My kant van die draad

It took me a long time to learn to appreciate history for what is was. History is the story of what ordinary people like you and me did in extraordinary circumstances. Their responses, considering their circumstances, are almost always reasonable or at least understandable.  

The popular counterargument to the study of history is usually that: ‘the problems of the present cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them...” This implies, of course, that the study of history is a useless waste of time insofar as it’s application to present conditions are concerned.  

On the contrary, however, and taking recent world events as a barometer, I reckon the study of history becomes ever more important. Why? Well, history is the study of people, and people remain forever just people – (a) they make the same mistakes over and over and (b) they also react the same way when problems arise.

This then, is the value of history. The future holds very little surprises insofar as human response to great triumph or great adversity is concerned.