What can we learn from history?
What can we learn from history? Firstly, we can learn that human nature never really changes. We have always been irrational, greedy and prideful creatures. With that in mind, history can be seen as the story of the never-ending search for greatness, be it by an individual or by a country.
But can we learn anything from this? Are previous pandemics really a good metric for the COVID-19 pandemic? In the face of our present inflation situation, can we make assumptions about the future state of the economy given the information we have on past inflationary periods? Is Western democracy failing? What can we learn from history?
It is impossible to be certain what is about to happen in the future. Obviously, no one could have predicted that COVID-19 would emerge and decimate global economies. However, it was possible to predict how we were going to react to it. Similarly, we can look into the past to see how people would react to mask and vaccine mandates, just like we can look into the past to see if a stock’s price should rise or fall in the coming years. While nothing is certain when making maps of the future, it is possible to make educated guesses.
We can learn from history. It repeats itself. Empires rise and fall. Wars are won and lost. People hate each other and form alliances. We form divisions and cultures. Surprisingly, we kill each other. Equally surprising, we can forgive each other.
Do we learn from history?
The question is not whether or not we can learn from history, because that much is a certainty; the question that needs to be answered, and repetitively remains unanswered, is when we will start to do so. Once we start doing so, we can finally move past our primitive struggles, into a more beautiful era.
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