Erasing Memory: Changing History?

The other day in class, we talked about the idea of a person possibly being able to erase a single memory by just taking a pill. This pill would not necessarily erase the full memory, but would lesson or take away the emotional attachment to that particular memory. I fully and completely object to this idea. Like I said in class, erasing emotion and memories could distroy memories of event in history, such as genocides and the holocust. Without emotion, we have no idea what happened and how badly peopke were effected. Also, someone mentioned about how if someone was suffering from shell shock from a war, wouldn't "The pill" erase the bad memories from the war and help them and their family? And if a woman was raped as a child, wouldn't it be better if she could just swallow the memory away forever? I believe this issue is much deeper than just yes and no. For one thing, if this pill did eventually go onto the market, what would the message be to all the rapeists in the world? "Oh, I can rape whoever I want because they will just take that pill and they won't remember it!" Or what would it say to all the war generals or future presidents? They would just say "We can send everyone to war now! They can swallow the pill and won't remember this later in their lives. They won't remember the pain." The pill would just be an excuse to get rid of other people's pain for personal gain. Another point is that what happens if everyone can get a hold of this pill? What if people abused it to erase little memories they didn't like, such as a break-up, or a bad grade. I think this pill would be easily abused by everyone. And what would happen if we all took this pill? Would we suddenly be in a perfect eutopia? Would everythinmg be perfect with no pain in the world? Would mom's suddenly say to their kids, "Oh sweetheart, did u lose your soccer game? Take this pill, you won't feel sad anymore!" What are we trying to accomplish by doing that? Pain is normal, its human, its natural!!! (Sorry teachers) but shit happens. Its part of our everyday lives. Its what makes us...us!