August 15th, 2013

Every now and then, I become extremely frustrated at how little people really know about their own history. Whether it is the history of the United States or even of the World. The answer to the question of why we should study history is actually pretty simple. History is really nothing more than a revolving door. If we study and learn how things work, then we will know how to get out and move forward. If we don’t, then we’ll just continue in a meaningless circle repeating the same thing over and over. As a society, we appear to be caught in a cycle that repeats itself roughly every 65 to 75 years. When the lessons of the previous generation are forgotten, then the uninformed can do nothing more than repeat those same mistakes. A perfect example of this relates to our view of terrorism and the concept of killing someone to make a political statement. This is nothing new. While researching something for a follow-on book I’m working on, I discovered that there were more bombings and/or assassinations domestically in the 1920s than there have been in more recent times. Just a simple search of school shootings will amaze you, since this phenomena was statistically more prevalent 75 to 100 years ago than it is today. If you want proof, then use your Google, read, and take a moment to study History. Otherwise, be prepared to be stuck in that revolving door. ~ Michael S. Pauley