Another thought provoking quote from the past

[skeptic]

"Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age." (Learning in Wartime, 1939; C.S.Lewis)

[Trevorum]

Thanks, skeptic. That's a great quote. That is one of the chief reasons I'm an archeologist.

[RememberSchiff]

Sounds good, but I think it is more complex. I think there's an ego factor sometimes expressed "these are different times", "we have a different leadership team (making the same decision)" that needs to be overcome.

 

I wonder if/how C.S. Lewis would have expanded this thought post JFK, his cabinet of "The Best and the Brightest", and the Vietnam War. And that's just one example of well-educated, well-traveled, experienced people repeating the mistakes of history. Oddly he and JFK died on the same day.

 

My $0.01

[SMT224]

Despite lessons from the past, it seems that every generation believes that they alone have the capability and strength to make things different at last. Of course JFK and then Johnson thought we could show the Vietnamese a better way and they would embrace democracy and thank us. Of course Bush and now Obama believe that Iraq and Afghanistan will see the light if we can just stay the course a bit longer. In the meantime, all the Presidential candidates believe their way and their way alone will guide us to the best future possible. And could any of us believe any different?

[packsaddle]

SMT224, I get what you're saying regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll make one comment that IMHO while Johnson might have been a master politician, he engaged in terribly tragic blunders during Vietnam, not to mention outright deceptions, to great cost in both blood and treasure. We sure DIDN'T learn much from that did we?

 

RememberSchiff, I also note that Kennedy's death was an arranged one...and he didn't produce HIS long form birth certificate either.

[frank10]

History repeats it's self, historians repeat each other.