Experiment 2 – Two groups of students were picked randomly. One group had to pretend to be prisoners and the other the prison guards. There were put in fake prison and observed. After only 2 days their roles were completely apparent. The guards had become violent, unfair, bullies. While the prisoners had become totally submissive. After four days the experiment had to be ended before anyone was damaged irreversibly.
These were normal stable people, not scientists or mortuary keepers. But given the correct encouragement they would become violent an oppressive. This shows how easy events such as the holocaust could happen again and how they did happen. Espually with the nazi propaganda and these men being scientists used to cutting up mice.
The study of history gives us hope or a better future. It shows u that our lives have improved greatly and that they still are. A child can look at the industrial revolution of England and realise that maybe they don’t have school that much. We no longer need to have eight children just to hope for two to survive and plagues no longer sweep our cities killing a third of our population.
We can look back at the past and see things we would like to keep, things like the morality of the ancient Greeks, or the peace and learning of Atlantis, a place that might never of excised but people believe in it to give them selves hope
Studying history also stops ideas from being lost. It gives us cultural identities instead of us just merging into one grey culture.
History provides us with thousands of amazing stories, to teach us morals, ethics and different opinions (two sides of one coin). Most of all historical stories can seem much more interesting because they actually happened to someone, making us feel that maybe they could happen to us. Such as Elizabeth I, a woman who was amazingly clever, but unwanted by the only man she wanted to be excepted by. Her guardian sexually abused her as a child and at points she must have felt that no body wanted her, but she worked hard and leant fast. Eventually she became one of the greatest monarchs in English history. These historical storied are so great and interesting that they are replayed and remade every year to be sold to a new generation. Every week we see at lease ten documentaries on the television about the past, if these stories were not interesting enough for people they would not be shown. Lastly these stories inspire authors to rewrite new stories for us to enjoy or to simply adapt old ones.
Religion is a type of history, religion means a lot to a great number of people on Earth, and to some it is all they have. the most popular religion in the United Kingdom and most of the world is Christianity based on a book or stories. Weather they are true or not is unimportant, because they give the morality needed and the reasons behind it all. The only real part of the book without any kind of story is the 10 commandments, which is actually in the story of Mosses. Nearly all religions are passed on in these ways using historical stories to enthesise their points and meanings.
Studying history allows us to get rid of biases, which are produced at the time of the event. This means that when a war occurs each side may hate the other and blame the other side for the death and destruction. These unfair biases could continue and bring up repercussions, if history is not studied and the story not set strait. We are all to blame for every event on Earth. Although the Nazi’s, Hitler and the German people (not all German people) were evil, sadistic monsters we can understand that they were desperate, they wanted someone to blame. The Jewish community was the obvious target, as on a whole they had money and many people had borrowed it from them so were in dept. Germany was easy to control by Hitler. He offered them the illusion of a perfect future. Most were blinded into not seeing the price or just justifying it within their minds, many would have never believed it.
The event that caused Germany to be in so much pain was the treaty of Versailles, after the First World War. The treaty was surposed to leave Germany powerless and to recoup the losses of other countries in Europe. However, it left Germany in a massive financial crisis with inflation increasing through the roof. Therefore the second was and the acts of Hitler can be as much our fault as anybody else’s because we allowed people to be left in pain. This means it could easily happen again and could have occurred even with out Hitler. The same could also be said for the terrorist attack on the USA, where America chose a side and stuck with it, very unsuttley and with very little regard to other countries feelings. In one instance they walked out of a world trade meeting with Israel, leaving the rest of the world behind. Through studying history we can understand why the terrorists destroyed the twin towers and it can stop the Americans from hating them. The terrorists, like the Nazis were misinformed and encouraged (bullied) to do what they knew was wrong. Probably only justifying their actions by the thoughts of the loved ones they had lost and the better future they could bring to the loved ones they still had.
What events have happened in the past are the foundations of our present lives. The ways in which we do things to day in many ways were decided long ago. One historical group in the eighteenth century called the Whig Historians would only acknowledge a historical importance in someone, if they carried on being important into the future. Events such as the reformation in Europe of seventy years has caused over three - hundred years of war in many countries, but mostly Ireland who is still at a state of unrest because of this religious split. Causing many deaths and riots each year.
Studying the past helps us to understand what is happening in less developed countries then our own and to bring our selves more in contact with them. We can ask why they do things and why some won’t listen, then we can look back at our past and think that when we were in the same position we would not have listened either.
This same repeating pattern of past and present can show us what not to do in our future, by looking at the past. This is the reason why many people are against the European government. As in the past we did not like being ruled or grouped to tightly together, why would we want to be in the future. The papacy was not able to keep a united Europe, and that was with the belief that turning against him would send us to hell. So how do government ministers think they can keep fifteen totally different countries as one? However, we can not properly understand what will happen until our future becomes our past. This especially shows in the treaty of Versailles which was supposed to be a remake of the treaty of Venice (kept war away for about fifty years), but it is not quite work the second time around
However, the main reason I think we study history is because we enjoy it. If no body enjoyed history then there would not be enough people good at it to be relevant, there would also not be as many book or films on the subject for us to enjoy. There are not many good jobs that need history as a skill, but still thousands of people all over the world study and read about history even if only for fun because they are passionate about it. This is the only reason I am studying history because I enjoy it, and if you enjoy something then you will find a use for it. The past can not tell us our future it can only guide us, circumstances and opinions change so even these directions can be totally wrong.
