issue54 为什么还要用1hour……

lindorUID: 2290025

TOPIC: ISSUE54 - "History teaches us only one thing: knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today."
WORDS: 538          TIME: 1:08:00          DATE: 2007-1-30

Since the first anthropoids standed up straight and freed their hands from walk, the human history has been started. What human beings did in the past constitutes the history. Bacon, a famous British educator, once said, "History makes men wise". True, the history can benefit people in several aspects, and it is irrational to declare that the past cannot help people to make important decisions today.

First of all, the history is a library of vivid examples, from which people can analyze the cause and the effect. In the roaring twenties, people's lives changed to a striking extent compared with the past. People can use refrigerators to keep food from rot; people can travel from New York to London in a day by plane; people can find a piece of news from internet within a second. The highly developed technology makes citizens to live an unprecedented convenient life. If Napoleon could see the modern society, he must keep his mouth open, with an amazing expression. However, compared to the old days, we could find that there are also many severe problems which never existed before. The air is not as fresh as before; the water is not as clean as before; The forests become less and less. History is a mirror. By looking back in the history, we can conclude which success we achieve and which problems we create.

Second of all, history can warn us to make decision cautiously to avoid making similar mistakes. Take Germany as an example to illustrate this point. In the world war two, the chauvinism of Germen caused a disaster not only for the Germany but also to the whole Europe. The war, which lasted quite a long period of time, killed millions of people and destroyed many historic buildings and meaningful sculptures. Fortunately, the government of Germen learned from the blood history and realized the negative impact of chauvinism, and thus, they take effective actions to resist any chance of resurgence of Nazism. Therefore, as what we can see, Germany achieved significant progresses after the World War Two. History indeed can help people to make correct decisions on important issues.

Thirdly, the river of history is full of intelligence and wisdom. Scientists can get knowledge and inspiration from predecessors. Newton is the one who know the importance of history. He said modestly that if I has seen further it is because I stand above the shoulders of giants. Not only many new concepts are brought out from past views, and also many inventions are improved from old ones. During the attempt to improve the efficiency of old steam engines, Watt finally created his famous steam engine whose principle is still applied in the modern industry. In addition, the wisdom of many thinkers in the past is still instructive to people's behaviors. For instance, Confucius, a great educator in ancient China, teaches us to respect the older and children.

In summary, history is of great importance to human beings. It is a mirror to show us who we are and why we are the way we are. It is a vast early warning system to help people make important decisions. It is a boat carried uncountable knowledge and wisdom. History is a treasure which every people should cherish.