Margaret MacMillan: Using History to Understand the Present

[IlluminatiRex]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5C3Awme9I

A very good lecture by a world class Historian. 100% agree with her, the past isn’t a blueprint to the future, but rather can give us clues for similar situations and is important for understanding one’s viewpoint.

[Swilly]

I hate the 'repeat the mistakes of the past' because that makes its sound like we never learn from our mistakes which is hilarious at best because we would've died as a species otherwise.

There are patterns of behaviour that can repeat, but that doesn't mean it will be exactly the same.

[IlluminatiRex]

Yeah I’m always bugged by “History repeats itself!”, and I’m glad she 100% said she thinks its BS. Apparently it was Mark Twain who said that history rhymes rather than repeats, which I think is far more true. There are similarities, but it’ll never be the same, and can not be repeated.

[Death-trooper]

Guess how i viewed that saying was more like this.

"If we don't learn from our mistakes, History will repeat itself"

[Swilly]

I feel like the biggest reason why we get rhythms is because we often completely forget or ignore the reasons some people do things.

[IlluminatiRex]

It’s really only true to a point, it’s like the anaology she used in the video, theu can be like signs on the side of the road - but individuals still have to make their own choices. The choice for one event in one past event isn’t going to give a similar choice the same outcome in the second one necessarily.

[Flameon]

History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes

[MrJazzy]

This isn't always the case, but it is many times