Is it better to learn from history or are some things best forgotten?

omej · Jan 18, 2009

In your opinion, are things best forgotten in history or should they be taught to people remember?

If you think about it, nearly all of our conflicts today are based on past crimes. For example, think about all the ethnic conflicts in the world. Centuries old conflicts in which somebody was assassinated continue to leave Africa war-torn. The never-ending Palestinian-Israel conflict, which is based in deep cultural hatred (NOT religions, as so many believe).

On the flip side, many people want to honor memories of people who were victimized. The Holocaust, Saddam Husein's regime, eg. They also say it is to prevent these things from ever happening again. But genocide is no new tragedy, it has been going on since the beginning of time.

What do you think?

GunnedDown · Jan 18, 2009

Well this is quite a good topic you've created here, because it's actually pretty hard to decide, since both sides can be argued against..

However, I think some things are just better to be forgotten (mainly because I used to hate all my boring history classes), because what exactly do we learn from historical events? Like why do we care when and how Canada was created?

On the flip side, if we take this into perspective and think about Hitler, we can't say "oh why do we have to care about Hitler". If someone like Hitler didn't do something that he did, it would've been someone else that would've done it in the future, so we've learned from that and learned to avoid it.

So I don't really know, I'm pretty much on both sides.

jessika · Jan 18, 2009

I think the sole purpose of the existence of word history is to teach. It is a testimonial of time which gives us an insight in to various actions and their consequences. History should never be forgotten rather it should be remembered as a learning.
There is a saying "Those who do not learn from past are condemned to repeat it."

vidit_int1 · Jan 18, 2009

I think its better taught about the history because we all should know the facts. Some of the conflicts, as you said, are based on previous history. But they are true, so there's no problem in relating them to present. This is what we do in our life, we all learn from our experiences and then relate our mistakes with them.

aqua · Jan 19, 2009

Yes very well said! We can relate to our mistakes and past experiences which will help us to form a better tomorrow. Everyone should be educated about the past culture and the periodical changes in the society which will help the present generations to understanding of our roots.

mike21 · Jan 19, 2009

we should always learn things from the history,we should take lessons from the nazi camps and we should always remember the casualties of the world war.history is somethings which teaches us about the things which we should not do and we should always take lessons from the past.

Akuma · Jan 19, 2009

We should learn about the past, but it's wrong to hold past grudges. For instance the whole slavery thing, that was ages ago. And it was just not African Americans who were mistreated, the Native Americans were screwed over too.

People need to move on and make sure such a thing does not occur, but they should not blame those in the present for things done in the past as they had no control over it.

Firz · Jan 19, 2009

I am extremely sorry people but is it only me who has noticed this? Why does everyone on the forum sound so text-bookish and boring?

missouriman · Jan 22, 2009

It is best to remember the past so you do not make the same mistake and create more problems. I bet the U.S. government regrets making alcohol illegal because all it did was make the Mafia rich

GunnedDown · Jan 24, 2009

Firz said:
I am extremely sorry people but is it only me who has noticed this? Why does everyone on the forum sound so text-bookish and boring?

Sorry to be rude (but you've sounded rude on every single post you posted on this forum, so I don't really care for that), but I think it's just you. I'd rather hear from someone "text-bookish and boring" rather than hearing from someone with 0 knowledge about anything and contributing absolutely NOTHING to the thread discussion. At least tell the potential reader that you're going to be extremely off-topic and rude so they don't bother reading such a useless post. You haven't even gave the "text-bookish and boring" people an advice on not to sound so "boring", which is why I think your post is so useless...

repblue · Jan 24, 2009

Firz said:
I am extremely sorry people but is it only me who has noticed this? Why does everyone on the forum sound so text-bookish and boring?

Because that is the purpose of this forum. For intellectual debate. If you don't want to do that, that's what the general forums are for.

pingpong12 · Jan 25, 2009

Whats past is prologue and Our late, great president Kennedy put it to eloquently when he said " what kind of peace do I mean and what kind of perace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by american weapons of war" Or soviet weapons of war or any dominant country's weapons of war. Lets instead look at the truely great leaders of our time, the leaders who brought about change through peace like gandhi or his protege MLK. Lets not forget these people who died for the concept of peace and humanity and equality for all humans.

