Nelson made a really interesting comment on his blog. He wrote...
"Today, during class we had a class discussion about All Quiet on the Western Front and war in general. We talked about different aspects of war, we talked about WWI, WWII, Desert Storm, and wars in general. After the discussion I came to the computer to write my reflection (about a subject that I already forgot) and Lucien told me that he was pretty annoyed about the fact that everytime we talk about war it goes back to past crimes and leaders. He told me that he was pretty annoyed about us not talking about wars NOW; it always goes back to Alexander, it always goes back to Hitler; WWI. Me, I believe he is right in the sense that war is NOT a thing of the past. War is currently waged in the Middle East, and in Africa, but for some reason we talk about Hitler and not Bush (or the US senate for that matter). We talk about the Holocaust and not Darfur, and even though the Holocaust was bigger, Darfur is present. And even though history is important; I believe that the present is more so."
Do you agree or disagree???
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6 comments:
i think Nelson and Lucien are totally right in sense that everyone gets caught up in the past and get angry at the way things played out and yet they dont take a stand in what happening today, they have a chance to make a difference in the things going on today and instead they're too busy worrying about the past, and dont get me wrong the past is very important like nelson said but its important that we learn from it and use it to our advantage to make things better for us today. Thats a great point the two boys made and i think more people need to think about it because today is what effects tomorrow.
The past and the present should be viewed equally. If we make our perspective too narrow, and get tunnel vision, then we could easily get caught up in whatever we're looking at and not learn anything. The past and the present are part of a whole and both have to be seen as just that- a whole. Both are equally important when you are studying about wars.
We must remember that we are in a HISTORY class after all, or "HUMANities". So that could be one reason why we don't talk too much about present day wars. Also, since we are in the midst of a war, we all have different views on this war. If Cortney were to let us talk about it in class on a regular basis, it could get out of hand and there'd probably be more arguing than discussing and we'd get nowhere. Then we would get into politics and so on and so on...
I personally have no problem discussing current events/wars. However, I feel the past tends to outweigh the present becasue when you discuss the past it's a lot easier to see both sides. It's much more dificult to do so right now in the present while an event(or war) is still developing.
I agree with David and dissagree with the quote. The past needs to be discussed because its the only way to plan for the future. Its the only way we can look at events in the past and determine how similar actions will reocurr today. David is right, the past makes it easier to see both sides. If you just look at it from the present you will forget the past and it will repeat. I believe looking at the past and using it for the present and future. It is true that history can be changed and altered in our mind, but the same thing happens with current events. they have a slant put on them. In addition I believe the present is too shrouded in secrecy to really know everything about it. There are still classified documents from world war II so how can we think that we can learn everything about current events when they are even more shrouded in secrecy. They both need to be studied a lot.
I understand why you agree with Lucien in that you are frustrated with the lack of current events in the class room. That it may appear unnecessary to recall past events rather then current events. I agree with this because I feel that our generation is undereducated to the point that they have become ignorant. Our generation does not care enough to understand what is going on in the world, this fact frightens me. The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The things we are doing today effect tomorrow. I feel that incorporating more current events in the class room can open the eyes of many students heading down the road of ignorance.
However I would not consider current events in any way superior to the past. I am a firm believe in that in order to understand today you must understand tomorrow. The world today is shaped off the past, and you must understand and keep the past in mind in order to better the world today, for tomorrow.
Although I do agree that Adolf Hitler is talked about an excessive amount.
In terms of decisions made in the world, we seem to be more successful when we refer to the past to make future decisions. We cannot understand how to make political decisions in the present if we know nothing about the past and have no experience in the matter. If we don't pay attention to the past, we will never make smart decisions for the present and future. It's like trying to walk a catwalk for the first time without a rope. You won't make it! Making decisions based off knowledge from past experiences is also like maturity. We mature because we stop doing things or thinking certain ways when we were immature. If we don't look at the past, then we're babies forever.
One thing about the past that is actually bad is how we feel about things that happens. The emotions, if we hold onto them, will stay with us forever. Our stress and worry about the past affects our present and future life, even though there is no reason to hold on to the bad memories since it's not happening! I think the problem we're having with the issues today and why they're repeating comes from this fact. The people of the world hold on to memories that make them afraid of the present and future instead of looking at the memories (which cannot affect us because they're not happening) and making intellectual goals by assessing the mistakes.
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