History Repeats Itself: On Ideological Conditioning and the Erasure of Women

Saturday, March 22, 2025

In school classrooms, when we study historical moments such as the rise of Nazism, students are often quick to judge past generations—particularly the youth—as gullible or easily manipulated. “How could they believe in such dangerous ideologies?” we ask. But this judgment often comes from a place of detachment, a failure to recognize that the mechanisms of ideological conditioning are still very much at work today—only subtler, more pervasive, and dressed in the aesthetics of progress.

We are still conditioned—by education, media, family, and institutions—to internalize dominant narratives. The only difference is the script. In the 1930s, the script was nationalism, purity, and blind allegiance. Today, it’s neoliberalism, consumerism, and self-optimization. The danger lies in the belief that we are somehow immune to ideology because we live in what we perceive as a more “enlightened” era.

One of the most glaring examples of this ongoing conditioning is the erasure of women from history. School textbooks may mention a handful of token women, but they rarely dive into the structural, cultural, and intellectual contributions that women have made—and continue to make—across the world. This silence is not accidental. It’s part of a broader narrative that centers male perspectives, achievements, and authority as default.

The omission of women is a form of epistemic violence. It creates a collective amnesia, where young people—regardless of gender—are taught to view history as a linear progression shaped predominantly by men. It flattens complexity, stifles curiosity, and narrows our understanding of what power and resistance look like.

More dangerously, this conditioning also teaches women to dissociate from their own potential. To see themselves as accessories to history rather than as architects of it. To focus their energy on aesthetics, validation, and conformity—because their substance, intellect, and interiority are rarely affirmed by the world around them.

What happened during the rise of fascism was not a singular failure of reason or intelligence—it was the outcome of a system that rewards obedience, discourages critical thought, and punishes deviation. That system still exists. And those who dare to question it—especially women, queer individuals, and marginalized thinkers—are often ridiculed, silenced, or ignored.

To recognize this is not to dwell in victimhood but to reclaim authorship. If we are to learn anything from history, it is this: ideology thrives not because people are stupid, but because they are tired, overworked, under-informed, and systematically robbed of the tools they need to think freely. The true act of resistance today is not just to remember history—but to feel its echoes, and to resist its repetition.