Historical Outlook

I recently completed listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episodes called Ghosts of the Ostfront. This was a series of stories about the little known battles on the German Eastern Front against the Russians during WWII. I highly recommend the episodes, which depict brutal atrocities, describe unimaginable devastation, and fill in a whole previously unheard of chapter of an already colossal war.

While I was thinking about this and wondering what it would have been like to live through it. While talking about what it would have been like to be there with a friend, I made the comment that when you study history, you have the advantage of knowing how it is going to turn out. We often critize people in historical situations for not knowing better. You forget that they were living in their time and had no idea what their future was going to bring.

That is true for this time. We divide up our society along idealogical lines, convinced that we know what the future holds. We make decisions about climate change, the economy, politics, all controlled by people in the current time that think they can figure the future out.

I recently was surprised to learn that the saying "Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" was made by Santayana. OK, wait, I was surprised to learn that it was the Mexican General Santa Anna who captured the Alamo. When I found out that it was actually George Santayana, who I've never heard of, I was no longer surprised, just prized.