Doc7505
Diamond Member
- Feb 16, 2016
- 15,718
- 27,675
- 2,430
Still Not Learning From History
Still Not Learning From History | Frontpage Mag
Bad ideas and practices that we have witnessed over and over again.
14 Feb 2024 ~~ By Bruce Thornton
From its beginning 2400 years ago in ancient Greece, the purpose of history has been to counsel the present by documenting the mistakes of the past. Thucydides explicitly made this goal the purpose of his History of the Peloponnesian War: to memorialize “an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it.” At the violent end of the Roman Republic, the historian Livy similarly explains his intent: to shows us “what to imitate,” and “mark for avoidance what is shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
Yet here we are, two millennia later, despite our wealth, technological advances, and much vaster knowledge, still repeating the mistakes and follies not just of the distant past, but of the last half-century. The four years of the Biden administration’s failing foreign policy are the consequence of bad ideas and practices that we have already witnessed over and over.
Until we pay attention to the blunders of the past, and acknowledge the tragic nature of human affairs, we will continue to let misplaced idealism, electoral politics, ideological mantras, and sheer laziness endanger our national security and interests.
~Snip~
The history we’ve failed to learn from does not have to go back to the Twenties and Thirties of the 20th century for monitory examples, when the serial appeasement of Germany began before the ink was dry on the Versailles Treaty, and ended in the most destructive war in history. The Nineties and the rise of al Qaeda provide enough foreign policy decisions “shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
~Snip~
So here we go again, our soldiers taking casualties from Iran’s proxies, and our leaders losing their nerve and not punishing the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism that for 45 years has been at war with the U.S. and killing our citizens with impunity. Such are the wages of historical amnesia, political calculations, and feckless foreign policy idealism.
Commentary:
Great article..
I suggest you go to the original to read the entire thesis .
We're supposed to learn from our mistakes and history in order not to repeat the mistakes. It appears we do not.
As Professor Thorton notes, errors repeat themselves continuously in history as though we have learned nothing. We will need some time and additional academic training to understand why this happens on all levels of human activity. Let me suggest here that to truly understand the origins of the problems,
Perhaps all our politicians should be require to study the teachings of Sun Tzu, because the art of war is no different than the art of politics.
“Those who do not learn from history....” Winston Churchill
