The Importance of History

There is the old adage that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. There is some truth to that but as we move through time those who make the decisions affecting events are never truly repeating what was. There are a myriad of factors that change and flow and we are never confronted with the same choices as those that our forefathers/mothers faced. This is true of individuals and nations. 

However, we can learn from history and hopefully gain knowledge and experience that will improve the decisions we do make.

It is along this thought that I want to share a piece from Winston Churchill’s Gathering Storm. This is the first in his series on World War II. I began reading it a while ago and what he has to say is incredibly perceptive. The book deals with the decade prior to the outbreak of the war, the rise of Nazism, the failures of the great powers and the missed opportunities to prevent the conflict. Would have been helpful had both Israeli and US politicians read it years and years ago. 

“The Sermon on the Mount is the last word in Christian ethics. Everyone respects the Quakers. Still, it is not on these terms that Ministers assume their responsibilities of guiding states. Their duty is first so to deal with other nations as to avoid strife and war and to eschew aggression in all its forms, whether for nationalistic or ideological objects. But the safety of the State, the lives and freedom of their own fellow countrymen, to whom they owe their position, make it right and imperative in the last resort, or when a final and definite conviction has been reached, that the use of force should not be excluded. If the circumstances are such as to warrant it, force may be used. And if this be so, it should be used under the conditions which are most favourable. There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win.” (The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill, p. 320)

While this was written after the war, Churchill is recorded in his speeches, letters and pronouncements from the mid 1930’s calling for action against a rearming Germany and an end to the policies of appeasement. There are those among us who have such foresight and time is passed to give them their due. 

Meir

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay