What can we learn from history

We are all survival machines - incarnations of robots, secretly programmed to maintain these selfish elements called "genes"!

"The Selfish Gene" - Richard. Dawkins

The most terrible dictatorships and slavery always come from the most extreme freedoms

"Republic" - Plato

●Learn to be patient with reality

"We have to have the perception that 'history is one-sided' and settle for the current speculation." I like Will. Duran said this passage in the book, and also remembered that someone said , "Knowing the world is a process of approaching the truth, and every truth we think is truth before it is overthrown." These two sentences are similar in purpose, and both tell us that the most important thing is not every result at the moment, but the continuous advancement of the learning process, but there is no need to worry too much, because this process has been accompanied by countless accumulations, allowing us to continue Go to the next step.

For us, history can observe how the values and instincts reflected in people's behavior are closely related to the recurrence of history, and can better judge and verify what kind of values, what conditions and results may appear. It also made me feel how to be content with the present and how to deal with the next step.

● "Zhuangzi. Outside articles. Dasheng

Zhuangzi told us a story. Dongye Ji was a famous driver in Lu State. He demonstrated his driving skills for Lu Zhuanggong. What’s especially amazing is that no matter whether it is a straight line or a circle, there can be only one trajectory. Therefore, Duke Zhuang of Lu asked Dongyeji to drive the carriage for 100 laps, and the trajectories should be completely coincident.

When Dongyeji was driving, Yan He, a doctor from the State of Lu, who was also a student of Confucius, happened to come to visit Duke Zhuang of Lu, so he told Duke Zhuang of Lu that Dongyeji would not succeed in driving the carriage like this. Lu Zhuang's face fell and he was silent, feeling a little disappointed. But not long after Dongyeji's carriage really overturned, Lu Zhuanggong asked Yan He curiously, how did you know this would happen? Yan He said: "The horses are already running out of strength, but they still have to force the track to overlap for 100 laps. That's why I say this will fail."

Those who achieve the love of life, do not do what they do not do; those who achieve the love of life, do not know what they are helpless. A person who truly understands life will not strive to pursue things that are unnecessary for life; a person who truly understands fate will not strive to pursue things that fate makes you helpless.

●Do the standards always change?

Personality, morality, and behavior all follow the current society, and may have different interpretations. I believe that I don't think it is good or bad. To take an extreme state, a person who is cold-blooded, has a weak sense of morality and pursues short-term stimulation may become a murderer in a peaceful society; but in a war-torn society seeking survival, he may be more likely to survive, or even become a murderer. war hero.

The book also mentions, "In the age of fishing and hunting, fighting may be a good thing; in the age of agriculture, early marriage may be a good thing." Although times are constantly changing, the diversity of life does not change to match the standards of each age. Rather, features may produce different results in each era.

● Economic factors are often the trigger for revolutions

Will. Duran said: "All economic history is actually the slow heartbeat of social organisms. The concentration of wealth is contraction, and the forced distribution is expansion." Every time people act from individual to collective, a system is generated, and the system will generate a cycle. Almost every cycle starts from people only seeking basic survival needs → infrastructure springs up like mushrooms → people live and work in peace and contentment → people’s needs increase → the shortcomings of the existing system are revealed → power and wealth are concentrated in certain privileged classes → the gap between the rich and the poor leads to general The people began to pursue equality → extreme events occurred that led to the destruction of the balance of the old system → the old system was overthrown to produce a new system → everything was redistributed, and a new cycle began. As long as people's instinct to pursue a better life persists, selfish genes will always lead us into a similar cycle. (Author: The selfishness here is not the selfishness we refer to in general, but the gene is the instinct to lead people with survival and reproduction as the consideration)

●The relationship between wealth and imagination

Wealth comes from the order and procedure of production and exchange, not the accumulation of goods. The premise of being able to keep making the pie bigger is that human beings yearn for the future life and build a system (credit system) that we can trust. We don’t really believe in the value of banknotes, checks and other currencies themselves, but Believing in this system, people then move forward and act according to this imagination, in some senses, this is also a Ponzi scheme (author: the difference between living water and dead water).

This is also the difference between human beings and other species. They can first build a consensus based on "imagination" , and then act according to the consensus to achieve the benefits of gathering. For example, if everyone's savings are concentrated into productive capital, the goods will produce an unimaginable circulation from the production end to the consumption end. Another example is war, which builds consensus on a premise and enables the state apparatus to promote the ultimate form of human competition instinct, resulting in plunder and destruction.

Also because of these imaginations, the history of human beings has been repeatedly concentrated and redistributed wealth, and the system has continued to be destroyed and rebuilt, but each time the pie will be bigger than before. The special ability "imagination" was condensed into a behemoth. Therefore, let's think about these two questions. Maybe after thinking about it, will we have different ideas when we deal with the current society and choose to look at the future?

1. Will economic development increase social inequality and lead to social division?

2. Looking back at the history we know, is peace a special case? Or is this the norm?

●Conclusion

Behind every piece of history, there are interesting behaviors and thoughts, the epitome of the present, and the revelation of the past. I believe that reading this book can help us learn to look at reality patiently. And we can seek the balance between external and internal, and explore inner peace and external coping actions from the perspective of exploring history. Sincerely recommend this Will. Duran's masterpiece - " Reading History, What Can I Learn? ".

Further reading:

What is the impact of inflation? How should we respond?

https://reurl.cc/WXWAx7

"Age of Awakening" interprets the paradoxical new future

https://reurl.cc/Q6D550

If I knew where I would die, I would never go there

https://reurl.cc/52aDb7