Why is History Important?

Our past shapes the way we act in the future. With that said, I agree with George Santayana when he wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. For instance, if we did not learn about the devastating attack on the World Trade Center (where planes were hijacked and flown directly into the World Trade Center towers in New York), then another similar horrific event could occur. Because we have learned about and remember this event, airports now have higher security with restrictions on liquids and full body scans.

The government also has higher security so that another attack like this is less likely to happen. It is important to ensure that the learning of our history is occurring because if it’s not, then we are bound to repeat a lot of horrific tragedies from the past.

People’s lack of desire to learn from history’s lessons, is a major issue that we can’t just overlook. Our past helps determine our future. When we learn from our past events, we may view current situations differently. It is so crucial that we learn from history and that history is taught so that we aren’t fighting the same wars that our ancestors fought.

Currently, Iran “attacked” a United States military base in Iraq. However, Iran sent the U.S. a warning that they would be firing ballistic missiles near the U.S. base. Iran has seen that throughout history, the United States of America does not tolerate terrorists. Iran fired their missiles to convince their people that they retaliated in response to the killing of their military leader, but they do not want to start a war because they know they dont have the assets and resources to win.

The future is very important and if we neglect learning about history, then the future can be extremely dangerous and repetitive. Throughout the history of America, there have been many battles and wars. Because of strategists that paid attention to history and earlier mistakes that were made, the U.S. was able to win many battles and wars. For example, Air Force fighter pilot John Boyd developed the OODA loop, which stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This made it where military operations could be carried out more efficiently and have less casualties. Boyd developed this plan of action because he realized that the attack strategies used throughout history had many flaws and were not as effective. Because Boyd learned that some attack strategies were not very effective, the development of the OODA loop has prevented many casualties from taking place. Since John Boyd looked back in history, he was able to help the United States of America achieve many goals and reduce the loss of life.

Some may say that history is not very important because we need to focus on the future. Many think learning history is a waste of time because they believe they will never use it outside of a school setting. But, just the other day there was a post on social media regarding the Iranian issues and how we should negotiate and not fight. If the user who made the post would have remembered the Pearl Harbor attack and how the U.S. was negotiating with Japan when they were bombed on December 7th, 1941, at 7:53 AM, the user may have come to a different conclusion. This instance goes to show that history is in fact important and must be taught in school. If people did not remember the Pearl Harbor attack, an event like it could have occured with Iran last week. If we do not learn from our past mistakes then how will our future be different? It is always important to learn about the past inorder to prevent future problems.

It is crucial that the future generations learn about history so that they do not repeat some of the devastating events from the past. Since people have learned from history we now have better strategies and better security. Moving forward requires building on past experiences- horstoricaly or personally. Whether experiences or events have been positive or negative, what we have learned will determine our future endeavors.  

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