Why don’t people learn from history? Well, there might be a multiplicity of reasons, but ultimately it boils down to one thing: people don’t learn from history because they don’t want to. They don’t like what it teaches; they think the consequences of disobeying the eternal moral and natural laws and principles God set in motion to govern this universe can somehow be avoided or don’t apply to them, so they continue to do the same stupid, self-destructive things that humans have been doing for thousands of years. And then they are shocked and dismayed when they suffer the same results that previous generations and nations have suffered. Humanity, frankly, is really not a very smart species.
Most people just can’t handle the truth. It simply costs too much. The truth is absolute; it’s hard and unbending, and it can’t be changed. It can be lied about, of course, but again, only with frequent serious negative consequences. But countless people don’t like truth, so they hate those who speak it to them, avoid them if possible, try to shut them up if they get on our nerves too often, or ultimately kill them if that’s the only option remaining. Does the name “Jesus” ring a bell?
My current diatribe is inspired by a lot of things, but mainly by the utter buffoonery of the current leftist Spanish government for ignoring their own history, and allowing countless barbarians to invade their country again (Spain, obviously, isn’t the only country in recent history to do such a reckless thing—including America—but they are in the news now because the innumerable hordes are presently pouring in virtually unopposed). You’d think if anybody would learn something from history, it would be the Spaniards. In the late seventh-early eighth centuries, barbarians overran Spain, and from 711-1492 these African and Middle Eastern Moors ruled Spain in their typical Middle Eastern fashion. The Spanish finally got them out, and then did about the only positive thing for civilization that Spain has ever done—sent Christopher Columbus on a voyage where he discovered the New World. And changed the world for the remainder of human history.
Or maybe he didn’t. Spain seems determined to turn the clock back to pre-Columbian days, as does much of the rest of Europe. But notice the dates there. It took Spain almost 800 years to drive the invaders out. Haven’t they learned anything from their own history? No, obviously, they haven’t because, well, in this case, they are basically inviting them in. That makes them even more blameworthy and irrational. But that’s the consequence of not learning from history, not wanting to learn from history, of thinking “things will be different this time,” though they never are. They are ignoring the dictum that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” (attributed to Einstein, but maybe he wasn’t the one who actually said it). It sounds more to me like a historian said it. A wise one, not a Leftist one.
Current Spanish snubbing of history is not just an ignoring of their own. What the Spanish are doing has been done too many times in history, always with fatal results. For just one example, historian Will Durant wrote, nearly 100 years ago, about the collapse of the ancient Persian empire (c. sixth-fourth centuries B.C.). Durant recounted the extreme diversity that plagued the Persian empire: “[It is not] natural that nations diverse in language, religion, morals, and traditions should long remain united; there is nothing organic in such a union, and compulsion must repeatedly be applied to maintain the artificial bond.” There must be something that unites a people if they are to continue together, unified as a nation. How can people with different languages, religions, morals, customs, traditions, etc. remain united unless something higher is offered to them? Or government tyranny cowed them into submission. But the compulsion Persia forced upon its diverse people was eventually collapsed by Alexander’s united armies and culture.
Spain (and, I fear, America) has welcomed these diverse, inorganic entities into its borders. When they came to Spain the first time, the nation fell to the Moors and didn’t recover for 800 years. Can Spain find something to bring these diverse peoples together this time? Leftists don’t even look for such; they just want power over others, and usually, eventually, get eaten themselves by the crocodile they turned loose on the nation.
Perhaps the stupidest maxim the Left has foisted on America in the last generation has been “diversity is our strength.” No, it’s not. Diversity divides; that’s a root meaning of the word. And when so many in the country are being taught to hate the country, it is difficult to see what will keep this “diverse,” divided America whole and united.
The Moors ruled at least parts of Spain from 711-1492. That’s longer than the 500+ years that they’ve been out of the country. It appears now there is perhaps a new Reconquista going on. Morocco is surely happy to get rid of the barbarians who are leaving their country, and the leftist Spanish government is too ignorant, or apathetic, of its own history to resist them. “We’ll control them.” No, they won’t—except possibly through totalitarian force. And that, too, will eventually fail when people get tired of being oppressed.
Well, I guess those new Moors could wait till the next Democrat became President of the United States and then come to America. And be just as welcome. By people who are just as dumb as the Spanish government is, and who know, or care, as little about history as Spain does.
A wise man once said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do know history are doomed to watch others repeat it.”
Why do we never learn? Because truth costs too much.
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