Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
A Philosopher’s Stone
Is there much more to be said? I don’t think so! If only we could learn from this small kernel of knowledge nearly two centuries in the making.
As an undergrad student, I learned of this concept while attending a university, which is very progressive in its leanings even by today’s standards. Yet, 20 years later, it seems that history in its cyclical nature repeats itself as the paradigm shift of the pendulum swings.
What needs to be understood is that nothing is truly new. We have all been here before. Anything created already exists. If we believe the philosophy of old, existence itself owes its presence to the nature of the archetype, those a-priori symbols that govern the nature of our psychological development. When the nature of the dream meets reality, we see doors to the soul open, moving the dreamer into a reality lived. It is solely up to us to bring into existence that which was only once perceived.
But this knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. Cars cannot exist outside the technological advancement of the wheel, just as a television or a cell phone cannot exist independently from the technology of transmitters and receivers that powered our basic radios of the 1930s. Isaac Newton knew this concept when he said:
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton
Let us let history be history. Do not destroy it. Instead, learn from its nature. Light and dark exist dependent upon one another. You cannot have one without the other. For, if one exists without the opposite end of its archetypal pendulum, there is no way for consciousness to grasp its nature. Thus, the crux of perceived reality is in its essence flawed when we view it from a consciousness that falls from grace.
Out of the darkest moments come the most significant moments of human kindness. Is there a middle ground any longer? Maybe we need to find it so that history does not repeat itself. When we learn from the nature of our past mistakes, we ultimately control only the present moment as a means to create any future we yearn to see come to fruition.
2 responses to “The Nature of History”
Great points Dr. Tom! We can never erase history’s past, and it definitely pays to read about it.
There you go you did find more to say on the subject. You might also consider this small addition?
Those who learn from history are damned to live with and be ruled by those who don’t!
History teaches that in a democracy the ignorant will always overpower the learned. Which has always meant the eventual destruction of the democracy. Which is apparently where America is now.
Destroy the statues, change the names an d burn the books.
Brian