Claim: Knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today.Reason: We are not able to make connections between current events and past events until we have some distance from both.

According to the issue, it is stated that for taking the crucial decisions at present, the knowledge of past cannot be helpful. For appropriateness of an important decisions, there are several factors which influence the decisions and in my perspective experience of the past plays an crucial role in that.

Let us start with the importance of correct decision. The decision which we are taking today will influence our future. So if decisions are taken with levity and without experiencing and judging the past events, it can have deleterious effects in future. Consider an example of a student and his family, they have to take a crucial decision about further studies of the student. The student wants to take science in higher education. Parents are vacillating to decide his subjects.

In this situation, the history and past achievements in academics are deciding factors. Parents should consider the performance of student in Science in the previous classes and his grasping and logical strength in order to decide the subject. Thus knowledge about past will help in such kind of scenario. In the Issue, the reason is given that to connect the past and present, a distance from both is important. Actually it depends on situation.

Political leaders have to decides several strategies and for that they have to link the past and future. For example, while deciding the budget they have to link the past and current prices, have to consider inflation and other rising problems and for these, distance from past ant present is not necessary. In fact they have to consider the previous budget, its policies and shortcomings, then only they will be able to decide the current strategies.

So experience and knowledge about past happenings are essential attributes in making of current decisions. A fledgling candidate cannot take an accurate decision which will affect present as well as future. For creating link between the present and past, distance from them is not necessary, but thorough knowledge of past and ability to connect present to the past is prerequisite factor for making an effective decision at present.