“Everything we hear is opinion, not fact. Everything we see is perspective, not truth”

This quote from Marcus Aurelius reminds us that almost any event, whether historical or personal, is presented with a particular perspective, not with complete objectivity. It is impossible to give the entire context of anything, so the descriptions of anything will inevitably be subject to the preferences of the person describing it.

It should be noted that this quote isn’t literally true. If we hear that human beings eventually die, or that gravity exists, that isn’t an opinion, it is a fact. It isn’t a perspective, it is a truth.

But any event that involves human interaction, when described to someone who wasn’t there to see it, will have an element of perspective. In a way, this is impossible to avoid. If we cannot establish that certain actions were bad when describing an event, we both lose our moral compass, and our ability to rationally assess situations as they happen.

But besides the most egregious people or groups acting, even events where one side is probably worse than the other, there is a level of nuance that makes any description of the event, a perspective of it, not the indisputable truth.

When someone sees another person do something, or hears another person say something, they are not inside the other person’s head. They cannot know with 100% certainty what the person was intending.

Most people are also products of their time and culture. Thus, their description of an event will be colored by the values of their time, culture, and how their perspective is shaped by them.

There of course is also the phrase “winners write the history books.” And while we have sometimes made an effort to mitigate this, by emphasizing certain groups’ perspectives on events, rather than just describe them, even that is subject to human perspective and opinion; where is the line between giving members of the subject group a voice, and recognizing facts (as best we perceive them)?

At the same time, this does not mean that all descriptions of people and events are inherently useless. Many historical events, even complex, nuanced ones, are quite accurately described. You shouldn’t reject the stated causes of World War 1. But when listening to someone describe something, or reading about it, always be aware of the context of what that person’s perspective is, and if possible, try to find multiple different sources about the event.