Those who do not learn!

[Guest]

I was reminded today when I saw KillerMuffins thread on the Bataan Death March, of an article I saw in a newspaper soon after I arrived in the USA.

The paper had polled people country wide in the USA, asking questions about the history of the USA from the first European settlers and about world history in the 20th century.

The usual distribution of the bell curve was represented with ignorance on the left and a few history specialists over on the right.

The surprise for me was that the majority of those asked about relatively commonplace questions, like: -
Which countries did we fight against in WW II? Got some very high scores for ignorance, as did. Who did we fight against in the war of independence?

These may not be very relevant to today’s economy I will agree, but if it is true that those who do not learn from history are forced to repeat it. Where are we going to end up?Back fighting the British Crown for the rights to self-government.

The image of whole sections of society having little or no grasp of the history of their own country, or of the major historical events of the last 50 years, is something I for one find strangely shocking, the thoughts of their currant opinions being based on such a lack of knowledge frightens me.

Do you feel that the Western multi channel TV society we live in has caused such a short attention span that the flick of a channel changer is debilitating your nations notions of history?




EZ

 

[Ezzy]

Damn BB Mutter mutter mutter...

EZ

 

[OUTSIDER]

See you should have paid attention

 

[Myrrdin]

The image of whole sections of society having little or no grasp of the history of their own country, or of the major historical events of the last 50 years, is something I for one find strangely shocking, the thoughts of their currant opinions being based on such a lack of knowledge frightens me.
EZ

One can only wish that Irish protestant/catholics, Sebian croats/muslims, middle East Jew/Arab could be just as forgetful about their history.
Sometimes things need to be shut away, so life can move on.

 

[CW]

Re: Re: Those who do not learn!

One can only wish that Irish protestant/catholics, Sebian croats/muslims, middle East Jew/Arab could be just as forgetful about their history.

Perhaps they are, thus the reasons for the continued conflicts.

Yes, I know, that was a flip answer and really does not apply for wars/conflicts of a religious nature.


It is shocking that folks do not even know that we fit' the redcoats. Nor that we fought Japan and Germany in the last major world war.

BUT, it's also shocking that they do not have any more than a limited grasp of the shit that was dished out to the Native Americans.

Perhaps the TV surfing ability has something to do with it,,, but so does the fact that not near as much time is required to be spent reading any more. Plus in our polictically correct society, we are now supposed to forgive and forget those we fought against.

I visited the new D-Day Memoerial last weekend,, a very incrediable place by the way,,, the number of young adults ( loosely defined as 18 - 30 ) that I saw was impressive,,, and not all of them were in the company of older parents/other older adults.

But what struck me about the young adults the most was the fact that they were really taking the time to try and understand the gist of the memorial. They were not just quickly looking at the layout and muttering about it's time to go for the most part. They actually lingered in an effort to absorb it all, they asked questions, they moved quietly and with respect.

Yes, there were some that were complete jerks and some that were completely uninterested,,, but they were the minority.

So, perhaps there is hope after all.

 

[p_p_man]

Re: Re: Re: Those who do not learn!

Nor that we fought Japan and Germany in the last major world war.

...and Italy, don't forget Italy...

 

[CW]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Those who do not learn!

...and Italy, don't forget Italy...

Some days it just does not pay for me to try and be serious at anything,,, usually it's the days that I am watching the girlfriend's two kids,,,

Thanks pp man

 

[Vivid Blossom]

Re: Re: Re: Those who do not learn!

BUT, it's also shocking that they do not have any more than a limited grasp of the shit that was dished out to the Native Americans.

And while we are at it how many people know that - in a land founded primarily by those seeking to worship in their own way without persecution, a land that maintains freedom of religion as their main tenet, an entire religious group was forced out of their homes in the dead of winter losing their homes and most of what they owned when the governor of the State of Missouri issued an extermination order saying they would be driven from the state or they would be exterminated. When the people went to the federal government, the government declined to interfere with the actions of the state. That order stayed on the books of Missouri as a law until 1976 and those people were never compensated for the loss of their land or their personal property.