The people who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it

The phrase “the people that do not know their history are condemned to repeat it” is one of those popular sayings that contains great wisdom. Although its exact origin has not survived to this day, many have used it with greater or lesser success.

But what exactly does this phrase mean? Next we will take a journey through the thoughts of brilliant minds such as Confucius, Freud, Paul Preston and JD Nasio to know Why do human beings seem destined to constantly repeat the same mistakes? without being able to learn from them.

The history of the people

If we observe the history of peoples and humanity itself, we find errors that are constantly repeated. Although we know how damaging a war can be, since the beginning of time we remember peoples in constant struggle with no apparent ability to solve it.

We also find the strong economic crises that have plagued our capitalist world for decades. After the fearsome Crash of ’29, in which millions of people were ruined due to speculation and unlimited ambition, we repeated the same mistake in 2008. And it doesn’t look like it will be the last, according to experts.

At the European level, many have tried to govern the entire old continent. Alexander the Great traveled throughout Asia to annex a good number of territories. Others such as the Roman Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte and even the dictator Adolf Hitler tried without success.

Why does this happen? ¿What is there in the psyche of human beings that seems to lead them over and over again to stumble over the same stone and repeat mistakes despite knowing their futility?? Is there a rational explanation?

tripping over the same stone over and over again

The explanation for the lack of historical memory of human beings is not simple, but many people have addressed the issue.. Centuries ago, Confucius himself wove a moral story on the subject.

After encountering a woman crying uncontrollably because her family had been killed by a tiger in that same place, everyone was surprised that she remained there. However, nothing mattered to him, because the meaning of her life had disappeared. However, Confucius made a curious observation to his followers. He told them that A tyrant ruler would always be worse than any man-eating tiger..

After thousands of years, tyrants still exist in much of the world. How can something like this happen? According to Freud, there are two main reasons. On the one hand he stipulates the energy of life, on the other, the energy of death.

In this case, Freud talks about the life drive or eros, and the death drive or thanatos.:

Eros is summarized in our instinct of self-preservation. Food, sleep, etc. would fall within this section. However, Thanatos takes us to the search for sublime pleasure, a place where there are no worries, anguish or pain.. This state is only achieved with death, so we would unconsciously tend to compulsively repeat mistakes in the search for absolute well-being.

Nasio and compulsion

In this same line of thought we find the psychiatrist JD Nasio, who in his work delves into Freud’s teachings as a result of the life and death drive:

According to Nasio, each human being has an unconscious that moves them as a life force, which would lead them to repeat happy behaviors. But there is also the death drive, which makes humans unconsciously repeat behaviors that lead us to pain. , to failure, to frustration and even to recreate childhood neuroses.

For Nasio, The repetition of childhood neuroses causes us a “joy” that leads us to repeat behaviors that are actually painful. These strong emotions that are not anchored in consciousness are isolated in the subconscious, waiting for the best opportunity to come out.

The importance of history and science

Authors such as the famous Paul Preston emphasize the importance of the study of history. This seems like an appropriate way for a town to not constantly repeat the same mistakes. Now, what happens when we observe that this tendency could be natural in the human brain?

Is there a way to avoid constantly repeating the same mistakes? It is evident that it does not only lie in knowing the history. We must also know what we are like. Each individual is unique and therefore a world to discover.

Thus, it seems obvious that study the history of peoples and know in detail the human brain at an individual and collective level It may be the only solution to avoid constantly repeating the same mistakes. What do you think?

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