Compendium 30 — Lessons from History
“The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” ― Will and Ariel Durant
📖 Brief Overview
Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is an exploration of the patterns and driving forces of history. Drawing upon their extensive study of various periods and civilizations, the authors ponder the nature and meaning of history and its course. They explore diverse themes such as geography, biology, race, character, morals, religion, economics, government, and war, discussing their impact on the trajectory of civilization. The book asserts that while history has cyclic patterns, it also exhibits progression in the form of the accumulation and transmission of knowledge. It emphasizes that our heritage, with its accumulated wisdom, art, culture, and ideals, is our reservoir for progress. Despite the chaos, conflicts, and follies, history presents us with lessons of resilience, learning, growing, and thriving. The Durants posit that every generation must learn and earn civilization anew to keep humanity advancing. The book concludes with the provocative idea that the future of civilization rests on understanding and implementing the lessons of history.
🏆 Main Takeaways
Biology and History:
Life as Competition: Life essentially operates on the principle of competition. This competition becomes conspicuous and intense when resources are scarce and population outnumbers available provisions. Despite societal progression leading to increased cooperation, this cooperation is largely a strategy employed to strengthen competitive advantage of certain groups.
Life as Selection: Life inherently involves selection. This selection, dictated by the struggle for existence, acknowledges the presence of variance between individuals in terms of their biological, psychological, and character traits. Nature, indifferent to concepts of equality and liberty, promotes diversity and hence, results in differential reproductive and survival success.
Inevitability of Inequality: The principle of selection validates the natural occurrence of inequality. With increasing societal intricacy, these natural inequalities tend to morph into social and artificial ones. Every innovation enriches the strong and deepens the contrast with the weak.
Consequent Effects on Equality and Freedom: The pursuit of freedom and equality are paradoxical aims - the achievement of one usually results in the suppression of the other. The unrestricted freedom allowed to individuals often escalates natural inequalities. To curtail burgeoning disparities, some degree of liberty has to be compromised, as observed in the post-revolutionary societal constraints in Russia.
Unrealistic Utopias: As biological laws dictate the inevitability of disparity, any utopian aspiration for absolute equality is destined to be biologically doomed. The most practicable aim is to establish an equitable legal justice and educational opportunity framework within society.
The Imperative of Reproduction: The harsh reality that life necessitates abundant reproduction is underlined through Nature's indifference to the individual, focusing more on the species as a whole. Regardless of the cultural development of a civilization, high or low, its survival ultimately depends on its fertility and birth rates. Any imbalance between population growth and available resources is rectified by Nature through famine, pestilence, or war.
Population and Knowledge Limits: Despite the advances in agricultural practices potentially doubling the Earth's food supply capacity, overpopulation continues to be a daunting prospect. Individual intelligence, acquired through education, opportunity, and experience, doesn't appear to be hereditary. Every new generation must navigate its learning curve, regardless of inherited genetic abilities.
Race, Civilization, and Culture: The specious notion of racial superiority espoused by Comte Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau, specifically favoring the "Aryan" race, is challenged by the concept that civilization shapes people, not the other way around. Geographical, economic, and political circumstances collectively forge a culture, which then creates a distinct human type. History & civilization owe their development not just to one race but to a confluence of diverse cultural factors and interactions among various races.
Character and History
Society and Human Nature: Foundational to every society is the nature of man, which in essence, overwrites the state's constitution. Human nature encapsulates our innate tendencies and feelings, equipped by heredity with both positive and negative instincts. These instincts lay the groundwork for our habits and feelings, with our responses to life's challenges/opportunities reflecting their overall influence on our personality.
Human Nature - Unchanging Through Time: Despite the theoretical concept that natural selection should influence psychological variations, observable human behavior throughout history suggests minimal alterations. The motives and ends of human actions have remained relatively constant, transcending cultural, temporal, geographical divides. Remarkably consistent are the human inclinations to acquire or give, fight or retreat, associate or seclude, mate or reject, and provide or resist parental care.
Imperviousness of Class on Human Nature: The distinctions of class or wealth do little to alter human nature fundamentally. The underprivileged share the same impulses with their affluent counterparts, differentiated only by their opportunities or resources to act on these impulses. History abounds with examples of successful rebels adopting the same methods they previously condemned in the powers they overcame.
Morals and History
Morality and Society: The moral guidelines of a society act as behavioral prescriptions that contribute to its order, growth, and security. They function distinctively from laws, urging rather than enforcing adherence.
Evolution of Economy and Morals: As we trace the economic evolution from hunting through agriculture to industry, it's safe to conclude that what we view as moral "sins" today could be remnants from our primitive survival instincts rather than markers of our moral degradation. The exact point at which humans transitioned from a hunting to an agricultural society remains uncertain but has greatly influenced the moral shift.
History and Exceptionalism: An essential point to remember is the disparity between history as recorded and history as lived. Typically, the historian is drawn to recording exceptional circumstances owing to their unique nature, which inherently skews historical perspective.
Fall of Rome and the Resilience of Religion: Interestingly, the moral decay of Rome began shortly after Greece was conquered, yet it produced considerable statesmen, artists, and philosophers. Rome's political downfall occurred long before it succumbed to the barbarians, demonstrating a civilization's enduring capacity. Religion proves to be equally resilient with countless accounts of its death and resurrection throughout history, suggesting a cyclical pattern rather than a linear progression.
Economics and History
The Economic Lens of History: Karl Marx perceives history as economics in action—it is a conglomerate of people, groups, and states competing for resources and control. All political structures, religious institutions, and cultural creations root themselves in economic realities. Exceptional events, personalities, and movements are often mere effects of underlying economic factors. This interpretation offers an illuminating insight into historical occurrences, from the construction of the Parthenon to the French Revolution.
The Shapeshifting Stratosphere of Economic Power: The transformation of agriculture into industry has affected the very foundation of civilization. Bankers, owing to their control over economic resources, climb to the top of the economic pyramid, even guiding the course of history. Yet, any economic system relies on the profit motive to encourage productivity, and wealth concentration often follows.
Wealth Concentration and Social Concerns: The concentration of wealth can create critical societal conditions when the disparity stretches extensively. In such situations, history has often responded with wealth-redistributing legislation or revolution-induced poverty. However, balanced measures that address the wealth gap without succumbing to extremes offer the most promising outcomes, as illustrated by Solon's reforms in Athens, which saved the city from violent revolution.
Government and History
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Scipionic Circle to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.