history...important?

[VAE VICTUS]

ok why do you think history is important,or has thought to have been important?and if your crazy tell us why you think history is unimportant.

god made whiskey so the irishmen wouldnt conquer the world!

[Byzantine Prince]

History is NOT important, no... wait... it is. No... wait... it's all subjective.

[sharrukin]

History is important because it tells who we were and who we are going to be. We are as individuals not self made but are the product of many others stretching back in time and if we do not understand them we have no chance of understanding ourselves. We must understand the evil that men are capable of as well as the good that they can aspire to. Besides its fun as hell.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

History helps us avoid the mistakes of the past and allows us to see what life was like before us. ALso in the case of the Col War it lets us see how close we got to either all dying off or never existing at all.

[Basiliscus]

History is important for many reasons.

Politically, it gives governments a chance to look at the policies and ideas of their predecessors so that they know the changing needs of the masses and can never (in theory!) make the same mistakes as once have been made.

Socially, it gives people a grounding in human evolution and the way society has changed through the ages. It gives people a comparison that human beings are making 'progress' over the people who populated the planet before them.

Economically, it gives people a chance to see re-occuring trends and make money by learning from others mistakes.

As my old football coach once said: "It's not a crime to make a mistake, but it's a crime not to learn from it"

Looking at the past lets us progress into the future

[King Arthur]

i will now play devils advocate for arguments sake
call me crazy,
but i would argue against historys importance ,
because being the same species= homo sapiens
the context of history will not change the way we will behave and act in situations , this is instinctive , the 'lessons of history' will not change what is ultimately everyones evolutionary instinct to survive and breed at whatever cost (altruism doesnt exist as far as i am concerned )
basically the same mistakes will be made , dicatators will rule and kill unstopped , poverty will continue

and war will always exist , this is a natural behavoir of humans = to fight for control of natural resources ,

anyone who disagrees is just an ideolised hippy

i look foward to peoples replies in what could be an interesting discussion

wahoooo i just became a full member after this post, thanks .org

[King Arthur]

History helps us avoid the mistakes of the past and allows us to see what life was like before us. ALso in the case of the Col War it lets us see how close we got to either all dying off or never existing at all.

What exactly is the significance of what life 'was like before us' .

ofcourse i cannot deny this is interesting as of course i do enjoy playing Rtw

but what exactly is important by finding out what life was like before us if we arent going to learn anything from it ,. Which is in this case mere fact finding

[L`zard]

@'Uncle Pape' :

"Our genes maybe in the basement but it does not stop us chosing our point of view from the top."

You ellegant dude, you! Nice optimism, slow-go for the short term, tho.

Unfortunately, the stupid out-breed the 'smart', by 50-1, eh?

Just label me 'cynic', let's see who comes out right (at least statistically, eh?)

AND NO, I don't wish to debate genotypical statistics, (tho I know you wouldn't go there anyway). Just a 'caveat' for the trolls.

[heya, trolls; this means we're not going to play the 'race' card, 'stand, K?]