by Why Nobody’s Learning Them
History continues to repeat itself with remarkable precision, suggesting that humanity’s ability to learn from past mistakes is roughly equivalent to a goldfish’s memory span. Every generation insists they’ll be different, then proceeds to make identical errors while claiming their situation is totally unique and unprecedented, which it never is.
The phrase “lessons from the past” appears in approximately 10,000 op-eds annually, none of which seem to impact actual behavior. Collective amnesia has become humanity’s default setting, with each crisis triggering shocked reactions from people who apparently slept through every similar crisis that came before. It’s like watching someone touch a hot stove repeatedly while insisting they’re learning something new each time.
Politicians love invoking historical lessons right before ignoring them completely. “We must remember history,” they say, while actively creating future history that will serve as a cautionary tale for descendants who also won’t listen. The cycle is so predictable you could set your watch by it, if watches still existed in an era where everyone checks their phones for time and historical context equally rarely.
Educational institutions try teaching these lessons through comprehensive history curricula, which students promptly forget after exams. Simplified versions of history don’t help, creating generations who know historical events happened but have no idea why they matter or how they connect to current events. The result is a society that treats history like trivia rather than instruction manual.
The truly depressing part isn’t that we ignore history’s lessons—it’s that we’re fully aware we’re ignoring them while doing it. Meta-ignorance, if you will. We know we should know better, we just don’t care enough to actually do better. Future generations will study our willful stupidity and learn nothing, continuing the proud tradition of humans being aggressively mediocre at pattern recognition despite having enormous brains allegedly designed for exactly that purpose.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/lessons-from-the-past/
SOURCE: Lessons From the Past (https://bohiney.com/lessons-from-the-past/)
