awake while events unfold, not only after a narrative has been rewritten. The work is uncomfortable because truth rarely is. Yet, acknowledging what is, even when it unsettles, is the antidote to collective forgetting.
As readers, as citizens, as members of a culture that too often sanitizes its own actions, we must ask: whose story are we accepting? Are we repeating the edited version, or are we engaging with what is real, even when it is inconvenient? Revisionist history may offer comfort, but integrity—both personal and cultural—demands courage. Witnessing what truly happens is the first step toward a history we can trust.
Journal Prompts
- Recall a time you noticed a version of events that differed from the “official” story. How did it feel to trust your own perception?
- When have you experienced societal or cultural gaslighting? What did you learn about your own discernment?
- How often do you question the stories you’ve been told? Are there areas where you tend to accept the revised version too easily?
- Consider a recent event in the news or community. What do you see firsthand, and what might others be trying to reshape or soften?
- How do you decide when to speak up or remain silent in the face of revisionist narratives?
- What steps can you take to remain awake to truth, even when it is uncomfortable or inconvenient?
About Me
Colleen Irwin is a psychic medium, teacher, and author who helps women navigate their Second Season of Life with clarity and confidence. Through Mediumship Development, Tarot, and spiritual mentoring, she guides women to trust their intuition and step forward into life’s next chapter
Rev. Colleen Irwin
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