Good one. A version of it I had never heard before.

If they read about them, they will have a sense of what it was like to experience them. We forget because mostly we purposely do not pay attention to the past. (How often have you heard someone say “forget about that, it is in the past”?) We do not have the sense of what it is like because we do not care to. First hand accounts really bring past events to life. Read enough about other lives and viewpoints and you start to feel empathy for others. That has nothing to do with learning to avoid mistakes of the past though. That is just a side effect of being exposed to enough different views over time. I would say I was born with a love of learning, but I had to learn empathy.
Any media will work, it does not have to be reading. Learning is learning, whatever the method. For me, learning is a pleasure. For most people around me, learning anything other than gossip appears to be considered work and something to be avoided. It would be all right if it was only the average citizen who ignored the past, but it seems a growing number of our politicians have no understanding of government and no care for history either. I am starting to wish there was some kind of basic how-does-our-government-work test every candidate had to pass before they could actually run for office. I can think of no other job where you are not required to know anything, or start learning anything, about the job you are applying for (ok, except for that “offspring of the boss” position). I suspect you can now leave office as ignorant as you went in, your very own team of lobbyists will advise you every step of the way, no thinking necessary. Congress does not even bother reading the Bills anymore (the same ones they do not actually write anymore), and stopped hiding that fact some years ago already. I would venture to say that any politician that has a general love of history would make less policy mistakes than one who dismisses history. I have seen some that professed a love of a specific event in history, even writing a book about it. I do not feel that gives the big picture view I am talking about but is better than nothing. I have no idea if there are any history lovers in office currently. I am not even talking an “American history” lover, I am talking more like “World history” or “Human history”.

Or this corollary.

I always thought Nazi’s were atheists but apparently not. Thanks for sharing the belt buckle photo.

From my observations, our society seems to forget the lesson of the past, if not the event itself, after about 20 years. I am talking the average event from the past. Larger events, longer times, perhaps very much longer. Pearl Harbor would be a good example of something that has been remembered a long time in America. Yet it is quite likely there will come a time where people will know about WWII but not Pearl Harbor within it. Having little contact with young people of today, we might already be there. I am not saying it is not or will not be taught, what I am saying is remembered.

​“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

Yes my paternal grandfather had to do that. I wouldn’t have, in fact, I would have done the opposite and gathered all the gold coin I could get my hands on. I remember when President Ford rescinded that Order. Now the gold rush is on! Or is it?

… and don’t forget Our Friend.

That would be former President Richard Nixon.