The importance of breaking with the cycle of past sins is it opens the door to a transformation into something better. But should we forget the original sin?
On the one hand, if we have clearly moved past the “sins of our fathers”, and broken the cycle, then there is no need to remember them; what purpose do they hold (other than a full accounting of history)? On the other hand, so that we don’t fall into a trap and repeat them, it is helpful to record “what has failed.”
My observation is that social progress is achieved less by a comprehensive plan towards an end point and more by “dead-reckoning” towards visible, practical, doable, understandable and measurable [interim] objectives. Such a sojourn is non-deterministic and therefore is susceptible to going over past territory, and thus repeating sins of the past, if they are unknown or ignored.
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