7/26/2006

Mastermind

My high school history teacher taught me that "if you ignore your past mistakes, you're bound to repeat them." He had us play the game Mastermind in class a few times to illustrate the idea that if we pay attention to our past mistakes and didn't repeat them, we would better come up with a solution.

He taught us that in the context of US history. Over the years I've held onto the incredible wisdom from my US history teacher. And I see, on the world front, that the US continues to repeat its past mistakes, thinking that the outcome will be different. I also see that other nations are seeing the mistakes the US is making and repeating the same, ancient mistakes of their own and the current mistakes of the US. I also see many other angry people repeating the same kinds of mistakes. And I see that lots and lots of people are dying and suffering

And I see that none of us are any closer to a solution.

5 comments:

traci said...

kirk, this seems to be a rare dose of pessimism from you. i can relate. the world is on fire right now. still, it's somewhat jarring, coming from you.

hope you are well.

Kirk Moore said...

What -- reminiscing about what I learned in high school is pessimistic?
Actually, I hate that things I thought would happen way 1999 happened. I wish more world leaders played mastermind.

Kirk Moore said...

Uh -- that's way back in 1999

Peter said...

Just think, what happened while you studied history in high school (in 1983!) is now being taught to high school students... as history.

(BTW, the teacher in question wasn't Mr. C, the football coach, was it?)

Kirk Moore said...

It's a "Back in the day" kind of thing, eh?
(Nope -- the teacher was Ozzie.)