Ignoring and Repeating History

As Santayana remarked, "Those who forget their history are destined to repeat it". The "orphan" nation provides a living testimony to this statement.

A clue to the answer may lie in Professor Aziz’s remarks, particularly his brilliant social analogy. What distinguishes orphans in a community? The comparison implies not just a lack of means and privilege, which though an obvious handicap is seldom a permanent disability, but also insecurity and lack of breeding. Communities may pity orphans for the former but they have also learnt to be wary of them on account of the latter. History, myths and literature (particularly children’s literature) show that gods and emperors have always treated orphans and outcasts (orphans by choice?) with suspicion. Their total ignorance of rules makes these ‘aliens’ impervious to the reluctance and inhibitions that are often the reformer’s undoing but sometimes prove his saving grace. Their insecurity, leading in extreme cases to paranoia, makes them ruthless.

Having realised that behind almost every horrible crime against humanity (from genocide to apartheid), there lies an incurable sense of insecurity (the-entire-world-is-against-us syndrome), the world has seen the wisdom of Saadi’s advice — fear the man who is (unreasonably and irreconcilably) afraid of you — and learnt to shun the orphan more than the bully.

This, even though respectable senators dismiss it, is the unfortunate connection. When we turn our back on our national history, our neighbours in the global village are perplexed. When we refuse to acknowledge the facts and logic of world history, they panic. They wonder, and one cannot blame them, whether we are plain silly or suicidal maniacs. They fear an apocalypse.