Why do we ignore history?

[white_wolf]

By we I mean us as a country and specifically our ruling class. Whenever wealth distribution gets as bad as it is getting here bad things happen. Do the rich think they are immune to what happened to their kind in France and Russia? Do they think they can go on living in mansions while the poor starve? How much longer must it go on before people say enough is enough? I'm not calling for their blood, I'd like a peaceful revolution to reform our economic system, but it's getting to the point where the rich won't let that happen. You would think the Great Depression would have taught them a lesson. They came very close to losing it all, it was FDR who saved them, but in their greed they have made sure another FDR won't arise and the result of that may be far worse for them than higher taxes and less profits.

[MadMaddie]

1. Your post is important and I see no responses to it

I think that answers your question. People don't have time for historical references and understandng the subtle catalyst that started chaos.

Many are willing to turn their backs on their own reprentive because the previous 8 years was just not enough to show them what the Repugs have in store for the country.

[elleng]

3. Its kind of late (on the right coast, anyway.)

I'd expect responses tomorrow. Agree: important.

[joshcryer]

25. Some yearn for a new "Reign of Terror" where all CEOs and bankers are summarily executed, etc.

It does not mean that by itself these desires reflect a historical precedent.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Willful ignorance? Blinded by their greed? I don't know, but it's a great question.

K/R

[Kalidurga]

4. I don't think they are ignoring history...

they are too busy revising it. That may get them some elections here and there and make things more comfortable for them on the tax front, but it won't stop people from being people. And right now people are getting fed up. Word.

[robinlynne]

5. I think the very rich are so global that they dont worry about it at all.

They have homes in several countries, jets, and private armies now. I dont think they care about us or our society at all.

[unblock]

6. we all learn from history. the right wing learned to avoid square mustaches and stiff-armed salutes

in all seriousness, we all DO learn from history. the question is more a matter of who is "we".

the basic mistaken assumption is that this country is a "we" acting as a single entity that has learned from history.

instead, there are factions and competing forces lumped together within and beyond our borders, all taking their separate lessons from history and all applying them to their own interests.

most salient at these days is how the ultra-rich have become powerful enough to feel they can comfortably shed any pretense of responsibility to the rest of us. they've learned from history that the masses can be fooled, that elections can be bought, that the victors write the history books. they're aware that religion and a strong police force controls the masses within the borders and that a strong military paves the way for international control.

the rest of us have learned that eventually this spells trouble for all, but the rich have learned that they can usually take their money and move to another place quickly enough.

to that end, though, the rest of us need to apply the lesson of history and find a way to organize and get our message out. so far, we're not succeeding at all, and the lessons of history is that this simply leads to more excesses from those in power. so i suppose eventually it will get "bad enough" that the masses won't stand for it. the question is, what will it take?

[upi402]

7. Media in the hands of unpatriotic, undemocratic actors

We are easy to fool, as history teaches.


my .02 as always.

[BackToThe60s]

8. What history?

Are you implying that something has occurred before now?

[Angry Dragon]

9. You can go back all the way to the Roman empire

and see what happens when the wealth goes all to the top

it is like an inverted triangle sitting on the point
it has no place to go but to fall over

[Mimosa]

23. +1,000

Angry Dragon, that's a great analogy.

[Amonester]

10. Today's wealthy were not born yet in 1930, and most of them did not...

ever study history, so the Great Depression is just an abstract notion to them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. It is a cultural problem

also the people that experienced the last one are mostly dead.

We are a forward looking culture, I could write books on this

And yes read my sig, because it has to do with that too.

[Necronomiconomics]

12. Another Tinfoil History Theorist

It's time to start looking forward, and stop looking backward.

[white_wolf]

13. Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.

You can't simply ignore history. No one in this thread has suggested looking backward, what we have suggest is looking at the past as a guild to what will happen in the future because while history doesn't repeat it certainly rhymes.

[Necronomiconomics]

19. I was being facetious. It speaks volumes

that you would feel that statements like "history theorist" or "we need to look forward, not backward" were real or serious.

[white_wolf]

20. I've seen conservatives say stupider shit before.

Secondly it is hard to tell someone's tone online, and like I said I've seen conservatives say crazier shit with total seriousness.

[Necronomiconomics]

21. Don't you mean to say

"I've seen so-called liberals on DU say crazier shit about 55% of the time on here"?

[MadMaddie]

17. Only if it were that simple...unfortunately history has a nasty

habit of repeating itself.....

[NashVegas]

14. Self-Interest

The current batch of l33ts think they can control a population made docile by drugs, computer games, tv, and in debt up to our eyeballs - and they're correct. They can, they have, here in the US at least.

Us turds, down here on the bottom rung, don't have the stomache for a real fight.

[defendandprotect]

15. Well, this time around they have control over government and the MIC ....

and they have moved government all over the world to the right --

so it's a little different this time --


PLUS we have Global Warming breathing down our necks!!

[Brigid]

16. Denial is an amazing thing.

And a pile of money is a great enabler.

[Initech]

18. So is the tea party and Fox News.

[kentauros]

22. Because we don't know how to make it entertaining!

If Eddie Izzard taught history in this country, we'd know out history, and have fun! :D

[joshcryer]

24. Wealth inequality now compared to then has no basis for comparision.

People starving to death and dying from disease and war verses people with iPhones and Blackberry's complaining that there may or may not be a social collapse occurring. We live in a time that it actually becomes preposterous for those in the western world to complain about anything particularly.