Ep. #178: Here's Why You Should Read "The Lessons of History"

If you want to gain some much-needed perspective on the current political, social, and economic zeitgeist, and get an informed idea of what will come next, then you need to read this book.

Because whether we’re talking our (extremely entertaining) political pageantry, (extremely troubling) racial and social antagonisms, or (extremely naive) grievance and entitlement worship, know this:

It has all happened before and, human nature being what it is (hardened), it will play out again in more or less the same ways.

So yes, let’s look doe-eyed to Washington to solve all our problems, conveniently forgetting that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that every system of government we’ve ever created has ultimately been destroyed by crooks and villains.

Right, let’s enthrone the ideas that we have no personal responsibility for the conditions we face in life and that the individual exists only to serve the collective whole, conveniently forgetting that these beliefs have resulted in some of the most tyrannical and deadly regimes in all of history.

Sure, let’s burn the rich and redistribute all their wealth, conveniently forgetting the catastrophic consequences of the French Revolution.

Durant’s wife Ariel said it well:

“The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.”

If you want to better understand and navigate the world as it is, then you want to better understand and navigate it as it was. It’s that simple.

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