Lofty Tangents: Value of History, Prohibition, Slavery, and Whatnot

First, apologies for my glossy appearance. Not sure how I became so shiny just going up the stairs a few times, but hopefully it's not too distracting. It took me four tries on four different days to get this out, and it still almost got sabotaged by an accidental "CMD + Z" during the render. The struggle is real!

Asking the question: Why do we fixate on history so much? Why do we think it does define us and our current circumstances? Should it?