Historical amnesia occurs when citizens of the country either know little or entirely nothing about their country’s past. This is predominately noticeable among the younger population, whom are either not interested or exposed to the content. Results of a survey conducted by IPS further showed that most Singaporeans recall more about present developments of the country as compared to the past of Singapore. There was already a slowly growing importance for history which was used to facilitate the development of Singapore in the past. Why should we then, stop using history in the development of Singapore today? Therefore, I believe that historical amnesia cannot be an option in the construction of the nation. Firstly, the most common benefit of studying history is that we can learn from past mistakes. This ensures that we are much more aware about the potential consequences of our decisions, by studying the disastrous result that happened in the past. By studying the …show more content…
This is especially so for which the history of Singapore is just a poor representation of the country ability to be an independent state itself. Past historical events often portrayed Singapore as part of a bigger state or power. So much so that it may give a wrong impression of the actual capability of Singapore. S.Rajaratnam believed, these historical events are minute as compared to the many centuries of history other countries can have. While I do agree that not all of our past is something to be proud of, that does not mean we should forget all of it. It is because of these ‘negative periods’ that lead to the birth of an independent Singapore. By remembering these past, it spurs us to remember that we ourselves should be the one protecting our nation soil and not anybody else. Forgetting our past is equivalent to forgetting how an independent Singapore is
Emma Bryce, a science and environmental journalist wrote an article for WIRED titled “False memories and false confessions: the psychology of imagined crimes”. She bases her article on the experience of a criminal psychologist, Julia Shaw and studies of a cognitive psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus. The article describes several cases where false memories resulted in getting innocent people in jail. Julia’s job is to study what triggers false memories we encounter every day and how the results of her studies can be applied to the criminal-justice system where it is very important to detect them. As she said, unfortunately, the police still makes a lot of mistakes that put innocent people in prison, so her job is to fix this by providing scientific
That’s why the whole country is in chaos: drugs, violence, unemployment, and homelessness. The American society is the richest and most prosperous in the world but it is hardly safe and peaceful,” (Reyes 181). America shouldn’t have input on how Singapore acts
Introduction In 1993, the former Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, stated that ‘from good we gain pride; from the bad we learn; and from the totality of our past we gain our identity'. In his speech, Kennett speaks about his ideologies of republicanism and his “excitement” for the potential for the nation to position itself for the future. The quote is derived from a section of his speech, where Kennett is talking about Australia’s history with the United Kingdom and how it is best forgotten. He states that whilst this section of Australian history is best forgotten, Australia, as a nation, cannot pick and choose its history.
America has gone through a lot as a country. Without its past, it wouldn’t be what it is today. The main point of learning our history is to be knowledgeable of what has constructed our present, such as America’s wars, segregation, slavery, and everything that has molded the United States of America into the country that it is today. Our founding fathers took great care in giving us a Constitution, to make sure we all have equal rights and responsibilities. History has molded our present and determined our future as a country.
If you want to forget the past, might as well forget how to laugh and cry. It all correlates, people want to forget to not feel pain, but what about when you cry, do you not feel pain? So do you want to forget how to cry and feel? Because that 's the only true way to never feel pain again. Not by erasing
Swing to the Left or to the Right: A Reflection on Swing Kids We are part of each other’s history. Everything we do or say affects not only our lives but also the lives of others because history is a communal experience. We have a choice on how to respond to all that is happening around us. History can either bind us or set us free.
Past, present, and future is what we are told to think about, but are we overlooking the past? We seem to get caught up in thinking about what we are doing now, and what we will be doing in ten years, but I think the most important thing is to know your past. It’s critical to understand what you, and other people’s ancestors did before. Remembrance is important to know your history and so you do not let the terrible things recur.
George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Studying history is necessary for people to avoid making the same mistakes. Whether it is about a country’s glory or personal misfortune. Analyzing the past provides valuable lessons for people. They can draw wisdom and adjust their present behaviors.
A person’s relationship with history is very much like their relationship with brussel sprouts: you either love ‘em or you hate ‘em, with most people identifying with the latter. As we are told countless times, history is important because if we forget it, we are doomed to repeat it. It is a logical claim, for how can someone learn and move forward if they do not reflect and fix their mistakes? History, however, has a tendency to be boring, a never-ending waterfall of dates and names that can only be learned through mind-numbing memorization. Is this truly the only way, however?
Imagine growing up during a time when money was short and food had seemed like it disappeared. The Depression caused a tough, yet learning experience for everyone during the 1920’s. History and memory gives those in our society a chance to understand what they went through. Memory allows us to remember this hard time and reflect off of it. History of this event makes most rejoice they did not grow up during this time, having to fight for their life every single day.
One thing that Ronald Reagan said that has been said time and time again is " History will always repeat its self." Which is true in indeed when we look at the time line. But the question I have to ask myself is why don 't we at least try to learn from our mistakes. The only logical answer I have to this is our generation. It 's ultimately up to the generation to do what they think is best for our
Singapore is a republic with a parliamentary system of government. There are three branches of the Government of Singapore: Executive, Legislative and the Judiciary. Singapore and former British colony took up the Westminster model after Singapore became independent on 9 August 1965. In 1954, PAP also known as People’s Action Party was formed. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew led the PAP and won the first election to form Singapore’s first government after it enjoyed an overwhelming victory by capturing 43 out of 51 seats in the
In “Forgetting the Presidents” by H. L. Roediger and K. A. DeSoto, the article examines how U.S. presidents are forgotten from our collective memory. To begin with, the article gives an overview on collective memory (long term memory) and states that their focus is on historical forgetting. The main question of the study asks “What is the rate at which samples of U.S. citizens forget the presidents over time?” Furthermore, the article claims that the experiment conducted determines the rate at which presidents are forgotten from the collective memory. Using data from college students and a wider sample of Americans, the experimenters measured how well someone could remember presidents using an “ordinal position recall and free recall criteria.”
One famous case of amnesia supporting Squire's view is patient H.M. (Scoville & Milner, 1957), who had parts of his left and right temporal lobe, hippocampus, amygdala and surrounding areas of both removed. He developed severe anterograde amnesia, the inability to learn new information, resulting in an almost completely absent short-term memory storage. He also had moderate retrograde amnesia, unable to remember information between 3 to 11 years prior to his surgery, but with other long-term memories unaffected. Explaining this, Squire argued that memories are consolidated in the hippocampus, easily disrupted by trauma during this. They become less dependent on the hippocampus with time, eventually being stored in the neocortex (Alvarez &
Looking on the Internet I came upon article that put a whole new light regarding repressed memories. Scholars like Sigmund Freud believed that repress memories have a detrimental effect on individuals’ lives. Sigmund Freud assumption of repressed memories can have a negative influence on behavior and mental health, but this article, from Time Magazine, discusses the benefits of repressed memories (Sifferlin, A, 2014). The article was based off a team effort of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and University of Cambridge Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience base out of Cambridge England did a study try to examine how suppression affect a memory’s unconscious influence people.