When Wisdom clears her throat.
They say that those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it.
We may be proving in our day that those who do not know History can rewrite it so they can blissfully repeat it and doom everyone else. The hope of the original proverb, as best I can tell, is not that we would rewrite history into our image and according to our fancies but that we would learn from it.
Learn from it such that we change the course of the Titanic.
The proverb carries many assumptions. One being that humans in their nature and patterns of behavior are essentially the same throughout the ages. We all think we are exceptions to the rule, but this is to be doubted. In other words, we have tendencies towards the same mistakes. I mean, Hitler studied Napoleon and still invaded Russia in winter (which goes to show you can be both evil and foolish). We tend to emphasize our differences across time and context but some things are objectively real about all of us. The proverb is a hail Mary from our ancestors to whoever happens to be living in the modern times that we are not the first to be dumb. Dumb in catastrophic ways. The modern man of this era is not unlike the modern man of previous eras in his temptation toward some foolish idea made sexy by salesmen, academics, and politicians.
Learning from others mistakes is the life hack of all life hacks.
The proverb invites us to break repeated patterns of wrong actions sooner rather than later. That there is hope to repeat the best parts of history rather than the worst. The proverb is a tool in the utility belt to break cycles. Its like not wanting your father to say the words “do I have to repeat myself?” The threat is posed as a rhetorical question for those keeping score at home. The proverb is a clue to avoid our own self-inflicted doom. Whatever we are doing has been done before and there is no new thing under the sun as Solomon wisely points out. It may be shiny and it may be all the rage this year but its really just some old thing our ancestors grappled with in new packaging.
Technology is nothing more than a cunning disguise for the philosophy of the day.
Each time history repeats itself the price to pay goes up. Eventually the ante gets too rich for anyones blood. The more we try to rewrite history rather than learn from it the more surprised we will have to act when the doom part shows up. I have read it somewhere that as we watch this generation try to rewrite history there is one thing you can be sure of… it will be misspelled and have no punctuation. Maybe, just maybe, we are not the best rewriters and should opt to listen with pens down.
Learning from history in some stroke of wisdom does what rewriting history like a fool will never do: it avoids doom.
The Proverbs of Holy Scripture say it best:
Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”
-Proverbs 1:20-33