In order to understand our future, we have to understand our past.
One of the most important things that Thomas Jefferson stated in Query XIV is that we have to learn from our past to best have a bright future. Today we, as a society, find ourselves plagued by many things – a president who does not care about anyone beyond his base and tells (on average) 5.5 lies a day, systematic racism, neo-Nazis, police brutality, sexism, and we are on the verge of another cold war.
We often get lost in the idea that just because we are technologically advanced or a first world nation that we have moved beyond these issues. We attempt to smooth over these issues or simply allow the next problematic thing to overshadow the last. We don’t take time to learn from our mistakes anymore. Thomas Jefferson stated: “History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume…” (Query XIV)
But have we truly learned from the past? Have we truly taken the time to acknowledge our history and allow it to sink in, ruminate, and infiltrate every fiber of our being until we actually understand and know the past? Or do we simply read it and take from it whatever applies to our situation? If we truly have learned from the past then, perhaps, we wouldn’t be in the predicament that our society is in today.
So how do we properly learn from the past? We must see history for what it truly was. We have to throw away the textbooks that have whitewashed and hidden history. We have to face the atrocities humans have caused. If we avoid analyzing the past because it hurts us, then we will never learn from it. Many people say “It’s 2017, how is [insert problem here] still happening?” It feels like a valid question to ask. For example: It’s 2017, how is racism still happening?
Although there is no one answer (because there are many), there is one thing that we can point out as a motivating factor for racism today – we have not learned from the past. In order to learn from the past, you have to confront it. Too often we distance ourselves from history, to the point where it’s blurred. Why are there confederate statues erected even though they were literal traitors to our country and lost the Civil war?
The specific answer is that they were largely erected during the time of Jim Crow and were used as intimidation devices against black people. The broader answer is that we’ve blurred history to the point where obvious vessels of racism were being disguised as symbols of ‘heritage’ and ‘southern pride’ without anyone taking a second glance. So, I ask again, have we truly learned from the past? No. We haven’t because we are afraid of it.
We are afraid to look into a history book and see our own reflection marred by the crimes of the past. We are too afraid to see ourselves for what we truly are: monsters. We cannot avoid, but rather, we must embrace the mistakes and crimes that humans have committed in the past and learn from them. Once we accept the fact that we have done is evil, we can understand what is good.
Thomas Jefferson claims that in order to be good judges of the future we have to understand the past. I agree with this. But I would challenge that we first have to face the fear of the truth first. We have to face the fear that our pasts are criminal and that we have built a society on those crimes. Once we have faced our past, then we can look to history in order to build a better future.
