History: More Important Than Math? | Robert Joseph Bolton

As Ireland moves forward, our values must be defined, and thus education must be refined. Education minister Ruairi Quinn's uncertainty over the importance and relevance of history in Irish education has been a concerning blip in Irish educational discourse. It is of course a relief that the minister has reaffirmed history's important place in education, but alarming that it was ever considered an option for discontinuation. While the debate is over and the dust settled, we must re-examine the importance of history if we are to re-affirm our human values through the education system.Though we perceive ourselves as unquestionably free beings, presuming ourselves to be impenetrably autonomous and un-phased by the swirling social forces trailing around us, we are deceived by our sneaky psyche, which behind our back absorbs each and every experience into the misty realms of the subconscious. But the deception doesn't end there. With every precious passing second, we unknowingly wield our subconscious into a tool for seeing the world through a historical frame, meaning that even the most minute of actions are judgements. They are all calculated endpoints of the minds continuum of complex processing, which uses history as its equation. How is it then that a subject so important and pivotal in making sense of the world around us could be so undervalued?The answer lies in our technologically dependent economy, which renders the meaningful aspects of existence a bothersome roadblock in fulfilling hyper economic efficiency. Under capitalism's relentless, exhausting search for endless innovation, the sciences are given grandiose superiority and supreme exceptionalism. To question the relevancy of the sciences is like questioning the relevancy of religion back in the days of the staunchly Catholic Ireland. The humanities are dying. After all, what benefit do history and Shakespeare have to offer for an economy addicted to producing anything 'new'?Nothing. But we must discard the idea of spoon feeding the young with nothing but education which has no other purpose than to feed the ever hungry economy. To deny the young a basic historical consciousness, is to deny them a comprehension of one's place and meaning in the world. This we do not need, because as art historian professor Camille Paglia argues, the history of humanity can be summed up as the search for meaning of one's place in the cosmos. It is painted through our ability to memorise, and gives humanity direction, scope and perspective - a reason to live. Without the lens of history, meaning becomes vague. Without knowledge of history's continuum, life seems purposeless to the point where suicide becomes the answer to our nihilistic chasm.How can the younger generation ever escape the deepest darkest depths of the psyche when the great struggles of history are denied to their expansive minds? With our soul destroying economic climate, the young are yearning for even an ounce of reassurance. The great tales of the past, where hope once seemed lost, but where people overcame all the odds to achieve freedom is precisely the spirit of overcoming that is needed today, but none of this can be gained from studying the likes of calculus.From our early days as homo sapiens, the world's magic beauty and mind boggling complexity transfixed man into a state of childlike wonder. Science has and continues to fulfil the aching questions of our inquisitive wonder, but owes its progress to the process of constant experimentation and our appetite for 'why' and 'how', stemming from our urge to give meaning to the world. The betterment of humanity, which science constantly promises, cannot be realised without a grasp of humanity's rich historical tapestry.But meaning also has practical uses, since grand narratives and values provide a pillar with which to organise society. Like the scientific method, history provides a reference point with which we can make decisions. Our consciousness of these reference points sometimes resurface from our subconscious waters, using past events to judge how we shall act upon the world presented before us. Without a basic sense of history, all human choices become a meaningless void which promotes random compulsions and nihilistic tendencies.The wider society is not exempt from this. It is a common cliché to say history teaches us lessons, but it is a matter of fact cliché whose relevance persists, since nothing could be so important as to learn from past. If the window of the past is blurred, foresight becomes a blind and dodgy enterprise, leaving hopes and prospects for the future stained with a lingering uncertainty. In the age of information technology and stifling surveillance, never has history been as important as now. Edward Snowden's stunning exposè of America's surveillance programmes, with their titanic omnipresence and a "who cares " like acceptance among the political establishment, rings of fascistic tones.Time will tell whether the historical perspective will guide the backlash against the tyranny of fascistic surveillance. America must realise that past horrors may resurface without a historical glimpse into humanity's dark crevices, which is precisely why humanity has written the noble protections of international law.Therefore, without memory and a sense of history, we become the walking dead, and slaves to whoever wants to enslave us. To obliterate memory is to become oblivious to the external world and what it means in context to its past. Without history, we deny basic truths about how the world came to be and how it might and could be. Trees would become a confusing mass of brown and green. Our fellow humans become enemies. We would see the world through an empty eye and experience the world as a disjointed mess, without meaning and brilliant beauty.The tragedy of Alzheimer's disease example epitomizes the importance of history, for the disease banishes the psyche into a dark distrustful view of world. Relatives become enemies, because you do not remember their love and friendship.History's legacy stimulates vision. By scoping through the past we can prepare for the trials of the future. History puts shape and symmetry onto a disorganised and chaotic world. Without a historical lens, the future moves somewhere but nowhere.