There are people who learn something for the sake of passing a
test, and then there are people who learn something and then comprehend the
importance of that information. As humans, we do indeed learn, but sometimes we
only acknowledge certain concepts and then later forget about them. It can be
quite difficult to retain a lot of information, so more often than not, things
tend to be forgotten. In order to really learn something, one must find meaning
out of what is taught or shown, and make it applicable to life in order to
grasp the concept better.
We learn from Greek Mythology in that the stories give morals and
important messages about issues in life. These issues, vanity, war, and
defiance to name a few, are universal, and also timeless because they have
occurred in the Ancient Greek Era, and still occur today. Idealistically, we
should understand the significance of these issues and learn to avoid making
mistakes. Unfortunately, history does tend to repeat itself, and based on the
persisting issues that humans face, such as war, it seems like we never
learn.
Can we really blame ourselves though? Vanity, defiance, and pride
are ongoing traits, regardless of the era, culture, or situation, implying that
it is an innate part of humans. Even with Greek Myths meant to teach a lesson
on the negative impacts of what we have discussed, we see a trend of current
events in articles that have an uncanny resemblance to the stories of the Greek
gods and mortals of their time. One could make the argument that if humans
really were able to learn, there would be no corruption, violence, or poverty.
It seems like the issue is that we learn about these lifelong conflicts
as if they were tests that we are just trying to pass. If we were all to try to
comprehend the importance of the information, history may finally stop
replaying. 