If we don't learn from history, it will repeat itself! Do you think this stateme

1. 68

   Cat Rposted 12 years ago

   If we don't learn from history, it will repeat itself! Do you think this statement is true?
   
   My history professor would disagree, but some happenings make you wonder. What do you think?

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2. 60

   Shahid Bukhariposted 12 years ago

   I am not qualified, to make such a sweeping, generalized statement, about History ...
   
   What I can say with a degree of certitude, is ... "That people often tend to "repeat" the mistakes, which earlier led people/societies to utter destruction" ...
   
   Meaning, people in position of Power, invariably have this strange tendency to forget learning a lesson from the Facts of history ...
   
   Thats  why we have had the "Falls of countless Civilizations in our historical past" ...
   
   Even stranger ... is the fact, that all the fallen, "Fell" for "virtually similar" reasons ...
   
   Managerial Abilities, Organization, control over Resources, or High Technologies are no guarantee, that the present one will, or can avoid failure with these means ... if ... they continue repeating the mistakes that led to the fall of much greater than the present Civilization, in  Past.
   
   shahidbukhari.hubpages.com

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3. 69

   glenn wallaceposted 12 years ago

   I think it's quite a true statement - that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
   Human nature hasn't changed all that much in our species history, so it only falls to reason that we'd keep making the same sort of choices again and again. Only by avoiding the pitfalls of our ancestors can we break out of self destructive cycles.

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4. 61

   Jonesy0311posted 12 years ago

   "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce."-Karl Marx
   
   Of course history repeats itself! Most nations and civilizations collapse for the same reasons that the great nations before them fell. Contemporary countries are still battling problems that ancient societies solved centuries ago. How did the ancient Sumerians maintain a civlization of over 50,000 people in less than one-sqaure mile? That's roughly the population density of New York City. Yet, today we have diseases, homelessness, poverty, etc. Tell me American isn't following the tragedy of Rome and I will present a 5-point argument as to why you are wrong. If one has even a layman's grasp of history, geo-politics becomes a predictable trend. I would recommend reading "The Next 100 Years" by George Friedman. P.S. Your history professor sucks.

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5. 0

   Old Empresarioposted 12 years ago

   The answer is long and complicated. Basically, no, history does not repeat itself. However; nations, cultures, and humans do follow patterns of behavior. Citizens in the US often forget the chain of events that led them to the present and so they vote for politicians based on what is happening that very moment. Americans got to be this way through watching too many commercials, too many serial sitcoms and dramas, and too much news on tv. TV removes thought and gets people focused on the present (and on wanting to buy things they don't need). As a result of all this, it seems like we are constantly repeating past mistakes in our voting habits, though we really are not. In truth, the political past and the present of the past 60 years are actually part of the same event. For example, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War--all of these were the next phases in the continuation of World War II , though they are treated by many to be unrelated events with no connection to WWII. So when we talk about history repeating itself, we are actually seeing a later part of the same long historical event unfolding. But since we do not remember things that happened more than 2 years ago, thanks to tv, we act as though we are seeing a completely new event. Some who remember the past, but who cannot connect the events will say history is repeating itself. Others with no historical context in their mind will not know what to make of any event. This is related to economic problems in the world and everything else. Historians in colleges today are much better than they were 20, 30, or 40 years ago.

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