There have been many variation on theme about remembering the past. Generally the quote is attributed to George Santayana when he wrote in The Life of Reason,  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or, as Kurt Vonnegut  wrote in his novel Bluebeard: “We’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive. It’s pretty dense kids who haven’t figured that out by the time they’re ten…. Most kids can’t afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.”

Yogi Berra put it in a more down to Earth way when he said:  It is deja vu all over again.

And when you think about it we live in a systematic physical world.  The sun rises and sets repeatedly. We are to the point where we have gotten so good at predicting the Earth’s rotation we can tell to the exact minute when the Sun will rise and set. We have figured out the phases of the moons and the moving of the tides and the twinkling of stars; but somehow history has been perceived to be remembering dates and names that come around only once in a linear way.

The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes:  What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  In literature there are seven basic plots (eight if you live in a trailer). Every era in time and place has its despot, wars and Renaissance. It could be Attila and his Huns crossing the steppes of Russia; or Napoleon and his Grande Armee; or Hitler in Tiger tank crossing those same steppes. The objectives are pretty much the same it is just the people who change.

The difference between history and Old Faithful spewing forth hot  water methodically every 35 to 120 minutes, is we are not sure when or where an historical event will repeat itself. And with all historical events, it is the human variable that plays into the story line.

A lot of people use history to try and understand what is taking place in the present time. But here is the catch.  History can be like a baseball game. What looks like an insignificant infield hit in the third inning turns out to be the defining moment in the game. Many watching the game may have never picked up on that because they were awed by the late-inning upper deck home run. A historical example of this could be the Battle for Guadalcanal in World War II. Japanese and American forces fought from August of 1942 to February of 1943 for this island. Compare this to the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 and you have your third-inning infield hit and a late-inning upper deck homer.  Which one gets remembered? In this case the homer because it ushers in a whole new concept and consequence of war.

But in reality, it is the people who make history, write it and interpret it.  In some cases even revise it. And revision may be a good thing. It may not go as far as “new and improved” because it makes us think; can something that has already happened be new and improved.  It falls more into what Soren Kierkegaard wrote that “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  The same could be said about history.

Take the pulling down of Confederate statues. For those in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the erecting of a statue, an obelisk or some other monument in the town square was a nobel way of remembering those who fought in what they would called the “Lost Cause.”  The further we move away from those events surrounding the “Lost Cause” people begin to question that interpretation. Was it really a worthy cause to begin with?

We look back through history much like looking through the Hubble Telescope. What we see in space is light traveling millions of light years. A burst of energy long faded from its source. But that light reveals what once was and can bring new understanding to the universe we live in. Those iconic marble statues of men being pulled down to some represents a glorious-faded history. To others, it is a light that no longer shines on today’s beliefs and understandings.

For those who do not study history the question might be could it happen again.  The answer is: It already has.