Learning From History

I’ve just finished reading a short book– The Lessons Of History by Will and Ariel Durant. They write about concepts and problems that the human race has dealt with throughout history and have put them in easy to understand chapters. Even they themselves know this is a fool’s errand– ”It is a precarious enterprise, and only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed.”

Will and Ariel are wonderful writers and I’m glad I get to share their work with the readers of jhrepetto.com. There were a few things that stood out to me.

”Competition is the father of all things- the potent source of ideas, inventions, institutions and states.”

Throughout history the main driver of growth– whether economic, scientific or governmental– is competition. Competition pours the foundations for growth over time and forces us to think outside of the box for new ways to do the old things.

”Every economic system must sooner or later rely upon some form of profit motive to stir individuals and groups to productivity.”

”Democracy broke down the walls of privilege and class and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.”

Democratic capitalism is the least worst option when it comes to government and economic control. This system encourages freedom and risk taking through entrepreneurship and provides the capital and incentives needed to help drive many things forward including technology– from horse and carriage to the airplane, from analog information sharing to the digital age, from navigation using the skies to GPS.

”Our finest contemporary achievement is our unprecedented expenditure of wealth and toil in the provision of higher education for all.”

”Civilisation is not inherited; It has to be learned and earned by each generation anew.”

Education is extremely important to humanity. The teaching of customs and of how society functions and the passing on of information and wisdom that has been learned over hundreds of years is a fundamental part of civilisation.

”Life has no inherent claim to eternity, whether in individuals or in states. Death is natural, and if it comes in due time it is forgivable and useful, and the mature mind will take no offence from its coming.”

”Let it be pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance thats transcends death.”

Thank you for reading,

J.H.Repetto