Lessons of History

It is often said, “Those who don’t read the history are condemned to repeat it.” Despite this warning, I kept a safe distance from history books, until I came across this book, “The Lessons of History” written by the husband-wife duo Will & Ariel Durant. Will Durant, also called a gentle philosopher, spent 50 years of his life writing “The Story of Civilisation.” He looked at history through a different paradigm. He searched for patterns and meaning in those patterns. He developed his own theories and philosophy about the history of mankind. These nuggets of wisdom are now condensed in the book, “The Lessons of History.” Let’s examine some of these nuggets:

1. Present is the past rolled-up for action. Past is the present rolled-out for understanding.

2. Life is a combination of difficulties and delights. Difficulty is the price of living and delight is the goody received unexpectedly and perhaps undeservingly.

3. World has progressed in terms of ‘means’ not in terms of ‘ends’. Human’s basic desires are still the same, while the means to fulfil them have progressed.

4. History repeats itself in macro form. Civilizations go through the same cycle: Barbarian → Agricultural → Economically secured → Culturally advanced → Scientifically thinking → Moral degradation → Chaos → Destruction → Start of a new civilization. Different countries and societies are going through such cycles even today. A country which was once barbarian now enjoys economically secured state, while another country which was once at the height of scientific thinking is struggling to uphold moral values.

5. The purpose of education is not merely to provide better means of earning, but to preserve the cultural heritage of mankind. That’s why a University is known as Alma-mater (bounteous mother), which nurtures this human heritage from generation to generation. When a man is able to carry forward this legacy in his life and successfully pass it on to his next generation, he may consider his life well lived.

6. Every person is born with more-or-less the same basic instincts acquired through several millenniums of barbarian living (hunting). Subsequently, he acquires social instincts from the environment in which he is born. Social instincts (cooperation, care, sympathy, kindness, etc.) are often in conflict with the basic instincts (hunger, sex, greed, possessions, anger, jealousy, etc.). Since social instincts are developed over a relatively short period of time (agricultural era onwards when people started living together socially), they are not so powerful to curb the basic instincts. Education (sum total of the entire past cultural heritage including art, literature, philosophy, etc.) greatly helps in raising the potency of social instincts and thus enables humans in overcoming their basic instincts.

7. Co-operation is the tool of competition. We co-operate in a team to win match over the other team. Members of a society co-operate to advance themselves over other societies. People of a country co-operate to win war over another country. Perhaps, the whole world would co-operate only when there is a global danger, e.g. global warming or an alien attack from other planet.

8. ‘Liberty’ is the child of ‘Order’ and mother of ‘Chaos’.

Extreme suppression (as in the dictatorial regime) leads to revolution or a civil war. An order is restored through some form of democracy, which provides sufficient liberty to the citizens for healthy growth. However, it demands that one person’s liberty does not interfere with another person’s liberty. This requires certain amount of compromises by all citizens, generally laid down by the moral codes of conduct. However, an excessive liberty again leads to chaos as people become less tolerant and disregard moral codes.

9. Idea of today is politics of tomorrow. Philosophy of today is literature of tomorrow.

10. Society needs both the radicals and conservatives. Radicals provide ‘gas’, while conservatives provide ‘brakes’. Both are necessary to safely move a vehicle of society.

11. Every generation rebels against its previous generation. It is natural for the world to continue. Hence, the older generation should not be upset with the younger generation’s rebellious behaviours. They did the same in their own youth.

12. If youth had the knowledge of the old and the old had the energy of the youth, then the world would have been a heaven. A family is an abode of peace and happiness, wherein the knowledge of the elders is used in guiding the energy of the youth into constructive channels.