Dear rambler-ga;
Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question.
If we look back at history one of the most profound and long-lasting
mistakes began when we fled religious persecution to take refuge in
?The New World?. Within a very short time of our arrival and
establishment of our long sought-after freedom, the freed peoples set
upon the ?savage? Native Americans in an effort to convert them and
domesticate them and forcibly demand their compliance using the very
concepts of humiliation, denigration and deprecation that once
subjugated their conquerors against their will. Ironically this
eventually led to a 500 year long genocide similar to the maniacal
obsession repeated in the mid 1940?s Nazi Germany where hundreds of
thousands of young men and women would eventually die trying to defeat
it. The similarities are astonishingly apparent:
AMERICAN INDIAN HOLOCAUST
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/aiholocaust.html
THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST 1933-1945
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Holocaust.htm
Another most obvious mistake was, of course, slavery. A similar irony
exists here in that the very people who advocated slavery were the
same people upon whose insistence the slaves were taken into bondage
(and some of which were forcibly converted to Christianity). The Old
Testament Bible, upon which Christianity eventually originated, is
largely a historical record of how the Hebrew slavery (bondage)
concept failed miserably and was outside the scope of reasonable
humane treatment by any standard.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY
http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html
PARALLELS OF SLAVERY
http://www.hebrewisraelites.org/parallel.htm
In terms of economics, America and other nations have long colorful
histories of depression. Our financial system has repeatedly invested
all our eggs in one basket in spite of the lessons learned that doing
so is never a good plan. In pre-civil war era it was our naive
reliance on the great railroads, which rose to great heights
economically but eventually failed leading to grave economic
disturbances that were caused by currency fluctuations, stock
speculations, and trade difficulties. Again in the 1920?s and 1930?s
it was our beliefs that our banking institutions would remain solvent
that eventually lead to the Great depression. The bizarre thing is
that mistake seems to come around over and over again too in spite of
how or what we do to prevent it. There have been 28 recessions or
depressions in the United States since 1865, or one about every 4 1/2
years. It seems that we are never ready either.
LEXIS NEXIS
http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/2upa/Abe/RecessionsDepressionsPanics.asp
I realize you are not particularly interested in issue about war but I
would be remiss if I did not throw these in for good measure (over and
above what you originally requested, of course):
Some might argue that the war in Vietnam was a repeat of mistakes that
led the US into the Korean War (conflict). Like the Chinese and
Koreans, the North Vietnamese were prepared to accept limitless
casualties in their quest for control and, once again, the US failed
to predict that determination. Similarly, the US population was not as
motivated to assist Vietnam in part perhaps due to a lack of public
education on the issue not to mention the US government?s own
(repeated) unwillingness to officially declare war in a constitutional
manner. Absent the government?s identical failure to acknowledge the
war in Vietnam as it did in Korea (as well as other similar damning
issue to be certain) the campaign was another doomed effort from the
outset:
?In formulating a strategy to defeat the North Vietnamese, the U.S.
military leaders did not completely understand the nature of the war.
The U.S. civilian leadership failed to invoke the national will with a
declaration of war. This produced a strategic vulnerability that our
enemy was able to exploit. In this regard, the lessons from the
Korean war were overlooked.?
GLOBAL SECURITY
?Vietnam: Lessons Learned?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1989/MC.htm
Your students might also consider the mistakes that drew the United
States into the First and Second World Wars:
?A review of twentieth century American diplomacy illustrates how
attempts to learn from past "mistakes" can lead to unwanted results.
Following the crusade "to make the world safe for democracy,"
disillusioned Americans of the 1920s and Depression-racked 1930s
sought to learn from that "mistake." Never again, they concluded,
should we be drawn beyond the two wonderful oceans that providence has
provided to insulate us from European affairs. This outlook, of
course, caused Americans to ignore the rise of fascism in Europe and
Asia. As we buried our heads in the sands of "America firstism," the
soon-to-be-merged Axis powers marched unmercifully against powerless
neighbors. Only the shock of Pearl Harbor stirred Americans out of
this stupor.?
A LESSON ABOUT "HISTORY'S LESSONS"
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/sport/banker.html
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
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Request for Answer Clarification by
rambler-ga
on
28 Oct 2005 14:39 PDT
Thank you for your informative answer. Instead of a clarification, would you
please confirm that I have correctly summarized the examples that you gave:
(1)
Original mistake: Religious persecution in England.
Repeated mistake: Religious persecution of American Indians.
Repeated mistake: Nazi persecution of Jews.
(2)
Original mistake: Hebrew slavery.
Repeated mistake: African slavery.
(3)
Original mistake: Over-investment (in railroads). Their collapse leads
to recession.
Repeated mistake: Over-investment (in banks). Their insolvency leads
to Great Depression.
Repeated mistake: (There have been 28 recessions or depressions in the
US since 1865.)
(4)
Original mistake: US fails to predict North Korean determination.
Repeated mistake: US fails to predict North VietNam determination.
(5)
Original mistake: US enters WWI "to make the world safe for democracy".
Consequence: Americans ignored the rise of fascism in Europe and
Asia in 1930s.
(I realize that this last example is not a repeat mistake, but it is
interesting nevertheless.)
One of the links that you provided was very interesting:
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/sport/banker.html
The author, Mark T. Banke, contends that George Santayana's sage advice --
("Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.") --
may be questionable. Mr Banke goes on to say "human beings have often learned
wrong lessons from history... In avoiding 'past mistakes', human beings
often err in new, completely unanticipated ways."
Wow, very interesting indeed! He shot my question all the way to heck and gone.
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Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
28 Oct 2005 15:27 PDT
(1)
Original mistake: Religious persecution in England.
Repeated mistake: Religious persecution of American Indians.
Repeated mistake: Nazi persecution of Jews.
--- These are indeed the similarities I intended to point out
(2)
Original mistake: Hebrew slavery.
Repeated mistake: African slavery.
--- Again, these are the similarities I intended to point out
(3)
Original mistake: Over-investment (in railroads). Their collapse leads
to recession.
Repeated mistake: Over-investment (in banks). Their insolvency leads
to Great Depression.
Repeated mistake: (There have been 28 recessions or depressions in the
US since 1865.)
--- Not only was over-investment laregly reponsible but failure to diversify
(4)
Original mistake: US fails to predict North Korean determination.
Repeated mistake: US fails to predict North VietNam determination.
-- Not only did the government fail to predict the determination of
its adversary, but it failed to fully commit to the task at large and
it failed to persuade enough public support for the eforts.
(5)
Original mistake: US enters WWI "to make the world safe for democracy".
Consequence: Americans ignored the rise of fascism in Europe and
Asia in 1930s.
(I realize that this last example is not a repeat mistake, but it is
interesting nevertheless.)
---Oh but I believe it is a repeated mistake. Twice the government
watched the evolving dictatorships and twice the government maintained
that the problem did not warrant US involvement. In both cases the US
knew about, yet turned a blind eye to the increase in the feeling of
nationalism in many European countries and the blossoming alliances
that were created by the and in turn fed off them.
WILSON'S WAR
http://www.lfb.com/index.php?stocknumber=MNS233
"human beings have often learned wrong lessons from history... In
avoiding 'past mistakes', human beings often err in new, completely
unanticipated ways."
Quite true. Even oft repeated mistakes must originate from somewhere.
Perhaps this is how some great blunders occur in the first place.
tutuzdad-ga
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