The Importance of Getting History Right

            History tends to repeat itself. It has been and continues to be a fact of life. The patterns of society inevitably come around again, and our only source to guide us is our history. Essentially, the history of society and civilization has been comprised of patterns on patterns, rarely something truly unique or out of the ordinary. That being said, one would think by the year 2018 we would have mastered the art of society solving any and all problems at hand, ranging from world hunger to global peace. Yet, for many, many reasons we have not done so. While there are, on occasion, new challenges, we as a global society tend to make the same mistake over and over again: failing to learn from history. Furthermore, this repeated failure tends to stem from the same fault: the failure to accurately teach and present history.

            All it takes is one Google search or one scan of the daily newspaper, the problems society deals with today are not anything new or unique to our generation. Issues of race or even gun violence have all been repeated offenses, and due to either a failure to recognize the issue or a failure in eradicating the issue at the onset has let these issues fester in the wounds they are today. Take note of the Civil War and how it was taught across the southern US until fairly recently. In South Carolina, specifically, until seven years ago teachers used extremely passive diction regarding slaves and the civil war, using phrases like “was assigned to slaves” and “the knowledge of the West Africans gave them a newfound success” implying that slaves chose to and were amazingly successful in their slave work. Not only is it disturbing, cruel, and simply false, but it justifies racism in a subtle yet harmful manner. Subtly and slowly, messages of hate and prejudice are being passed and hinted to young students leaving them to think less and less of blacks as they grow older. Thus, for many, it was likely their schooling that contributed to the racist ideals implanted in their minds and their subsequent acts of racism.

            Furthermore, the issue extends beyond the scope of racism in America. Nearly two weeks ago, a mentally deranged 19-year-old took the lives of 17 innocent students and educators as he rampaged through the halls of a Florida high school. Aside from the fact that it was yet another act of anti-Semitism, more notably, it served as yet another example of a failure to learn from even recent history. Sandy Hook was only in 2012, Dylann Roof was just in 2015, and Las Vegas was last November, yet for some reason we have failed to increase gun restrictions in this country. You see, there are two parts to accurately telling history: portraying the accurate facts and the truth and understanding and applying the accurate portrayal. For those of us who have been forced to cope with a mass shooting every three months or so, we have the accurate portrayal of history right in front of our eyes, yet we have failed to make a change to this harmful, detrimental, and torturous pattern.

            In addition to failing to respond correctly, the failure to correctly present the facts of history, specifically the tragedies and difficulties, can lead to a false understanding and socialization of an entire people. The Jewish people have experienced persecution through our entire existence. From the second after the exodus from Egypt to the Israeli – Palestinian conflict today, dealing and managing with hate has been an inherent quality of being Jewish from the beginning. The hate and disgust that so many have towards Jews, however, is rooted in falsehoods and lies. The Holocaust, the worst persecution of the Jewish people, murdering six million, was rooted in Hitler’s hate of the Jewish people. He desired a dominant Aryan society, and thus spread lies and propaganda to isolate, expel, and kill all Jews. And now, there are many that deny the Holocaust ever happened. Ironically, they believe lies that the persecution rooted in lies never happened. Moreover, Palestinians today only spread more and more lies regarding Israelis, especially the nature of the Israeli army. Ultimately, it is a vicious circle. Lies, inaccurate history, and falsehoods lead to hate and anti-Semitism, which at best in an unjust hate and at worst a genocide murdering millions.

            The failure to accurately portray history does more than convey a bias or prejudice attitude, it leads to the slow but inevitable: repeating the horrible acts of history. Whether contributing to a racist society, failing to learn from recent lessons of murder, or building a society that has false hate focused on an entire people. If history tends to repeat itself, then one would we think we would learn by now. However, if we cannot properly and truthfully convey and represent our world’s past, then we can never expect to build a better future.