The Study And Teaching Of History - Banned And Undervalued

A Tragedy In Western Societies

It appears in Western societies history is not really taught anymore to our children. Teaching of history was too often abused by those in power. To avoid indoctrination in nationalism, anti-Semitism, or rote memorization of historical events or other purposely selective historical topics the study and teaching of history appears to have been broadly banned for decades.

Alternatively, history is too often taught by too few examples e.g. Hitler & Nationalsozialismus (Nazis) in Germany or slavery in the US.

In a global world it becomes more and more outdated to teach or study history almost exclusively in the context of Western civilization plus Egypt while the history of civilizations in India or Asian is largely ignored.

Popular History

We all know the famous citation attributed to George Santayana that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” How many people, who know this quote, actually understand this quote? How do we actually interpret it? I am afraid, I do not even know the context of this quote and what Mr. Santayana was trying to describe or explain. Pardon, my ignorance.

History is written by the victors. Another famous quote whose attribution is not quite certain it seems. Does this mean we can ignore history? Or we should rewrite history purportedly from the looser perspective or some kind of balanced approach?

Some of us may also be familiar with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four where he wrote among other things "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.".

You Do Not Understand The Present Without History

Human societies are usually rather slow moving, dynamic organisms. Only violent revolutions or wars etc. can sometimes hasten the pace of history that is why e.g. dictators like Stalin, Hitler, or Mao prefer this route to impose their will on the people.

If more people would have a better knowledge of the history of science they would be much more skeptical as to the claims of global warming alarmists and their enablers especially among politicians and businesses. The history of science is littered with superstition and false pretense of knowledge.

The emergence of big central governments over the past 150 or so years in most Western countries cannot be understood without looking at the beginnings and progress over time. The Soviet Union disappeared in the dust bin of history, but Western Democracies have imitated its central planning and its command economy to a large extent. The Arms Race between so called capitalist and communist systems was only part of the race to more centralized, all invasive, interventionist governments at the expense of individual freedom.

Who Benefits From History Illiterates

As they say follow the money trail you might also say follow the trail of who benefits of a majority of citizens who are largely history illiterates.

In a democracy like ours, it is the elected politicians who get away with ideology, propaganda, falsehoods etc., because they know their constituents are not educated enough to know better.

There are clearly vested interests to keep the majority of citizens in the dark about history. Proponents of big government, which most politicians are, e.g., do not want us to know more about how big government gets bigger and bigger over time, decade after decade, and how we individuals loose more and more freedoms.

Many Founding Fathers Understood The Importance Of History Very Well

They and the founding mothers would be unpleasantly surprised if they were to return to our society today.