Monday, May 19, 2014
Why History Is Important
In MEHAP last year, I often heard complaints about why history was a required subject. But history is important. There is a saying that goes "history repeats itself". If we study history we can learn from the mistakes of our ancestors and make sure that they never occur again. For example, from history we see that if a government is unresponsive to the cries of its people, the government will fall. This is demonstrated in the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Arab Spring. Recently, world events have shown us how much we need to pay attention to the mistakes of the past. The war in Iraq showcases this. The US backed a group of rebels known as Al Qaeda. The US supplied them with weapons and money and in an ironic twist of fate, Al Qaeda started pointing those weapons at the US. Al Qaeda then began to subjugate Iraq and Afghanistan through terror. This pattern has happened before. We gave dictators in Latin America weapons and money hoping they would fight off communism but instead they turned their weapons on their own people and brutally suppressed them. The men in Washington should have realized the mistakes of our forefathers and realized that Al Qaeda would use US support to terrorize the Middle East. History repeats itself. In order to make sure we do not make the same mistakes over and over again we have to study them and prevent them from happening.
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Nice post! I agree that history is a very important subject. History teaches how to look at the world and why the world is what it is today. I found what you said about Al Qaeda to be especially interesting. Before reading this I didn't know that the US had actually backed Al Qaeda before the war on terror. I found this post both educational and interesting to read, good job!
ReplyDeleteI find this post interesting as it also brings up another reason why history is no only important, but a worthwhile subject to study. As looking back it is amazing to think how America evolved from just 13 colonies to one huge super power. Every era in United States history (Reconstruction, the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War) marks such profound transition demonstrating how the United States was able to become such a power nation is amazing thing to consider. From how the first political parties developed to Watergate. Every single event defines what is US history.
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that history both repeats itself and teaches us our mistakes. Sometimes it takes several repeats of the same mistake to realize we have made one. For example, the documentary we watched about Rachel Carson's Silent Spring showed how the government and chemical industry repeatedly denied the danger of pesticide use, despite substantial scientific evidence. The continued denial led to increased humiliation when the truth was eventually accepted. Nixon's Watergate scandal also committed this error. Despite the existence of hard evidence, Nixon dodged submitting the tapes and continued to cover up the scandal. This increased his crimes and worsened the situation.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, I like the connections you made. Historical parallels sort of make me realize that you could probably draw parallels in any situation if you stretch far enough
ReplyDeleteI also think history is very important because it helps us understand how our world came to be. If we can trace the origins of injustice, we can learn how to counteract such forces and progress as a society.
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