I began this semester with a blog post about how I believed history always repeats itself whenever one generation of humans doesn’t learn from the mistakes of another. This post was written in a negative light, comparing the struggles and turmoils of 1968 and 2020. However, over the course of this semester, I’ve started to realize that 1968 wasn’t all anarchy like it may seem from the outside. There are many valuable lessons that we can learn from 1968, besides those regarding protests and hatred. For example, in my essay I’m writing about fear, how establishments use it to quiet people, and how people must overcome it if they hope to gain liberty. In many ways, 1968 was instrumental in causing people to challenge the people above them, and fight for what they truly believe in instead of taking everything for granted. Fear is obviously something that will never go away, but I see in 2020 many similarities to how people reacted to fear in 1968. MLK was tired of the oppression his people faced, so he overcame the fear the system hoped to impose on him and led black Americans to a brighter future. In 2020, I see many of the same hopes with the Black Lives Matter movement. Essentially, I’ve come to learn throughout this semester that when we think about history repeating itself, we don’t have to focus on all the negative. Yes, 1968 will always be remembered for the Vietnam War, the Troubles, and a multitude of other events that shaped a generation of people. Likewise, 2020 will always be remembered for the coronavirus pandemic, police brutality, and the heated election. However, I don’t believe this needs to be our focus when we look back on these controversial years. Instead, it is very much possible to look back and remember a time when people linked arms and fought for their voice. 2020 will not be the last tumultuous year during our lifetimes, but if we take what we’ve learned this year, we will be more prepared for the next time history repeats itself.
6 Replies to “History Will Repeat Itself”
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I really appreciated that you connected this blog to your first blog and also sighted a source of growth in yourself over the past semester. I can agree that when I think of the phrase history repeats itself, I often think of it in a negative light. I think of it as people not learning and falling into the same traps and pitfalls as before. However, I really appreciated your sentiment that this doesn’t have to mean something negative. We can be hopeful about the ways that people are inspiring change in others. However, something I do think is that we cannot have false hope and optimism. We cannot be blind to the problems that are occurring today that were a part of the Civil Rights Movement 50 years ago. It scares me that history is repeating itself with the continued systemic oppression of minorities and people of color, however I hope that this continued effort displayed by the people of our time to change this will stop the continuing cycle of history. We must be optimistic but also realistic and truthful with ourselves in the way that we are changing history or allowing certain parts of history to continue on in a cyclical nature.
The perspective you took on history repeating itself was refreshing and I think extremely important. While the specificities of the conflict may alter over time (although the civil rights movement has been an ongoing process throughout history), there will always be moments of people fighting for change and the bettering of their society. In my personal life, I’ve taken the view of change being a positive thing because it is a sign of growth. It is a part of the natural order for things to evolve and this applies to societies and ways of thinking as well. History will repeat itself because we are (hopefully) constantly evolving which calls for change, and as we have seen change can be met with resistance which is what brings about conflict. Thus, when we reflect on the years of bloody conflict and discuss the negatives, as you said, we should also look at the positives and recognize that these conflicts did bring about positive change for our societies.
I like how you wrote about the topic that you started with at the beginning. When thinking about your overall point about history and it repeating itself, I agree and disagree. I get that you are relating certain movements and tense moments to that of 2020 but I don’t consider 1968 “history.” I don’t consider history because I believe that in order for an event to be considered history it has to stop at some point. I’m not sure if you have the same opinion, but that is how I see it. Considering my opinion, the fight against police brutality and the oppression of minorities hasn’t stopped since 1968 and even was present before. Therefore, the fight is ongoing. Yes, the various prominent events are considered history because they ended but the ideas they are fighting for are not history.
I wrote about a similar theme for my blog post, and I’d be curious to see what you thought about the aftermath of 2020. We’ve seen the massive amount of theatrical and literary products of 1969 in this class, but I’m curious if this year will end up having the same effect on our cultural productions. Do you think that there will be a similar cultural aftermath?
I tend to dislike dwelling on the negative, so I really enjoyed reading this reflection. Perhaps worth noting is that just as tensions fell following ’68 and reconciliation occurred, we can hope (and probably even expect) the same to occur in the coming years from now. I really like the idea of using the adage of “history repeats itself” to give you things to look forward to. Even though we often fall into the same turmoil that previous generations have, we also can perhaps look forward to repeating some of the great successes of previous generations.
I think it’s also interesting to reevaluate the idea of history repeating itself on this side of the election. 2020 has been a tumultuous year and it is certainly easy to get bogged down in the negativity, as you alluded to, but another connection between 1968 and 2020 is the level of public engagement. There are positive connections that we can make between 1968 and 2020, too.