The Centralisation Of Memory

The collective memory of autonomous societies is passed down from generation to generation, and with it the values of that society, and indeed its identity. For good reason did the Irish, in Mediaeval times fear the power of the written word. They feared that memory would be destroyed, that it would be captured by those experts who held the power of the written word.
In autonomous, and often illiterate societies, the people have their own slant, usually at odds with the official Narrative. A modern example is the myth of a united 'Britain' facing the Nazis in 1940, whereas, from what I have heard, most people regarded the war as something conjured up by the officer class, that it was the politicians who wanted the war. Most people simply wanted to survive and get on with their lives.
More rural societies than twentieth century England told their story through myth and legend. One of the most important aims of free compulsory education was to break the power of the peasant memory. People who could read, would read newspapers and novels, the myths that their masters wanted them to see as their own.
The tales of common people all over the world are full of characters such as Robin Hood, outlaws and brigands who fought against Power and the injustices of Power. These heroes fought against central authority, vertical authority imposed on them by violence. They took back what the rich had taken and gave it back to the poor. They were heroes, rebels driven to the woods and the hills by the oppressor.
 But the heroes in the books of the officer class, all too frequently overlooked these outlaws, and made heroes out of soldiers and policemen. The outlaws were cast as criminals, the agents of Power as saints. And when a myth was too powerful to expunge, such as the story of Robin Hood, they gave the story a makeover. In Victorian times, Robin was changed from a simple yeoman, to become Robin of Locksley, a knight who had been unjustly treated by Prince John and who waited for the return of the 'good' king Richard.
Robin became officer material and his men were simply his cannon fodder, an attitude clearly shown in the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
To this day soldiers are treated as saints and heroes, at least by the propagandists of Power. Some thug shoots up peasants in Afghanistan or Iraq, and you'd think he was Mother Teresa.
 And the dissident is a baddie, an extremist. Be he a member of a church, a libertarian, someone who doesn't like being taxed, monitored, crushed by debt, harassed by officialdom, he is treated not as a hero, but as a trouble causer.
It is the man of violence who conforms to Power who is the hero of memory that has been expropriated and transformed. Films, television, books blot out the memories of autonomous life enjoyed by mankind until very recently. Memories of freedom are routinely destroyed. Officially, Hierarchy is the established order, natural and eternal.
But not so long ago, in a world where people made their own decisions, it was the warrior, the policeman, the 'lord' who was the criminal, the one who overturned the natural order, and the good guys were the peasants like Robin Hood who fought the oppressor, brave men and women who only wished to be allowed to live as humans, not beasts of burden.