Sitting on History

All of history is filtered through millions of pages of writing, making the book the major vehicle for years of research and study. Woodrow proposes that although we absorb this knowledge, we appear to have great difficulty in changing our behaviour as a result.

Sitting on History I by Bill Woodrow

Comments

[Gene]

This is a food for thought. I can readily understand "the book as the captor of information from which we cannot escape." But what's it got to do with our behavior and changing it? Does it mean that we are chained to the book and our life revolves around it, but we are ignorant or forgetful of its content though we absort it, and for this reason we are doomed to repeat the past?

[Sylvia]

I think it's that we are the ones who chain books down and refuse to let them change us. Interesting that "chain" and "change" sound similar.

[wil]

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." - Douglas Adams