History and its Power
History is one of the most import things to study. The reason we study it is that past events can teach us about possible outcomes of future events based on our choices. Most ideas in life have been tried before. Purely original thoughts are rare. Most of the concepts we have ever come up with are built on the foundation of past experiences of others. Learning from the past allows us to think critically about the future. This is the basics of history in a nutshell.
Since history is such a fundamental tool for not making the same mistakes, some people wish to rewrite history in order to make their ideas appear novel, unique and idealistic. Everyone has a bias, except for natural law in the real world. There are many ideologies that don’t work on their own in the messy reality of life. In order to prop up these ideas, history must be changed in a way that aligns it with the ideology being pushed. If we do not know what actually happened in the past we will have a hard time detecting when we are not being told the actual facts. Without a strong and accurate baseline it is difficult to detect a lie that is being used to prop up an ideology.
However, society tends to find a pattern. Most people want to live in harmony and don’t demand and push others down in order to push themselves up. These tactics have been used over and over again by people despite for power. These people are exactly the ones who should not have power and control over the lives of others.
On the other hand we have someone like our first president, George Washington. Washington was reluctant to become president after winning the war. The people of our new found nation urged Washington to take the position as the face of the newly formed nation. Yet after two terms he decided that someone else should be chosen by the people. Contrast this approach to that of FDR took with 4 terms as president because of his involvement in WWII. I believe that men who hunger for power should not be granted it, and men who treat leadership as a solemn responsibility have the markings of a good leader.
Many say that hindsight has 20/20 vision. History is our way to look back upon humanity’s past and learn from it, so we don’t make the same fumbles going forward.
