Learning Nothing From The Past

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 27 September 2025 "Man does not learn from the past, he simply repeats it." Grazia Deledda, Italian Nobel laureate In her thought-provoking quote, Grazia Deledda reflects on the cyclical nature of by asserting, "Man does not learn from the past, he simply repeats it." With this statement, Deledda keenly observes that humanity often fails to acquire valuable lessons from historical events and is destined to make the same mistakes over and over again. Despite the countless opportunities to grow, evolve, and alter our course, it seems that humans tend to be trapped within a pattern of repeating past behaviours, perpetuating cycles of conflict, injustice, and missed opportunities for progress. This quote serves as a solemn reminder of our tendency to forget the lessons of history, urging us to break free from the repetitive cycle and strive for true growth and change. Humankind has witnessed two World Wars and countless wars that have taken a heavy toll on human lives. We're witnessing wars in many parts of the world. There's widespread destruction because of our myopic actions. Yet, we're unable to learn anything from these instances of mass destruction. We know that deforestation disturbs and disrupts ecological equilibrium. But we're none the wiser. We learn nothing from history. That's why history remains a mere story. Valmiki wrote, rather prophesied, in The Ramayana that all treacherous and undesirable events and incidents happening in the Treta Yug would happen again in the Dwapara Yug during The Mahabharat. It's worthwhile to mention that mythologically (though this never really happened), The Ramayana occurred around 7,000 years ago and The Mahabharata about 5,000 years ago, implying a gap of nearly 2,000 years ago. Both The Ramayana and The Mahabharata witnessed fierce battles and loss of innumerable lives. Knavery played its role in both eras. Even if you take the whole thing as a myth or a metaphor, there's no gainsaying the fact that the repetition of negativity, dishonesty and bloodshed took place in two different epochs and our ancestors learnt nothing from them. Excessive religiosity and zealotry have been a bane of mankind right from the advent of human civilization. Yet, we seem to be oblivious of it. Ironically, our religiosity and zealotry are on the rise with a vengeance. We learn nothing from the past because we're never open to learning anything from it. We've closed our eyes to the past. By the way, September 27 is the birth anniversary of Italian Nobel laureate Grazia Deledda, the first Italian woman to win the prestigious honour in 1926. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/learning-nothing-past/d/136996 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism