This class has already been so eye-opening to me. As a History Major, I have been so enthralled with the concept of history itself and how it encapsulates everything that we do as societies,. History molds us and our way of living. I have been so engrossed in military history throughout my life and time and time again I see the same themes shine through. For example that life and history repeat themselves, the same mistakes are made time and time again., this is seen in so many areas of military history like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 in which they (the Soviets) were soundly beaten by the Mujahideen, this was subsequently followed by the United States in 2001; and while the reasons for the two invasions were completely dissimilar the tactics and mistakes made in 2001 and beyond echoed those of the Soviets from 1979 to 1989. One thing that I wish to come away with from this class is a better understanding of why this happens, I have already been utterly intrigued by the readings that this class has offered me in these two short weeks, I have been amazed to uncover the ways in which 2020 has begun to echo 1968 and the social conflicts that characterized that year. While 2020 has not and I expect will not be characterized by enormous amounts of violence, the revolution that has occurred is the revolution of the 21st century and that is social change through mobile media platforms. I would love for this class to allow me to open my mind to new understandings, new history that I never understood before and how I can learn from 1968 to better understand this year and the years that are to come.
3 Replies to “We are Doomed to Repeat Ourselves”
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Similar to what you speak about, I have been thinking about the parallels between the current situation in our society today and with 1968. I hope that this class is informative historically but also, like you said, to show us why periods like this happen and also how we can prevent similar situations from happening in the future. Although there might never be a definitive, clear method or solution that can help to address societal problems, we study the historical record to find what has and has not worked in the past.
While I agree with you that history typically moves in a repeating pattern, I wonder if there is an inherent doom that accompanies that fact. Obviously in the example you gave, the history of a stagnant war in war in Afghanistan should have informed the U.S’s decision-making, but it didn’t, and the end result was exactly the same thing. Surely in those cases repetition of history is bad, but other times I believe it can be a force for good. While one could certainly characterize ’68 as a chaotic mess of movements that fractured the country, it was also an era for progress both politically and culturally. While the prospect of another ’68 might be intimidating, perhaps the radical change that accompanies a series of events like it is necessary for further progress in the America of today.
I completely agree that history repeats itself and that we can definitely find patterns in human behavior now and in the past. When you mentioned that 2020 has not been characterized by enormous amounts of violence, I think there might be some nuances and exceptions there. For one, we are not currently at war, which is a contrast to 1968 and absolutely brings down the number of deaths and violence we have suffered this year; however, I do think that we have seen so much police brutality and riot violence this year, which is what has sparked a lot of the civil unrest. This is a different way of viewing things, but I think that words can also be violent, and the rhetoric we have seen recently can be easily compared to 1968. Finally, I wonder if the global pandemic right now had an effect on the levels of social change and unrest– it could have heightened tension and made the violence worse, or it could have calmed things down because people have other things to worry about, like getting sick.