When I first saw this meme I instantly identified with it. But over the last twenty-four hours I have seen people on the Left, liberals, one Trump supporter, and several apolitical people using it. Perhaps this doesn't help us move any kind of conversation along. It has less meaning if there is not a body of ideas and convictions behind it.
Part of the problem might be that we say---or we stop discussion and redirect critical thinking---by claiming that people learn from history. Our record on learning from history is not good, and there is a saying that I have heard Serbians and Italians both use: We always forget, but we never forgive.
I think that history matters because it is a kind of "place" in which we can develop a consciousness of ourselves and our world. And knowing history allows us, or requires us, to put ourselves in a particular lineage and draw both our identity and our tasks from that lineage. History gives you the responsibility to develop, to live within a context more or less of your choosing, and to change things for the better.
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