Why Study History?

History is arrogantly selective and deliberately parochial in its study. First, because it only chronicles the accounts of selected few individuals, whose "decorated" stories are deemed worthy, appealing and meaningful compared to others. Two, because it grossly leaves out many details, even in the accounts for the selected few, and chooses to tell a limited perspective and supposedly "main" ideas. As a consequence, most of our stories, despite their potential life-changing impacts on ourselves and on others, go unpublished as they are alleged of being too personal, too emotional, too dramatic and more.

After all, it is this personal touch, this emotional encounter, and this dramatic enactment that drive the passage of our lives as we largely depend on how we feel and what our personal takes are on a particular issue, rather than pure cold logic, to make our decisions. If life were pure cold logic, this would be a dull and selfish world indeed. Dull, because the chain of occuring events is highly predictable given that it follows the flow of logic. Selfish, because altruism and love will perish, replaced by the overt display of self-preservation and cold-heartedness that are increasing evident in the modern society.

As such, history in its grand attempt to tell the story of mankind ("history" is "his" story, right?) falls short in achieving its purpose due to its philosophy of high selectivity and parochial reporting. No wonder, history has failed to impress on the younger generation the same fascination that the latter has for story books and movies.