do we learn from history?

Question

Do we learn from History? From events that had happened? If you think so, please state why and how... And if you don't think so, please state why and how too... Evidences will help greatly..

[p/s:this is not for a homework assignment, but is for a debate.. So it is allowed that I am seeking answers from you people]

your answers are greatly appreciated... 10 points to the one that makes most sense with great evidences...

Answer 1

This is certainly a difficult question to answer, and in principle, we should be able to learn from history, after all it should only come down to the benefit of hindsight.

If you are looking at individuals actions, then the answer is probably no, and I'll give you two examples (although there will be thousands more)

1. Hitler embarked on an invasion of Russia, knowing fine well that the Russian winter overcome Napoleon's 600,00 grand army in 1812, and the Swedish King Charles XII 120 before him.

2. Milosevic, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and hundreds of other despots have ordered ethnic cleansing, when they only had to look at the Nuremberg trials to know the world's reactions to such atrocities.

History has however thrown up lessons in which we should learn from, such as the town of Pompeii, which has allowed us to fully understand the nature of volcanic destruction. Or the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which has given archaeologists a completely new insight into the Egyptian way of life

Answer 2

I truly believe that it is the impact left on us that changes the way we feel about things. Unfortunately for us we are not the ones in control the next time the events unfold. It's easy enough to read numbers of deaths in history and think "oh that's terrible" it's another to experience it first hand and then sit and allow it to happen all over again.
You think people who have lost loved ones during war time will stand up and let the same thing to happen to the next lot of people? No, they would not. Sadly for us, these are NOT the people in charge. These are NOT the people making the decisions about our futures, they are not the ones writing history's page. If they were, history might offer us a little something different.
If George Bush's daughters or any of the politician's children were forced to go fight in Iraq you can imagine that the whole thing would be called of PDQ.The wars are all the same, the famines, the poverty, killing, violence etc. No matter where you are it's mostly the same people in charge and because they are generally so self-centered you have the same situations occuring.
Let us not forget that history is ALWAYS written by the Victorious. During WW2 Hitler managed to completely wipe away the existence and memory of Poland. Yes, we have it back but so much history was lost, in the people, the culture and the stories.
I know kids these days have such a limited understanding of history. They figure since it's already happened, why bother knowing about it. Knowing where you have come from is the key to figuring out where you are headed.
People were HORRIFIED at the genocide of the Jews during the holocaust, but has that stopped people from being racist and killing in the name of race or religion, nope. Granted, the scale of the Nazi's was enormous but the mentality is still the same. You can educate the leaders all you want. Chances are they probably don't give a **** about you and me. It's the masses that need to be educated. Knowledge is power. There's power in numbers.

Answer 3

We do learn from history, but sometimes not as much as we should. I can give you one example, happening as we speak. After WWI, the US entered into a period of isolationalism. Interests turned to domestic issues, with a feeling that we should not get involved with other countries' affairs. And, look what happened - we ended up in WWII, and in my opinion, some things could have been prevented or preempted had there been earlier involvement and support for our allies. This is an important lesson that is focused on when studying US history.

And now look at where we are today... The US is fighting a very unpopular war, and there have been many people - private citizens, media, and politicians - saying that we need to quit getting involved around the world, and take care of our own problems on the domestic front instead.

Unless there is a balance of taking care of domestic issues, while still keeping one eye on what is happening elsewhere, we could end up repeating the same folly that we did decades ago.

Just one current example I can think of...

Answer 4

The issue isn't if we learn but what we learn from it, how and why.

When we look at history we must first see the context in which the written and oral history exists and who it was written by.

We must take it as a given that history is biased to the victor or the dominiant culture at the time or as a tool of propaganda to change the views of people in favour of others.

This can be seen in the histories written by the Romans, especially in praise to Julius Caeser after his death or with the Christians when they became the dominant religion in Euro and Asia Minor and wanted to convert more to their cause.

Lessons from history can be many and varied.
But what we take most from it are twin ideas of Conquest and Civilisation, putting a positive face on atrosity and ignoring the lessons of hate and violence.
Thus dooming us to repeat cycles of hate and destruction, as we saw in World War 2 when Hilter attempted to destroy all of the Jewish people.

So, in the end, what we learn is anything that will help us with what we want for ourselves and our causes, heedless of everything else.

Answer 5

i hope that we would learn from history so we do not repeat the same mistakes that us people have made in the past.
Examples:
1. Slavery
2. The killing of jews in world war2.

Answer 6

those who do not know or remember history....are destined to repeat it...look at all the wars....religion and politics have accounted for every war since man quit fighting over hunting grounds...good luck in your projects

Answer 7

we might learn, but its of no use. We can hardly implement anything !!