Lessons of History

Daily Meditation 632–11/20/2023

The familiar “Strong times make such and such” phrase exists for a reason. It’s a stereotype that history has repeated multiple times. Instead of hearing it out and heeding the lesson, we, well…continue in frivolous decadence.

History (of course) has so many lessons for us.

But what is one of the biggest, the greatest lessons of history?

Well, that we never learn from history.

Communism caused the deaths of tens of millions from gulags and starvation and an overzealous police-state, it was attempted to be repeated in smaller places and formats all over.

Inflation lead to massive poverty an anguish in ancient China in the 1100s from their then Emperor creating paper money which they, well, made a lot of. And now, the world is repeating that folly nearly 1000 years later as increasingly centralized (and unelected) committees attempt to duct-tape the global financial system together. And that’s to say nothing of the countless other instances of similar bouts of inflation and global debt crises…

History is filled with these “inconveniences” to our ideologies, beliefs, and politics. And along with these myriad inconveniences comes the comical and now-familiar refrain “Yeah, but this time is different!”

And I’m sure that the politicians creating a “new form” of Communism, the bankers trying “new” economics, and those printing money all very genuinely believed in the 1200s, 1300s, 1400s, and so on right up to today that “this time is different.”