Doomed to Repeat It
David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |
There’s a quote that’s overused. Actually, a lot of quotes are overused. But there’s a quote about history that goes “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” This line is said so often it’s easy to forget it has an origin of its own. It was written by the Spanish philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 book The Life of Reason. In our popular interpretation of it, chronicling and teaching history takes on a greater social responsibility and becomes a kind of vaccine against nonsense, bad ideas, and evil deeds. Which all sounds wonderful!
Except… the further we go into the 21st Century (and the 2020s specifically), I’ve been wondering more if that quote is accurate? Whether historical knowledge actually prevents anything at all from happening? Or does it just trap history in a Cassandra curse we can’t or won’t escape from?
If you’re really interested in history, then you should be familiar with the fact that most people aren’t. To some, it’s just boring. To others, the more distant the less relevant. More often though, people engage with the past like a buffet restaurant where they pick and choose things they like and leave the rest. This makes national histories in particular more closely resemble the Marvel Universe where truth becomes secondary to our attachments to a specific version of a story. The Marvel analogy also holds up if you consider what happens when a beloved story is reimagined, for example, or say a character is recast. People lose their minds! They don’t like that version, so, for them, it should be ignored, discarded, or angrily railed against.
Of course, the paradox is historical knowledge has never been more accessible or abundant than it is today: in books, archives, websites, documentaries, oral history interviews, databases, etc. Yet, bad ideas and evil deeds never pause to ask for a history lesson, because they don’t care and never did. And if history’s social value is not inextricably tied to the prevention business, then what mantra articulates its worth to absolutely anyone? Humanism? Nostalgia? A list of accomplishments? An attempt to reach back and understand others? Artful descriptions for the sake of descriptions? Something to talk about at parties?
If the harsh reality of our times means knowing our past and still being condemned to repeat it, that is an arduous road to walk. The humanizing part is that for too long we’ve imagined ourselves to be just a little smarter or better informed than our ancestors, when really everyone is just making their way in life. And sometimes, unfortunately, the only way out is through.
