Question

Discuss your obligation as a citizen of your society to understand the history behind issues that impact you every day.

Answer 1

In all cases, understanding History is integral to a good understanding of the condition of being human. That allows people to build, and, as may well be necessary, also to change, upon a secure foundation. Neither of these options can be undertaken well without understanding the context and starting points. All living people live in the here-and-now but it took a long unfolding history to get everything to Now. And that history is located in time-space, which holds this cosmos together, and which frames both the past and the present.

Well, the truth of the matter is that history does repeat itself and it's best to be prepared for it by knowing the outcomes of previous instances and being able to make educated decisions based off of these that will help to a greater degree in the long run.

History is not something to be afraid of, it should be embraced and acknowledged as a way of learning how to proceed in future. History teaches us to differentiate right from wrong, good from evil, it tells us what to do and what not to. You tend to learn from the mistakes committed from the past. The way you interpret history is the way your mind starts functioning and processing your surroundings. History basically molds you to the person you really becomes and creates the pathway for you into your future.

• Like moral virtue, responsibility is first acquired in fami­ly and home. Nobody does more to injure a sense of responsibility than a parent who abandons children to the television set and the peer group, "liberating" them from household chores and study at home. Assigning and enforcing duties within home and family, though it may seem stern at first, is kindness to everybody in the long run.
• In schools, the pupils need to be rescued from the sham subjects of "social studies" and "civics," ordinarily the most boring and empty disciplines in school curriculum, and introduced instead to real history and to the Con­stitution and American political institutions. From studying genuine historical figures and genuine politics and literature of the past, young people can come to apprehend what a citizen can do for his country.
• Perhaps the best way to renew responsibility in American society is to assume responsibilities one's self. It may be difficult to find the time, and painful to fight one's way into politics at any level; nevertheless, some honest men and women must do so if the Republic is to endure another two centuries - or perhaps to the end of the twentieth century. From running for Congress to cam­paigning for the office of drain commissioner; from publishing a newspaper to writing a letter to the editor - ­there is no end to the responsibilities that may be under­taken, to the general benefit. The apparatus for doing one's political duty still exists, thanks to our Constitution.
• To fulfill one's moral responsibilities through the agen­cies of a church, neighborhood, and personal charity may not be exciting; yet the example of duty does win converts, and one lays up treasure in a place unaffected by manipulated currency. To give aid and comfort to fugitives from Communist lands, say, is such an act as the Signers and the Framers would have approved heartily; and it teaches moral responsibility to one's children.
• Ultimately, the recovery of a sense of responsibility is bound up with the recovery of the old concept and vir­tue of piety - gratitude toward God for his gift of life, gratitude toward one's ancestors, concern for one's children and descendants. Such a sense of responsibility is in keeping with the philosophy upon which the na­tion was built - Creator-endowed rights and responsibilities.