What if there were no history books? No historical documentaries? No historical essays or articles, plays, art, or music? No records of our ancestors? Let’s glimpse at a world with no history.
Without the Pilgrim’s precarious journey to gain religious freedom and ensuring that it was part of the governing document of their community, we wouldn’t have that freedom today. Stripping ourselves from that removes our individuality as a nation.
Pastors who teach from the Holy Bible would have no basis for their message. Their sermons would be shallow at best. The absence of that one historical treasure alone would change the world as we know it—for the worst. What if we had no knowledge of Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, or Esther? The pages full of wisdom that Christians rely on so heavily would be blank. The God Christians lean on, the Savior in Jesus, the teachings of Paul, the encouragement from James.
Science and math are based on historical data recorded by researchers and thinkers such of the past such as Nikola Tesla or Pythagoras who knew the importance of history long before they knew what it was. Without history, scientists would be floundering on a daily basis. Literature would be written in the present or future, but what would the future be based on? Certainly not on the past. There would be no need for museums, statues, or sculptures.
The accomplishments of national heroes would not be passed down. Reliance on human memory would be futile. There would be no stories of Columbus or Paul Revere or Abraham Lincoln. Would Neil Armstrong have made it to the moon if the Wright Brothers had not recorded their first flight?
Gazing into the past opens our eyes to the future. It gives us roots and allows us to branch out. The history of this nation defines what Americans have stood for and which ideas and principles we should cling to today. If we ignore the outcome of the decisions and actions of those who came before us, we most certainly risk repeating their mistakes.
History is hindsight at its best – a clear picture of roads traveled in the past. Those destinations may or may not be places to where we want to travel in the future. No history? We would bounce around in a world without order, with no basis for improvement. History allows us to reflect, change, and improve. History is essential to being human, to being American.
“A nation that forgets its past has no future.” – Winston Churchill