Repeating History

Repeating History

******************

George Santayana, the noted philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist, whose life and career spanned the last half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century is credited with the following oft misquoted statement: Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. (The statement is taken from Reason in Common Sense, the first volume of his five volume set, The Life of Reason.)

We are rather doubtful that this blog will stem the tsunami-sized tide of ignorance that engulfs our culture, but we are utterly convinced that lazy silence is even less effective. That is the noble reason for this experiment. The basest of reasons is simple: it feels good "to get it off your chest".

Part of the reason for the aforementioned ignorance is the remarkable lack of curiosity, a rare commodity these days. Yet, it is the engine that drives discovery. It is not always laziness that stifles a search for the truth. Often it is fear and pride: fear that with the truth, we may have to change, and pride, because we don't like to admit that we were wrong. To be sure, however, laziness does play its part. I heard a pastor friend tell a group of people last week that in America today, there is the predilection to accept the easy lie rather than to seek to understand the complicated truth.

So, in the posts that follow, we will simply share our discoveries. As much as is possible and necessary we will document our sources. This is particularly important as we live in a culture that uses, as it's underpinings, a foundation of lies. In that spirit, this post begins with a snippet of history surround a significant man, who is often misquoted. Why is he significant? Among other things, he mentored modern literary figures like George Bernard Shaw and T.S. Eliot, to name a couple. "Google" George Santayana's name, and you will find out more.