Why do people look to the past to consider decisions that effect the future?

Question

Why do people look to the past to consider decisions that effect the future?

Answer 1

Because if you don't know history ... you will surely repeat the mistakes of the past .

Answer 2

history repeats itself do the math, before we look at the future lets look at the past

Racial Terrorism

After its founding in 1867, the Ku Klux Klan, a clandestine organization sworn to perpetuate white supremacy, became a power for a few years in the South and beyond, eventually establishing a northern headquarters in Greenfield, Indiana. Its members hid behind masks and robes to hide their identity while they carried out violence and property damage. The Klan employed lynching, cross burnings and other forms of terrorism, physical violence, house burnings, and intimidation. The Klan's excesses led to the passage of legislation against it, and with Federal enforcement, it was squeezed out by 1871.

In the middle of the 19th century, white Americans of the North and South were unable to reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society and African American slavery.[26] In 1854, the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state of the Union would decide its stance on slavery.[30] After Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 Election, eleven Southern states seceded from the union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing a rebel government, the Confederate States of America, on February 8, 1861.

1918-1940

Following World War I, the U.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world power. The aftershock of Russia's October Revolution resulted in real fears of communism in the United States, leading to a three-year Red Scare.



Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in Chicago, 1921The United States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles imposed by its Allies on the defeated Central Powers; instead, the United States chose to pursue unilateralism, if not isolationism.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prohibition encouraged illegal breweries and dealers to make substantial amounts of money selling alcohol illegally

The Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) of Topeka. This decision led to the dismantling of legal segregation in all areas of southern life, from schools to restaurants to public restrooms, but it occurred slowly and only after concerted activism by African Americans. Fannie E. Motley graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama in 1956. The ruling also brought new momentum to the Civil Rights Movement. Boycotts against segregated public transportation systems sprang up in the South, the most notable of which was the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Answer 3

Because they lack knowingness.

They don't understand yet that there is no past and the future is a space in time that will soon be of the past.

All we have is the now and once a person sees that they know longer look to the past, they live in the moment and life is well.

Answer 4

Because it's possible that this decision has been made before, and if we can look back to see how things worked out then we can make a more informed decision this time around and hopefully avoid mistakes

In 1919 we "decided" to make alcohol illegal.  That resulted in the development of a black market for the product, establishment of gangs to control that market and an increase in crime and murder so great that by 1933 we had to repeal the law and re-legalize alcohol.

Just four years later in 1937 we made marijauna illegal.  Had we actually paid attention to the exact same decision from 18 years earlier we would have anticipated the development of the black market, the establishment of gangs to run that market and the increase in drug-related crime that we are currently living with.

Just a thought.

Answer 5

because history seems to repeat itself...