"We learn history lest it repeats itself."

This was the first quote that came into my mind when I heard the apparent reason for the violence in Charlottesville, VA. Apparently, the drama about confederate statues and flags is still ongoing. As a European, I thought this would be another fashion thing that people would forget about as soon as the Mainstream Media came up with the next story to be enraged about.

I'm going to keep it short, as there isn't much to add to the discussion anymore. I've seen some good posts about the matter already (e.g. those of @dwinblood and @joshsigurdson) and I will probably repeat some of what's already been said. The thing is that our message about the issue should reach as many people as possible. Therefore, I'll say it loud and clear on my Steemit profile as well:

Erasing history is dangerous!

How are societies supposed to evolve into places where like-minded people live together when nobody's allowed to learn where society took wrong decisions? And how are we supposed to determine whether society is taking a wrong turn right now, if we don't have any point of reference?

Source: Twitter user @mnrothbard

It's irresponsible to just try and cover up the wrongs of the past, especially when those wrongs are still happening now. This is the case for all forms of collectivism, both on the right and the left. Just because symbols and languages can be offensive to some, doesn't mean they should be illegal. Instead, they should be allowed to be shown. That's how you determine who is reasonable in society and who is not.

Dialogue is the only way forward. Violent confrontation will only escalate the situation and gives the government to take control of everyone. The fact of the matter is that in our current societies the state forces everyone to associate themselves with others. It doesn't matter what your political, economic, religious, etc. beliefs are, we are all forced to play the same political game called democracy. If you want this, you need to have freedom of expression. The only alternative is violence, and we don't want to go down that pathway if we want to maintain a reasonably functional society like we have now.

I hope I've made myself clear. Be sure to share this message with others, as it is important that people know about the dangers of controlling human expression and speech.

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