“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”- George Santayana

Throughout each and every single person’s lives, they endure many obstacles and bumps along the road us human’s call life. From these obstacles humans have two choices; learn from them or ignore them. At first glance many would immediately assume one of those options to be the obvious winner, learn from it. These people see this as the better choice as humans like to feel higher of themselves, people enjoy thinking that they are a better person than they actually are. In reality people are ignorant. They pretend that life is perfect and that everything around them is well taken care of. When something does happen to go wrong people don’t rush over to try and help, instead they sit and drift back into their own little world hoping and reassuring themselves that someone else will take care of it. If it does not affect them, why bother right?

The problem at hand is as time has passed and as people and the world have evolved, they have all forgotten their roots. Ever since the world has gotten itself in one big hurry, people no longer have the time to help others. If something is not able to be done at the speed of light or does not affect an individual directly, then it is seen as irrelevant. The largest issue in our world today is ignorance. The ignorance of people today has led many problems, that are easily fixable, to still be present. Issues that many thought were solved decades ago are still prevalent because no one takes the time to stop, look around and realize what is happening. Problems such as slavery, lack of education, and gender equality are still occurring in today’s society. People need to spend less time focusing on themselves and more time focusing on the world issues at hand.

In the year 1926, slavery was abolished worldwide at the Slavery Convention. At this convention, slavery, and all things related to it such as slave trade, were abolished. Despite this, slavery still takes place in many countries worldwide. To make matters even worse, slavery is not just being used in third world countries, as most think, but it is being used in first world countries as well. In the United States alone an estimated sixty thousand slaves are still used today. A documentary known as Half the Sky helped expose the world to this controversy. Through the documentary, the producers were able to grasp the attention of their audience by providing examples of real life situations that helped justify their point that slavery is indeed an issue. By using various anecdotes of real life stories, pathos, logos and ethos, the documentary was able to allow their voice to be heard by appealing to the general public’s emotions and making logical connections with the issue and real life. The ugly fact that slavery is still going on eighty-eight years after the convention, proves that society is too involved in other things, that they do not realize human scrutiny is taking place.

Education is key. As time has proceeded, education has become more and more valued. Today, in most countries it is difficult to find a financially stable job without possessing a diploma. However, in spite of this “valued” education in society, education is still not provided to people all over the world. In fact, solely in the country of Africa, forty six million African children have not even stepped foot into a classroom. Elizabeth Kennedy, a reporter who visited Africa first hand, discussed how many African children still are not able to attend school do to a lack of money. Through her article, she was able to express this issue as she utilized people’s emotional appeal, using what is known as logos. She did this by providing an example of a student who was forced to search for scrap metal daily so that he could purchase food. This example grasps people attention and makes them pity or feel sorry for African children who are forced to live this way. Nonetheless, today education is essential to a person’s survival socially and economically. The issue of a lack of education in third world countries could be easily resolved with foreign investments. However, illiteracy is still a vast issue world-wide as the world has found other issues, even the media, more important than a human life.

Over the last century the fight for gender equality has been stronger than ever. Ever since the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the fight for Women’s rights has been a top issue. Since then, many of the disputes have been compromised and today gender equality is more prevalent than ever before…. …At least for most countries.

In Vietnam, one boy is the equivalence of ten girls. While men are looked to be the breadwinners, women are viewed only as caretakers or housewives. In a piece of literature by author and poet Wendy N. Duong, the top issues of gender inequality are discussed. Through her use of logical reasoning (logos), she is able to proclaim that the controversy of gender inequality in Vietnam is being overshadowed by other pre-existing issues. One example being Vietnam’s combination of poverty and prolonged war is simply being viewed as more important than feminist revitalization. However, is it not out of the question to say that most of Vietnam’s issue could have been resolved with more political attention? If society and countries were not as worried about their reputation and personal wants, could many more issues have been dealt with and fixed? The actuality that females in Vietnam are still thought of as women in the U.S. were thought of centuries ago is ludicrous. If people of the world were not so worried about themselves , then maybe god’s intentions of uniformity would have already been answered.
Today, the nescience of people is off the charts. So many humans hide behind this false-sense that the world is perfect. Everyone wants everything in their lives to be “okay”. The true reality behind this is that life is not easy. Life is full of tragedies and issues and they need to be tended to. So many humans think that others will simply fix the problem, that in the end the predicament does not end up getting fixed. It is this laziness and ignorance that has resulted in many easily-solvable issues to still be alive and thriving today. The fact that hundreds of millions of children still are not receiving an education proves this. If people would stop living their lives in one gigantic rush, then many issues could be addressed and administered to. Issues such as enslavement, illiteracy, and sexual equality would be extremely improved if not resolved. If humanity does not begin to learn from the past, then these issues and more will exist for many more years to come.