Name 5 of the most important lessons history teaches us.

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:44 am

Not giving my list first. I started two simillar threads to get things rolling on this boardsection.

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:33 pm

Lessons to be learned from history? That's a tricky one. Most of that will turn out to be subjective and opinionated stuff. And somewhat speculative.
The great classic being "Never appease an agressor" for instance. History might have taught us that in case x the agressor has gone on agressing. Hitler being the obvious example. But we don't know what would have happened if we struck at him in 1938.

Gerard

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:05 am

If there are any lessons to be learned from history (and by this I assume you mean recorded history) then it is only that:

History Repeats itself...
Again...
And again...
And again...
And again...

Man it makes me wonder how we're going to cope sometimes.

Confident Learner Joined: Apr 29, 2006 Posts: 99

Among the biggest lessons that can be gleaned from history, of note would be:

The vast majority of the human race seem to be rather simpleminded..

The simpleminded do not care about history.

Those who do not care about history, also have a rather restricted view of the world around them..

Those who have a restricted view of the world around them cannot understand why others do not share their views.

And wars eventually ensue because of this..

Newbie Joined: Nov 28, 2006 Posts: 21 Location: USA

Already mentioned:

Never Appease an Aggresor, and

Most people are too focused on their lives to consider others' perspectives and empathize with them and are easily manipulated by those in power - a major cause of wars (paraphrased)

I would add:

Education and material progress tends to diminish theism and support of organized religion

Modern society, despite education and material progress, tends to encourage mediocrity and conformity

Social pressure can discourage and even threaten innovation and progress in science and culture

...along those lines

Just Arrived Joined: Nov 18, 2006 Posts: 8

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

And just because your gay, doesn't mean you have great politics. Look at Hitler.

Confident Learner Joined: Apr 29, 2006 Posts: 99

Stauffenberg wrote:

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

And just because your gay, doesn't mean you have great politics. Look at Hitler.

I am sorry. You lost me.

Hitler was not an atheist. Also, I think that you are confusing atheism with Christianity. Gulags, brainwashing camps, and "re-education" centers? I don't think that being an atheist in a position of political power quite leads to anything remotely like that!

I also do not think that Hitler was gay. In fact, I am pretty sure that he was married, and tended to send anyone with homosexual inclinations, or anyone who exhibited effeminacy, to the camps and gas chambers with anyone of Jewish descent or believes.

Perhaps you should think out your arguments before you post them.

The Learned Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 110

Stauffenberg wrote:

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

And just because your gay, doesn't mean you have great politics. Look at Hitler.

That's false! and it's not 5 lessons. Was it supposed to be five??? Read Sam Harris, The End of Faith , Stauffenberg, if you really want to understand the issue you've just raised.

I think you could add that, every time the Church gets political power, they always burn people alive, force conversions with the threat of death, etc. etc. etc.

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:05 am

Stauffenberg wrote:

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

This tends to happen in places where any runaway dogmatic ideology gets the better of rational thought and democratic society. It's about glorifying your politics, not about not believing in God perse.

People who somehow feel the need to disassociate the ideology they happen to subscribe to, from the exesses you mention will come up with rationalisations like yours. They're knee-jerk reactions meant to lay any perceived blame on some opposite side. And they don't work out very well. One also needs to wonder about why people feel the need to do that in the first place.

Gerard

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:21 am

Stauffenberg wrote:

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

Didn't happen here (Australia) - Bob Hawke, Australian PM from March 1983 to December 1991, was an atheist (and still is AFAIK). Didn't see anything like that - musta missed them....

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:43 am

Stauffenberg wrote:

When atheists get political power they always set up Gulags, brainwashing camps and "re-education" centers.

And just because your gay, doesn't mean you have great politics. Look at Hitler.

The Learned Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 110

Stauffenberg wrote:

And just because your gay, doesn't mean you have great politics. Look at Hitler.

Who ever said you had great politics, Stauffenberg??

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 4:28 am

The most readily apparent lesson one can derive from history is that profoundly few people derive lessons from history.

Newbie Joined: May 27, 2006 Posts: 11

Mine are books (mostly). Very Happy

#1 The BHAGAVAD-GHITA

#2 - The Miracle of Mindfulness (A Manual on Meditation) - by Thich Nhat Hanh

#3 - The Second Canon Holy Bible

#4 - The Wisdom of Laotse

#5 - The Dhammapada

#6 - "The moment we stop questioning what we've already been told, what we've already decided... We've stopped learning." - Me 2008

#7 - READ READ READ READ READ and oh yeah... READ

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:07 pm

Difficult, since history was and is being re-written by many interested parties.

It is happening here and now.

Examples? Plenty. Just the most recent ones, where witnesses are still around. I am a witness, I am 64 years old. Seen it for myself.

Holocaust.
Israel.
The "Palestinian people".
Europe and the "Islamic influence" in their renaissance. (Tariq Ramadan)
And many more.

In 60 years from now, who knows? Maybe it will be the Ministry of Truth.

So learning from history? No.


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