The Past Has a Meaning

I have written about one particular topic many times over the past three decades, or so it seems to me. While you might think that I am referring to leadership, strategy and tactics or finance, I am not. I am speaking of the past, or more precisely our propensity as members of the fire service to believe that everything of importance is brand new, and that there is no need to look back.

Let me trot out a tired, old quotation: one that I have used on scores of occasions. In the Life of Reason, created during the period 1905-1906, George Santayana offered some serious advice to all of us. He stated that,