It seems to me we are more barbaric today than we were yesterday?

Question

We never seem to learn from our mistakes. we say things like , we must make sure something like this never happens again, and as sure as christ the very next day, or week, or year, it happens again. If we never learn from history why the hell do we teach it in our schools, People like Hitler,Mussolini, &Stalin are held up more like heroes than tyrants of the twentieth century. would it not be better for humanity if we forgot all these people and the unpleasantness they have inflicted on humanity and get on with the things we know to be right and just, instead of giving our up and coming tyrants of the 21st century, like Mugabie, something to top?.

Answer 1

I would not say that we are more barbaric than yesterday, I feel that the barbarism is getting allot more air time and the presence of the media is by far greater.

I had no idea that Hitler, Mussolini & Stalin were held in such regards.

But every person has a short life span and we all learn from our experiemces. Each of us all have but a short time to learn and we must discover things on our own. Somethings must be felt to be discovered.

Answer 2

I don't think people in general are more barbaric now than they were in times gone by. In fact the opposite seems to be true. Although you hear of people like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda who kill at random and take videos of beheadings, etc, they are a tiny minority of humankind.

Today we have a free press and high speed communication which allows more information to reach more people. But when you think of things like the 2005 tsunami or Hurricane Katrina and hear how much money was donated by private individuals and how many people took time off work to go and help, or provided shelter and supplies for the dispossessed that has to convince you that people are basically decent and caring.

Who is holding up Hitler, Stalin and their ilk as heroes? If you know anyone who is, then I suggest you take them to task by whatever means necessary.

Leaders such as Mugabe, Castro, the recently departed Saddam Hussein, etc. destroy their opponents. However, the US invaded Iraq to remove Saddam and is now being vilified for its efforts.

Some people have apparently given up on trying to make the world a better place, while many others think that if they ignore the world's horrors they will go away.

But, although there are still many horrible acts of cruelty occurring every day, most people value and respect life,
but when dreadful things do occur, the various media quickly and noisily makes sure we hear about it.

Answer 3

Interesting question, but its only after the fact that people are held up for what they truly are, like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao and countless others. Early on in their lives they all appeared to be saviours in one form or another to their own people. Its only history that relates otherwise. We don't learn from our mistakes, but history should still be taught in schools, if only as a record of how people lived their lives and their achievements, how else would we know about that the romans, greeks, and other civilisations. Barbarism will always be with us, to paraphrase it's the nature of the beast, no more than before and probably more to come.


Perhaps someday someone will learn who knows?

Answer 4

you're right the human race hasn't improved much---

i was talking to little elderly lady the other day (80) she had a theory that the world was basic a deportation style prison camp - she used Australia as an example but she put the question - what if other planets had sent all their criminals here millions of years ago and left them to their own fate!!!

a little weird but not impossible - more believable than god i think. i hope i can still think outside the box when I'm 80

well Australia is doing fine so maybe there is hope for us yet

something to ponder when there's no star trek on the telly

Answer 5

Probably not. We have more sophisticated weapons and we have the Internet. That means we can kill more people, more quickly, but also that these actions are also broadcast more quickly.
Let's face it, we're all Barbarians. Things haven't changed all that much. No one has the right to impose their rule over another country, with the idea 'my way is right and yours is wrong.'
Gordon Brown can say, 'We will not accept that a foreign group tries to impose it's culture on the British Government (referring to a knighthood) and although it might not have been George Brown's fault, British troops have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq with precisely that aim.

Answer 6

The word "we" is so huge. Everybody knows about mistakes, but lot of people thing like "it was at that time", like "someone had to stop Hitler before he started WW II". So, how can anyone recognise today, who should be stopped. Who should be eliminated for good of all humanity... Can you do that decision? No, of course not. But who can. Everyone has it's own interest. As I said, the word "we" in this case is too huge.

Answer 7

It's a God awful small affair
To the girl with the mousey hair,
But her mummy is yelling, "No!"
And her daddy has told her to go,
But her friend is no where to be seen.
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen,
But the film is sadd'ning bore
For she's lived it ten times or more.
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again.
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads.
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns,
But the film is a sadd'ning bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more.
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

Answer 8

It's amazing (and also a bit depressing). Jesus, over 2000 years ago, as well as Ghandi, Mother Teresa and many other prominent figures, came out with a simple message: 'Love each other'.

You would think we would have learned by now but we are still killing, torturing and enslaving each other, as well as the majority of other creatures we share the planet with. It makes you wonder if there will ever be peace.

Answer 9

I completely share your sense of dismay and the older I get (I am 60) the more despondent and disappointed I become at our failure to learn from the mistakes of the past.

I suggest that at least one reason for this dismal situation is that humanity has never been willing to either exert the effort to learn history properly or to exercise the emotional maturity to view it dispassionately.

George Santayana's admonition that “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” remains true.

Clearly we cannot learn from history unless we first learn of it.

Answer 10

You do have a point, but the best thing a person can do to learn from history is to be the example for others to follow. It's almost certainty that you cannot change someone else, but you can change yourself. Be who you think you should be and others will learn from that.