The purpose of history
There is only one real purpose of history, telling us how a society fails
This is what I got from reading kinds of history books.
History can‘t tell us how to build a better future
this is a task of science and technology you know this is why we are here USTC;
History cannot tell us how to construct a harmonious society,
this is a matter of representative democracy;
Many people always think that history is nothing more than struggles
between good guys and bad guys.
It’s a pity that History cannot even tell us who is good and who is bad
for the standard of valuing a person often changes violently, For example
once Hitler ,Stalin were viewed as most great men But now they are criticized globally.
What people talk most about history is how great this empire or that civilization was
but they never think consider why they have all failed
Just like civilization was rare compared to barbarism
the prosperity of human society was always rare and difficult to copy
Most of the time, most of the empires, and most of the societies
darkness and suffering was the normal. No one can deny this
But people seems always to be satisfied with the political correctness in textbooks
Fortunately ,there is a kind of knowledge can still answer the question
telling part of the truth about this world.
This knowledge is History, a subject telling us how a society fails
and sometimes could remind we not to Repeat the same mistakes.
I know that someone will say that there are many achievements in human history
why I say that history is a study of failure
Because those successful experiences have new names:
science democracy or Universal Value.
We are able to live a good life because we have inherited
these valuable successful experiences But these alone are not enough
Failure is the norm in the world, and we still need to learn from failure
This is why history exists.
That's all Thank you!