This quote focuses on the benefits that came about as a result of discovering the Americas. However, the negatives must be forgotten because if they are not, we will always dwell on the past and create even more suffering in the future. Regardless of how unjust the past may be, it happened because it was meant to happen and because people wanted it that way. It cannot be changed.
If the entire world focused on the negative aspects of life, where would we be? Wars and suffering would be rampant because people, in all their anger of the flaws of the world, would constantly be fighting to change it. On the contrary, if people ignored the truths and improved the positive, then there would be much less suffering as people would be striving to improve the 'good' rather than fighting to change the bad. Through improving the good, the negatives will naturally dissipate.
Take the prison system, for example. Those fighting to focus on the bad and change it, would improve security on the prisons and encourage the imprisonment of criminals. This would solve, in part, the problem of crime. On the other hand, those improving the positive would focus on improving the legislation surrounding crimes, and thus limit it that way. Consequently, less crimes commited means less people in prison. So in both ways, the end result is achieved. However, instead of focusing on the negative one can alternately focus on the positive, achieve the same result, but limit the suffering of the people involved in the entire endeavour.
As you've said, history is indeed written by the victor. In most cases, the brutal truths are either lightly skimmed over or ignored completely. Why? If people were to fully understand the horrors of war, there would be massive upheavals in society; the balance of power would be disrupted, and due to the loss of societal stability more fighting could, and most likely would, erupt.
It is rarely the case where these brutal truths are exposed. When they are, in the case of WikiLeaks, an astonishing amount of controversy is caused. Now, sometimes this controversy is good because it enlightens the populace and gives them a better chance of keeping their 'freedoms'. In this case, it can be said that there's a grey area between focusing on the positive over the negative, and it's up to fate to decide what happens.
There will always be pain and suffering in the world, for that is the way of life and that is how all of our fates are intertwined. Whichever road you decide to travel on, there will always be someone on a better path and someone on a less fortunate route. Whatever we do, we do it because we think it will help us achieve some predetermined goal. We should make our choices so that our lives are the most fulfilling and absent of regret. Tralfamadorians do not tamper with fate because they understand that rather than the end justifying the means, the means is a part of the end. The beginning is the beginning of the end, while the end is a new beginning. Both are unchangeable.
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