The way we teach history in school is mostly useless because it focuses more on information and less on insights. One quickly develops an aversion to history when forced to remember a succession of kings and empires and dates to pass the history test.
History should be seen as a record of human condition and human behavior over thousands of years. Current human behavior is easier to understand and future human behavior is easier to predict when you comprehend history.
History also teaches us that human nature evolves very slowly. Our ancestors thousands of years ago thought and behaved much like us. Thus human history is a treasure trove of data that we can use to reliably predict our future behavior.
A keen observer may also notice that human history is pendulum-like that swings to extremity, gets pulled back to the center and eventually to the other extremity, and the cycle repeats again. Progress is made through these swings, but not without the pain of the extremes. Dark periods become very dark until there is no hope and then slowly, the light rises from the ashes and enlightenment arrives. As the vagaries of enlightenment go to extremes, darkness rears again and snuffs enlightenment. This cycle is everywhere. Famine is followed by prosperity, that is followed by the eventual return of famine. War is followed by resounding peace until war knocks on the door again. Free information flow of democracies is followed by restraint and censorship of dictators. As dictators govern the masses and go to extremes, desperate masses topple them. Democracy rises, gets stronger and plants the seeds of the next dictatorship. A messiah arrives who promises to solve all the ills of the democracy. Soon he or someone from his lineage is a dictator. Cycle repeats.
Are these cycles necessary? Why can’t we avoid the extremes and stay in the happy middle? The trouble is that extremes is where innovation happens. Without extremes, there is no progress of mankind. These cycles, as much pain as they cause, are also the drivers of our progress. The old must give way to the new and often, the pendulumlike extremes help with that transition.
Isn’t universe itself pendulum-like, just on a very grand scale of time? The expansion of the big-bang followed by a contraction of the big-crunch perhaps?
