History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes. Society, government, and organizations don’t have the same kind of memory as a person. That’s because they are made up of many different minds. Minds that come and go. That live and that die. Eventually, the reasons why certain policies, regulations and political stances were taken in the first place are forgotten.
We are seeing ramifications of this all across society. Britain exiting the European Union was an example of this. The British forgot why the union formed in the first place. Some other spots that are examples of “forgetfulness” of society are:
- Anti-vax movements forgetting through never experiencing how bad certain diseases were.
- Hate for the inefficiency of Social Security. Forgetting about people dying in the streets or being completely destitute in old age due to economic and health forces outside their control.
In the future, if the next pandemic hits long after we are gone, it would be nice for society to remember what happened during this one, using that knowledge to their advantage and avoiding the pitfalls that our current society fell into.
It’s easy for a person to remember the reasons why they made certain decisions. It’s next to impossible for an organization to have this type of memory, but it can be valuable to try to institute programs that help maintain it.
None of this is Right 