History Repeating Itself

The world is turning on its head…some things happening today would be laughable if not true. They would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.

Here’s a sad thought on the human condition…
It’s every generation’s belief that they are progressing beyond the point of their parents’ generation’s accomplishments; that things slowly but surely get better over time. Science and human understanding evolve in only one direction, forward.

And, for much of my life, I believed it. Humanity is more enlightened, understanding, diverse, and tolerant than it has ever been. Surely, I believed, that our generation is intelligent enough to learn from and avoid the mistakes of previous, less enlightened generations. The old adage is wrong I beleived; history does not necessarily have to repeat itself.

But, I’ve learned that this trend of human progress is not self-fulfilling. There is no ‘virtuous spiral’ of human evolution, just as there is no perpetual motion machine.

Unfortunately, we are not wiser for the experiences of past generations. If we are not careful, if we do not wake up, this generation may find itself in the tragic position of many other previous generations, repeating the tragedies of the past, yet again.