History

"If the human race didn't remember anything it would be perfectly happy. I was a student of history once in a university and if I learned anything from studying history that was what I learned. Or to be more exact, that was what I thought I had learned." 

Robert Penn Warren, All the Kings Men

So if the human race didn't remember anything we wouldn't have a  sense of history. Thus, we would have nothing to which to compare our daily events or sense of "progress." Therefore, how could we achieve perfect happiness? Or is happiness not relative to anything other than pure experience of emotion in the moment it occurs? 

What would the human race be without a sense of history? 

Is the human race unhappy? 

On the day of Michael Jackson's funeral it seems fitting to think of these questions in light of his life and legacy. He was a star of unique magnitude - no one denies that. Yet, is it easier to remember only the happy and pleasant memories so that history will be kind to him? Is that the easy option or the best one?