Why do we learn suffering?

I really had a wonderful experience in BHS. It allows us to understand the endurance of black people engulfed with pain and sorrow that brought the America to live. But at present situation, we live in modernized world. And I am wondering why we need to study these passed pain to make ourselves more painful.  May be it gives us more comfort by thinking that we don’t have to go through such harsh situation. Human’s brain has created such a system that enslave the nature itself. I really pray that these situation never occur again and education must be utilize not only for oneself’s desire but for the whole well-being of every sentient being.

2 thoughts on “Why do we learn suffering?

  1. Studying the history of slavery, as well as the United States is never painful. Learning history has got to be one of the best forms of education that we will ever receive. If a person does not know their history and what they have been through to get to the point in which they stand at, let alone a country, it is as if they have no identity. If all those African Americans as well as Amerindians hadn’t suffered what they did in the era of slavery, and colonization, I can almost guarantee none of us would be here; in the U.S. at this point. In my opinion, it is an honor to be able to study the history of the United States because it has been one of the most controversial. If we all knew everything that there is to know about history, I’m sure we wouldn’t think the same manner we do now.

  2. This is a great question, Urgyen, and one that we need to ask to consider not only why do we study this, but why did Morrison write about it. Although Kathy argues that studying this topic in history is never painful, something I would argue against, she raises the idea of the honor involved in such study. How we make sense of the pain–and the honor–is important. Let’s make sure to talk about this in our final two classes on Beloved.

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