History....struck me this morning...

Rob Keeble

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Well struck me this morning ...us humans have this fascination with studying history...BBC has article about unearthing Pompei era village in UK....

But despite the sayings we have like "History repeats itself"...

We don't seem to learn from it. Lol.
 
Well struck me this morning ...us humans have this fascination with studying history...BBC has article about unearthing Pompei era village in UK....

But despite the sayings we have like "History repeats itself"...

We don't seem to learn from it. Lol.

No link, no learning from it.
In this link, I found (guessing the same story?):
http://www.counselheal.com/articles...-age-settlement-found-uk-britains-pompeii.htm

they compare it only in respect to mass exodus, due to something they couldn't control. However they said it was due to a fire (think about the fire that burned London, or Rome, or San Francisco after the great earthquake. They didn't have anywhere close to the water infrastructure we have now, as well as the equipment to fight it.
Not sure we would if there was another giant earthquake (how to drive over crack/gaping holes, broken water pipes, etc), but without that, we might know less then we do about them.
Pro's and Con's.
 
A lot of the reason we don't "learn from history" is because for most people history starts with their birth. Anything that happened before that isn't relevant to them so they don't learn it. What little accurate history that's taught in schools is never made relevant to them so they don't care about it. If you don't perceive a subject as relevant and important to your life, most of us won't pursue it.

Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes an annual Mindset List that describes the background and mindset of freshman students entering college each year. Here's the 2016 list: https://www.beloit.edu/mindset/previouslists/2016/ . It's interesting to see the difference in perspectives over the years. When I was teaching college, this list was good for making me realize what I had to cover to bring them up to date on background stuff they needed to know to understand what I was teaching.
 
That's an interesting perspective, Steve. And, I have to agree with it. A lot of history taught kids in public schools is very wrong or very incomplete. Ask a kid about Pearl Harbor or Auschwitz, no telling what answer you will get. Ask them what the 1812 Overture was written about and they think it was about our War of 1812 with Britain. I'm just an old wore out Marine and I know it's about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Oh, well.
 
Very interesting list there Steve. Its something not only for the colleges teachers to get their heads around but also business employers.

I was specifically thinking of this in terms of either global affairs, thinking back to how western powers tried appeasing a person like Hitler simply putting off the inevitable war, yet allowing similar characters to flourish once again post WW2 and then having to once again engage them, or how we environmentally wrecked parts of our environment knowing full well the side effects yet still continue to do so, or how in the workshop having got away with a close shave we still avoid embracing trully safe practices thinking well just this time. Kinda playing the odds of getting busted. LOL

Or buying that new next must have tool but still not accepting that real skill unless you born with natural ability in something takes effort and practice and no matter how many of those must have widgets we buy we dont seem to learn from the last one. If we did there would be no new gadgets we would still be making use of the last purchase and get to hone our fundamental skills.

Or something like say building a wall to keep someone out. LOL South Africans are crazy in this way we built them with barbed wire, we built one with three rolls of barbed wire and electrified the middle wires, even allowed wildlife like wild Lion prides to live adjacent to it but it did not keep the Mozambique desperate people out. This after we all lived through the collapse of the ultimate wall between the two halves of Germany. Yet Turkey announced they building a wall, LOL oh my have they not seen the evidence that walls dont work. But i guess its a good job creation project.:D
 
Read this post early this morning. Then grandkids came over after church. Table discussion was of history and geography. Twelve year old said what's the Declaration of Independence? Schools today don't teach much in the way of these subjects now a days. If it's not electronics and that stuff they tend to by pass the information.
Vexing to say the least!!!!!!!

David
 
Regards the Beloit link..

Shocked and appalled..
"There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.’"
Why am I just now learning this? When did they stop making tan M&M's. Why am I so out of touch with modern society.

"History has always had its own channel."
Highly disputable, has the person writing this ever actually seen any of the shows on there?

The original point is well enough made though although I hope you don't let history sucker punch you like that in the future.

The bronze age settlement is I believe this one:
http://www.mustfarm.com/bronze-age-timber-platform/progress/archive/

some of the stuff they're finding is astoundingly well preserved - check out the "freshly cut" look on the ends of the posts here:
http://www.mustfarm.com/progress/site-diary-4-asking-the-right-questions/


The bigger fear of it is perhaps not that folks won't learn from history but that they might learn the wrong things if they did learn anything. Perhaps that's the plan. Who knows.
 
Well this page (http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/570) is a poor example but the Native Americans had some fascinating cultures. This group built canals that are still in widespread use in Arizona but very little is known about them and it is hard to find more than a page or two about them. existed and farmed the desert then disappeared... The mound building Indians of the central part of the country built great mound and planted timbers that marked at lest the longest, shortest and both equal days of the year. The South American Indians that built pyramids that equal most of the Egyptian ones. And the South Pacific that could navigate by the stars large distances without any fancy gear. And in almost all cases they just faded away....
 
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