Thanks for your opinion. I don't agree with any of it though. In fact I find your opinion at best naive and at worst dangerous for society. If twenty-two years of history is already going back too far, perhaps you think that we have nothing yet to learn about what happened on S11, in Rwanda in the 90s, what actually during WWII, let alone the great crash of 1929 and the French revolution?

Twenty-two years is a blip, but I suppose that it may appear to be a long time in these days of instantaneous 'news'. In fact it is the instant nature of satellite opinion, mobile phone cams and hasty judgements being passed off as if they are fact today which I believe makes the study of the history being created around us every day all the more important for the future.

This quote from the journalist Tim Radford sums up my thoughts on the value of history:


We don't learn from history because - perhaps - we don't really study history, and if we do, because we so quickly forget it. We all have short memories.

History is a subject crawling with lessons for everybody: instructive lessons in the use of language, in civic affairs and citizenship, in national identity, in the emptiness of posturing patriotism, in the abuse of power, in the folly of violence, in the fragility of reason and the enduring nature of bigotry and superstition. Who says the past is not relevant? The present is all too fleeting. The future is anybody's guess. The past is all we have, and we should profit from it.

I wish plansfornigel the best of luck and courage in his own study of our history.