The mistake that people often make is thinking that history is something that happened, that's over, that's in the past. It's true that when studying history what you're learning about is previous occurences, but it is far from done with. Everything that has happened in the past affected the present. Everything that is happening now will affect the future. "History" is just a word for "the world so far", and it's not finished with us yet.

It is popularly accepted that you should learn from something you did or something that happened to you yesterday, last week, or last year. But last century or last decade is a little trickier. The saying is "learn from your mistakes", but what if it wasn't your mistake? What if you weren't even present for the mistake? Suddenly it seems distant, and unimportant.

What people have to realize is that it was the world's mistake. It was humanity's mistake. History does repeat, because it can't possibly fail to. Not when people don't learn from it and understand that it can happen again. Can, and will unless measures are taken to prevent it. A statement once said by Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager comes to mind - "They were too confident. We won't make that mistake." Wrong solution. Confidence is not the problem. Lack of planning is.

I cannot begin to say why people so often fail to see the importance of history as a way of interpreting modern times. It may be inadequate education, or an inadequate desire to learn. Or, more than learn, think. Regardless of where the problem arises from, it isn't a problem that I see any immediate solution to. The only answer that I can think of is this: go out there and think; go out there and speak; go out there and change what will one day be history.