It is amnesia that makes history repeat itself, repeat itself as nightmare. Amnesia implies impunity, and impunity encourages crime, both in personal and communal terms. The usurpation of memory is part of the usurpation of identity. Someone who doesn't know where they are coming from will not be able to know where they are going. The question leads us into a perplexing, strange territory.
Memory is central to human life.
At a purely practical level, we could not do without it.