Learning from History

America has weathered a number of crises in the past 233 years, and rarely have we learned from those mistakes.

Our latest blunder in the making is our attempt to spend our way out of a deep and painful recession, despite the fact that FDR used the same strategy and failed miserably.

Why is this? Why have we failed so utterly to learn from our past? A child only touches a hot stove once, and – voila – lesson learned. Why aren’t we the people kindred souls with that child and those scorched fingers?

I think it’s because – in terms of evolution – we have it too easy. We, as a nation, have come so far, so fast, that our brains cannot adjust. We’re surrounded by decadent luxury, while most of the world is trying to figure out how they are going to avoid starving to death.

Gang, we the people are light-years ahead of the rest of the world. Our poorest people have clothing, food, and – 9 times out of 10 – shelter with a television. Our basic middle class lives like the elite of most nations, complete with car, cable, cell phone, fashionable clothing, vacations, and junk food. And our rich—well, let’s not even bother.

Is there anything wrong with this?

No! Our forefathers made it possible—It is our national damn-did-we-get-lucky birthright. It’s just that we, the human animal, aren’t ready for it. For two million years we’ve been very, very slowly refining our survival techniques, and suddenly in the past 100 years we’ve come to consider electricity to be necessary for survival.

Well, it’s not. It’s necessary for luxury, and sustaining the lifestyle “to which we’ve become accustomed,” but it ain’t necessary for survival. Ask the rest of the world.

The fact that we are where we are is the ultimate anomaly! It’s the miracle of miracles! The true testament to the brilliance that our Creator endowed us with! We should all be waking up – everyday – and staggering out into the sunlight and shouting, “Thank you, God, Buddha, Allah, Great Spirit, Great Pumpkin, for allowing me to be born in America!”

Do we? Nope, despite the fact that the saber-tooth tiger is dead; crops are grown in the grocery store; the cave has been replaced by a cozy little apartment; fire is created at the push of a button; the horse only needs re-shoeing every 40,000 miles; our clothing comes from hides that someone else acquired, tanned, and sewed for us; the weather is of no real consequence; and we’ve even gotten Madonna to move out of the country.

In short, all the really had work is done.

And because we don’t have to really take care of ourselves, we no longer take
responsibility for ourselves. Everything is “beyond our control,” it seems. Alcoholism, drug addiction, obesity, gambling, pedophilia—these things are all “diseases.” If in doubt, we sue the manufacturer. If we choose a life of crime, we blame our parents and society. And if we need an opinion, we look to the television to provide it.

Here, I believe, is the madness of it: We the people are acting more and more victimized, when in fact we are the least victimized people in the world. In America, it takes exactly one generation to go from a black citizen being arrested for riding in the front of the bus to a black citizen serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It takes zero generations to go from being a computer nerd to the richest man on the planet.

Is this possible in any other nation? No. Why?

Because they didn’t have Thomas Jefferson and a team of the greatest thinkers in history create their nation from scratch. Their nations were created like, well, jello, where eventually over time things just sort of jelled into place. Then unjelled. Then jelled.

Socialism doesn’t work. Communism doesn’t work. Fascism doesn’t work. Anarchy doesn’t work. Feudalism doesn’t work. The world has been there, tried that…and only one system works really well.

Ours.

The one created in the 1770s, which we are trying so hard to screw up. There are many, of course, who like to blame our strange state of affairs on specific entities and specific people: Our elected officials, our judges, our lawyers, our media, our schools, our social programs, our bureaucrats, our special interest groups.

But, as P.J. O’Rourke explored so brilliantly in Parliament of Whores, aren’t “they” actually “us?”

Where do “we” end, and “they” begin? We elect them. We pay their salaries. We watch their news reports. We read their magazines. We use them to sue each other. We live our lives in accordance with their decisions and their opinions. So what do we do?

Perhaps we study and restudy history, and look for an answer there. It worked, after all, for our Founding Fathers, as they used the lessons of history to create our constitution. Learning from the mistakes of others is a great, painless way to solve most problems, and perhaps we could try using it.

Then again, perhaps America some sort of bizarre divine experiment, on a collision course with destiny, unable to alter our direction, incapable of learning from past examples, unable to remember that fire burns, and the saber-tooth tiger bites.

And if that’s the case, let’s just hope someone learns from us.