Winner Takes It All

There is a famous saying that goes “History is written by the winners.” At first glance the sentence seems pretty clear, but it begs for some context as well. First of all, to be a winner in the context of history most definitely refers to a conflict, and the greatest conflicts of the past are wars whether they be countrywide or worldwide. Hence, the winner in the context of this sentence is the winner of one or multiple wars, and it is safe to say that when one wins a war they get to write the history for the future generations to learn at school as well as throughout their life.

Let's look at this from the perspective of the winner of a countrywide war, or a civil war for that matter. The first act of the winner should be to try and take control of the narrative, or history after winning. It does not matter whether they were the righteous side of the war because they are the winner, and they get to portray themselves as the righteous side through changing history accordingly. Yet, they need to get to work immediately and try to draw the people of the country to their side; before the masses suspect something fishy is going on. The winner needs to make the citizens believe that it would be to their benefit to join the winner’s side. It does not matter to the citizen who the winner is; what matters to them is their own prospects. If they believe the current winner will do right by them, give them shelter, provide them with jobs, or means to live their lives to its fullest they would just go along with the plans of the winner.

Therefore, the winner has to take control of the narrative and make it out so that they become just what the citizens need even if they are not. The winner wants to rule and the citizens want to be ruled, and all it takes for everybody to be happy is to converge on a common ground. Hence, the winner has to rewrite the annals of history, change records of battles, distribute the relevant propaganda, and exaggerate their heroic deeds so that the loser is everything that was wrong with the country and the winner is everything a citizen could ask for. If this taking control of the narrative is done right and the citizens believe it, all of the untruths or exaggerations become the reality that everybody in the country chooses to live in. Thus, becoming the truth. Suddenly, the winner becomes all-powerful and the loser not only cannot show their face again but also is only mentioned by the citizens as the butt of jokes, or they might not ever be mentioned again since they never existed. From this point onwards, all it takes for the winner to keep hold of the narrative (and as an extension power to rule) is to keep the citizens believing in the untruths. And, if the winner did their job right there would be no reason to doubt. The game that was trying to become the winner turns into trying to remain the winner, no matter the cost.

            This is not just the case in the context of history or wars. It is also prevalent in the current societal structure humans choose to live in. Currently, humans are living in a zero-sum game that is called the capitalist society where for one to win the other has to lose; for one to become rich the other has to remain poor. This forces humans to be inherently jealous and competitive because this is what society wants humans to be. From an early age, humans are thought to use any means necessary to become the winner, and when they get to the top they need to make sure that they stay at the top, without any regard to the consequences. Because if they do it right they can change the narrative accordingly, and everybody would believe their untruths anyway. The win must be permanent; there is no place for weakness, and the utmost display of power is not obtaining it but maintaining it because obtaining it is just the first step. The next and more important phase starts immediately after that. Once they are the winner and the power is in their hands they must keep a hold of it no matter what, and not just be overthrown by the next aspiring winner.

This is also where the desperation starts. Sure, becoming the winner was an arduous task, but remaining the winner and keeping a hold of power is heaps and bounds harder. Simply because they just need to win once to become a winner, but it also takes one loss to be erased by the next winner. After winning once, the winner has to survive infinite amounts of battles to not become the loser. This might be easy for the first few battles, but as time passes and the winner gets winded or out of touch, their chance to lose becomes greater. At that time of desperation, the winner has to remember that they would do anything to keep hold of the title winner, and the time of desperation leaves its place for acts of desperation. These acts of desperation are all around. One needs only look for examples, and there are more than enough within reality, literature, or cinema. Let us take Lord of the Rings for an example: It was not enough for Sauron to be the ruler of all Middle-Earth, he could not have just called it enough and made the most of his current level of power. He needed to ensure that no one tried or thought of overthrowing him; he had to squash the opposition and eliminate even the slightest possibility of him ever losing. Hence, he forged the One Ring to rule them all, thinking it would be enough for him to take control of the narrative and rewrite the history once and for all. However, the One Ring also became a glimmer of hope for the others, making them believe they could be the next winners if only they could capture the ring, and this eventually led to Sauron’s demise.

The story of humanity, their art and even their dreams are littered with such power struggles. Yet, ultimately, this is a lonely struggle. It is a never-ending one which drains out the individual until that individual is left completely alone, corrupt, and forgotten. The one seeking power will never be satisfied, because there will always be more power to gain, or much more to lose. Unfortunately, in this struggle for more one will also forget where they started, where they were intending to go, or what was their purpose in the first place, and the only thing left for them will be the lust for power. These then will become the ghosts of their former selves who know nothing but a hunger for more. However, they will forget to keep hold of the power in their hands because there will be just too much power now for them to hold with no one to help them, not even themselves.

This is also when potential successors will get their turn. If the winner cannot succeed in fully eliminating the loser (or potential losers) from the face of the earth through rewriting history, the loser(s) will just lie in wait for their turn to strike as potential successors. And, when these potential successors smell the weakness in the hold of the current power holder, they will plot to overthrow the current winner to try and become the new one. That is why history needs to be written by the winners. They need to put the right mechanisms in place so that they can keep a constant watch over the losers, or make sure that there are no losers, which would also mean no successors, ever. In a sense they must write history to make sure that Gollum never exists, Bilbo never steals the One Ring, and Frodo is never born. Otherwise, their power is doomed to crumble because the dominion of the power holders only lasts until their successors overthrow them. Because, so far, there have always been successors. No matter how powerful the winner, they have always lost, and left their place to a successor. Telling a story of inevitability as old as time.