GunnedDown · Feb 2, 2009

I just remembered that awesome quote that I learned in school like 5 years ago, goes along the lines of "learn the past, don't let it repeat" or something like that (damn, I'm completely off LOL, but it was that general idea). That quote reminds me of some other scenarios where learning about the past would be a good idea, but I'm still on both sides of the fence.

porsteamboy · Feb 3, 2009

The reason you live in a Govrnment based on rule of law, and uninfluenced by religious superstition and dogma is because the founding fathers had a SENSE OF HISTORY. They formed this Government by knowing the past. Someone said ( can't remember who) "Trying to plan furture without the sense of the past, is like trying to plant cut flowers". Harry Truman..."The only new thing in the world, is the history you don't know". We've learned from the history of slavery and the holocaust that prejudices, unchecked can lead to genocide. History can give us a reference point to judge how far we have come. Family Medical history is important to your future well being and so on. So, I think that history is one of the most important things to know and never should be forgotten, studied to learn the true facts.

pingpong12 · Feb 3, 2009

porsteamboy said:
The reason you live in a Govrnment based on rule of law, and uninfluenced by religious superstition and dogma is because the founding fathers had a SENSE OF HISTORY. They formed this Government by knowing the past. Someone said ( can't remember who) "Trying to plan furture without the sense of the past, is like trying to plant cut flowers". Harry Truman..."The only new thing in the world, is the history you don't know". We've learned from the history of slavery and the holocaust that prejudices, unchecked can lead to genocide. History can give us a reference point to judge how far we have come. Family Medical history is important to your future well being and so on. So, I think that history is one of the most important things to know and never should be forgotten, studied to learn the true facts.

The problem we also have these days is that the mediz has also influenced people in our own country to believe that our word is law and it is 100% truthful and if you protest any of its actions you are either deemed a traitor or a nutcase. Flatly destroying democracy in Iran for the profit and greed of a few big oil companies is one example.

Empires have been doing this for a few thousand years. The roman empire installed pro roman puppets in its conquored countries and this is how they kept the empire strong all these years but is this how a true democracy is supposed to operate?

The Parakeet · Feb 3, 2009

I wasn't going to post, but Porsteamboy reminded me of a quote from my Cosmology class. It's about a paragraph long and a little long winded, but the gist of it was that we are all just ghosts. Everything we believe and know is just a compilation of our experiences and the experiences of our ancestors. It's impossible to completely escape the ghosts of our past.

websuperstar · Feb 11, 2009

I was thinking this for weeks and discussing it with people I often talk to that are on the same vibration/consciousness as me and they all agree with me.

Things are never best forgotten, what if they egyptians fell into like what we are in now as a civilisation (yeah right) and the people that survived thought best to delete the history so future generations don't fall into the same downward spiral. Therefore we can NOT afford to delete our history, no matter what happens. Future generations need to know what has happened so they don't fall into the same paradox of destrucitvism and greed.

Truth must be told, without it we are doomed to keep self destructing......

Delta · Mar 16, 2009

I believe we should forgive the actions of those in the past, but at the same time remember and learn from them. If we simply forgot the atrocities of world war 1 and 2, it would not be long before world war 3 broke out. However, humans as a species are too greedy and power hungry to ever be peaceful.

BrightMind · Mar 16, 2009

We need to know and understand our history so that we don't repeat the same mistakes. But, we don't need to dwell on it. We can't change it, so take the time to learn and move on. Sometimes, being obsessed with the past can cause you to make it occur again in the present, and that's not something any of us would want to do.

xxll_martin_llxx · Mar 22, 2009

Having actually just left school, I believe it's extremely important that History is taught AND LEARNT. Going off at a slight angle - children still need to have knowledge. They need a basic knowledge of the IRA - I don't want to open another can of worms here but they should know the basics and the effects it has. They should know about why they are 'free', why we have the country and how our British army won the war. I think it shows a real lack of respect for all those that fought and consequently died fighting to give those who stayed back and those future generations a 'free', much better life.
Can you imagine how we would be living now if they hadn't won!?

I shudder to think.

It is important we learn about the past, because we can learn from mistakes.

Is it better to learn from history or are some things best forgotten?

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