Why can't human beings learn from the past?

Question

If they could there would never be another war, no slavery, no genecide, ect. Why are we blind to what our ancestors have been through.

Answer 1

Good Question!!! I think that as the years go by people think to make a name for themselves is to cause Kaios or show they are more powerful than any other. You are right! Why can't we learn from the past? Why can't we see what our ancestors went through just to get America as far as it has already gone? The only answer I can give is everyone wants power. No ones wants left behind.

Answer 2

Being educated on past history will NOT stop war, slavery, genocide, etc. You're dealing with human beings here, and any time you get even a small group of them together you're going to have disagreements. Some people are reasonable enough to listen to others and accept someone else's point of view and compromise, but most people simply are too selfish and too stubborn to do this. They insist on being RIGHT, and when they feel threatened they will defend themselves, even to the point of killing others (or they'll die trying). Also, you will always have people who covet power, and that means subjugating others to their will. Hand in hand with those who covet power are those who have an irrational fear against certain groups of people for no logical reason, yet they still see those people as a threat to their power base and will order them to be eliminated. How do I know this? Simple: I have studied human history and have learned from the past!

Answer 3

We (Human) do learn from the past. The question you should asking would be. Why do we as human still do what we do??? Things like killing someone else just because another person tell you to do it (they call it WAR). A human has lots of feeling that makes them do crazy things, some good while others are really bad. So to answer your question, we do learn from the past but we don't do the right thing. That all.....!!!!!

Answer 4

Wars do not arise out of a lack of understanding, rather out of the necessity to attain personal goals at the cost of other's welfare. At the core, every human being is selfish and therefore the advancement of oneself over another is understandable. So when we commit wars even after we have seen what World War II led to, it is because our motives are more important to us than the misfortunes of others.

Answer 5

Higher intelligence is trying to function in the brain of a monkey. The media feeds the monkeys and the pack follows where the banana givers take them. It is easy to fool the mind of a monkey, as they have short term memory. Hence: If there are no bananas, there is NO MEMORY!

Answer 6

I think it is because we all have our own opinions and we all have pride. We're stubborn and want to do it our way, even if it means doing the wrong thing all over again. It's called pride and the unwillingness to admit the that the first time was a mistake.

Answer 7

I don't know, but in America we're much more obsessed with the future than the past OR present, so that's America's problem in my opinion

Answer 8

3 words STUPIDITY! and Progress.
we feel so inclined for future progress that we forget to look at the past .

Answer 9

they are learning.. don't you see. they learned how to win a better war. All these new technologies, weapons are learned from past.

sad but true!

Answer 10

Because we didn't live through it. We therefore have no real comparison.