The main benefit of the study of history is to dispel the illusion that people living now are significantly different from people who lived in earlier times.

The statement above is twofold. In one part it asserts that it is an illusion to believe that people living now are different from the people who lived in earlier times, and in the other part it claims that the main benefit of the study of history is to dispel this illusion. Aside from the fact that there are some unchanged characteristics shared by the people from past and people living now, I generally disagree with the statement’s claim and assertion. In what fallows first I will address the claim then the discussion will be dedicated to the statement’s assertion.

To begin with, dispelling such an illusion is just the beginning, what is important comes after that people realize how much study history is benefiting them. One of the most important benefits of the study of history is to learn not to do the same mistakes. Burke says that those who do not know the history are doomed to repeat it.

Consider the history of Soviet Union and its lesson for Iran. Nations of Soviet Union secluded themselves from the other parts of the world to thrive independently. As it was shown later, they lagged behind the world so badly that it led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, since they needed to be in contact with the world. Having learned from this lesson, Iranian politicians did not insist on a polemic atomic issue that renders the total seclusion of Iran. Iran is now negotiating to find common ground instead of assuming any indifference to the position of Iran toward the world.

Furthermore, we cannot say that it is entirely an illusion to think that past lives were different from our lives, because some degree of difference exist. We cannot always look backward to the past to make a perspective image of the future. As the time goes by, people of societies also experience one-way changes that make them different from their past. We need no more than looking social websites such as Facebook to affirm that history does not hold all the experience we need; The negative and positive consequences of Facebook cannot be found in any historical book as it is a newfound experience that we cannot find anything like it in past.

In short, as discussed, dispelling people’s illusion that past lives were different from our lives, is not the main benefits of study history. The most important advantage is its lessons for us not to do the same mistakes. Furthermore, History does not maintain all we need in our present lives because some aspects of life is newfound in this era, and to say that it is not repeated in the history, is definitely not an illusion.