The curse of history, of course, is that we are not doomed to repeat it. You might alternately say: the curse of history is that there is no curse. We’re not being forced to do any of this. We have free will.
Buuuuuuuuuut we choose to pick the really horrible paths.
The curse of history is not that we fail to listen and are doomed to repeat it.
The curse of history is that we believe that our problems are so all-encompassing, so vigorous, so Cyclopean, that they could not possibly have been dealt with at any previous time.
Pick up a history book, any history book. (Assuming you live in one of those benighted times which still has physical books. Which you oughtn’t. Electronic books can do everything physical books can do except be in a library, be held in your hand, or be non-erased when we finally get a government that understands how you can censor anything as long as you know how to announce it properly.
We say that the thing we learn from history is that we don’t always learn from history.
But it might be more true to say that we might learn from history if we could trust it.
But history is a combination of dozens, hundreds, thousands of people, not all of whom tell much truth.
First you learn the history in school is oversimplified. If you continue your education, you then find it overcomplicated, to the point of leaving behind ‘what happened’ and getting into the territory of ‘this complicated idea explains this complicated situation which would be very difficult to verify.
But don’t worry.
There’s got to be some truth in there.
It’s not like you’re going to get MORE ignorant from reading history.
Except when you do, of course.
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