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Is the history nonsense? (Click to select text)
In responding to the President Bill Clinton's call for a national dialogue on race, Luis J. Rodriguez, the author of an article "Stop the Lies", suggests that we need to give the people in different colors a proper recognition in our history; and points out that the industrial economy is the foundation of racism. In a question, the American automaker, Henry Ford suggests that "History is more or less bunk" and the only history that we need to care about is " the history we make today."We can see they have different attitude towards the history, and we may think the author would disagree with Ford's statement; but by examining both quotes closely, we may ask :"Does the author diagree with Ford's statement at all?"; in other words, the author may consider there is a valid aspect in Ford's statement. Let us take a look what and why the author may disagree with Ford. Ford states that:" ...History is more or less bunk. It is tradition. We want to live in the present..." From his statement, we can see that Ford despises the effect of history in our human development; and doesn't acknowledge how the history in past influenced our society in the present. As we know, "Rome is not built in one day." Our human development depends on the flow of history. We absorb knowledge from our history, remold our society, make new inventions and make progress. For example, the interaction of bursts of technological development First, appeared the steam power and drove the industrial revolution ; then introduced the railways; third , with the electrical power; fourth with cheap oil and the car. Not only are the history of innovation of technologies closely connected each other, but also are the political policies. This aspect is acknowledged by the author of the article "Stop the lies ". The author give an example about how Native Americans influenced American system of government. Meanwhile, history also shapes one's world outlook and raise the class issues through the industrial economy. As a common fact, Henry Ford was prejudice. How did he form his attitude if he were not influenced by the history? It can not come naturally. The author in the article states the racism as the result of the influence of industrial economy. At the beginning of industrial economy, there is no such notion of race. As the growth of the industrial economy and the need for more workers, slaves at that time rose too. The author notes that it is the slave ship crew first to adopt "the curious doctrine which was to be called ‘white supremacy'". The people in a society is categorized by the class since then. Also the author in his article points out that it is the class issues make the real social division. Thus the history in the past does shape how we live and think in the present. Now, let us examining what and why we may think the author would agree with Ford on some extent. In Ford's statement, he states that "...we want to live present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today." Ford may imply that the history we make today would have impact on the history in the present. The author in his article states that as "we are entering an era characterized by the ‘end of work'", the need for more workers are not demanded. This suggests that the condition that has bred the concept of racism is under attack. This gives a reason why the author may consider to agree with Ford on some extent. In conclusion, by analyzing both quotes, we can see that the author would not completely disagree with Ford's statement, because there is a valid aspect on the effect of present history.
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