(목동김상철토플전문학원) 고3 김혜빈 에세이 In order to solve problems in the present and future, it is necessary to understand the past

[T&A Big Fan]

In order to solve problems in the present and future, it is necessary to understand the past.
Over the past thousand years, there has been many types of problems in our world. So it has been argued whether it is necessary to understand the past in order to solve problems in the present and future. Some might argue the past is irrelevant because there will be new and novel problems as time past. Meanwhile, others might disagree with the statement. However, I am deeply convinced that understanding the past is a prerequisite in solving problems in the present and future. Actually, I have a couple of reasons to support my assertion. I will explain and develop it in the next following paragraphs below.
First of all, understanding and acknowledging the past can prevent the same mistakes from happening again. Problems are caused by many different reasons, and many of them are caused by people’s own mistakes. Without any memory or acknowledgement of problems that happened in the past, it would be almost impossible to prevent the same mistakes from causing the same problems. Although some people might say that the problems and happenings of the past has nothing to do with the present and future because the world is continuously changing, seemingly new problems can be stopped or weakened if people remember their own history of problems. To give an example of this, when my dad was a young man, there were a lot of demonstrations and protests outside his house, on the streets. People fought officers so treacherously that it almost seemed like a small war. Protesters threw bricks and stones at the officers, and the officers fired tear gas to subdue the protesters. The fight between the two groups were so violent that most were damaged and some wee killed. However, they had no personal means. The officers were simply doing their job and the protesters were simply trying to state their opinion. Later on, the government acknowledged the past protests and realized what a big mistake they were making. Today, government are more opened to debate and communication with on another, and the protesters thought out a way to safely claim their opinions. When government made a restriction that citizen protesters were to stop 200m in front of the Korean Bluehouse, citizen protestors did not cross the line and did not show any violence to the officers. This is because everyone understood what violent demonstrations brought in the past. Like this, past mistakes can prevent the same mistakes from happening again in our present or future lives.

Second of all, supernatural problems such as natural disasters can be overcome by understanding and remembering the past. This technique is used by many scientists and farmers. They do their research or even make a record of the past disasters in order to be prepared when it happens again. Although some people might say that people can’t evade natural disasters by remembering the past, they could actually prepare themselves so they won’t get as much damage as last time. To give an example of this, Japan has meets with many natural disasters, such as tsunami or earthquakes. Researchers have prepared a document of reactions two different locations had with this situations. The first location that the researchers studied had a buildings made for the safety of people in situations of earthquakes. Buildings were not highly built, and they structure was made to not easily collapse. Also, the beaches nearby had many high buildings for people to escape in when there was a tsunami. In the other location, none of these preparations were made. After more surveying, the researchers found that the people in the first location understood that it was very important to remember the past disasters for a brighter future than did the people in the second location. Surprisingly, both locations had the same rate of natural disasters happening every three years. Understanding the past might seem irrelevant sometimes. However, a man who remembers that he had drowned in the past can swim better than a man who has never drowned before.