I remember my first class of my first year history course in University like it was yesterday - even though it was almost twenty years ago. The Professor, a brilliant man whom I grew to respect greatly over the years, opened the initial lecture with the thought: “History provides no lessons; we do not learn from it and it does not repeat itself even though the flavours of current events often resemble those of the pastâ€. I thought to myself (as did others, I presume) that this guy had spent too much time in his dingy office reading primary sources and not enough in the “real world”. Of course we learn from history and it does repeat itself. Duh?Â
Over time, I have come to agree with the first notion. I doubt that we do learn anything from history at all. Take this example. The US has a missile shield it wants to install in neighbouring countries around Russia. Russia responds with an inter-continental missile with multiple war heads to render the US system ineffective. So the story goes. It sounds a lot like the start of a renewed cold war. I lived through the tail end of the first one. It could be a frightening time when one took the time to ponder the sheer number of nuclear missiles on both sides and the destruction that seemed inevitable. There were more than enough to end civilization as we knew it. We learned years later about some of the close calls. Some, older than me, lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis. While it would be absurd to suggest that the recent rhetoric and moves by the US and Russia constitute a cold war of the magnitude of the old feud between the Soviets and the Americans, the aroma is similar. Maybe my professor was right about the second part too.Â
We have learned nothing at all from those years and while it looks like the beginning of what might be another period of cold war like behaviour, my cynicism leads me to believe that it will be different than the last one - it will probably be worse. My professor was a smart man.Â
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Interesting, but I would argue that it is the lack of history, or perhaps the misuse of it, which is why we don’t learn from it.
History as it is taught in schools is little more than patriotic myth-making, but understanding the past gives important context to today’s events.