As I hear daily reports of more killings in Iraq, either of American troops or civilians, something I’ve often heard and once accepted as wise and true runs in my head like a clip from an old movie which defies erasing.
The statement is: “Those who don’t know history are likely to repeat it.”
It’s something that history teachers and writers are apt to say to get people to pay attention to the past. Paying attention to the past is well and good. The past is full of exciting, bloody, heroic and and fascinating events, many of which affect our lives today. I have always found history interesting and useful and in a grim way way entertaining and griping.
But when one looks at Northern Ireland, or Iraq or any place, including the U.S., where the past is used as a reason for killing and violence, one could just as easily say those who dwell on history are apt to repeat it.
History can easily become a matter of mutual accusation and recrimination, an infinite regress of cruelty and oppression, unless forgetfulness or forgiveness intervenes Vengeance so often portrayed as wholesome and admirable in our literature, our movies and television shows, leds to more vengeance and so the killing goes on and one and there is no stopping.
That is one of the meanings of history.