If you want to understand the #future, stop looking at the #news and start looking at the "Lindy" books.
The *Durants spent 50 years writing 11 volumes of history, then condensed it into 100 pages of pure signal.
Hereβs what stays the same:
1. Human nature is a constant.
#Technology evolves at warp speed, but our instincts move at "geological leisureliness." We are the same biological creatures who roamed the savannah, just with better iPhones. We change our habits, but never our drives.
2. Biology is the fundamental law.
History is a fragment of biology.
β’ Life is Competition: We cooperate only to compete more effectively as a group.
β’ Life is Selection: Nature loves variety because it allows for evolution.
β’ Life must Breed: Nature cares about the species, not the individual.
3. Freedom and Equality are sworn enemies.
If you are free, your natural differences will lead to unequal outcomes. If you want equal outcomes, you must suppress freedom to enforce them. You can have a free society or an equal one, but history says you can't have both.
4. The heartbeat of wealth.
Wealth naturally concentrates in the hands of the "capable" minority. This is an economic law. But when the gap becomes too wide, history triggers a "diastole"; a redistribution via either peaceful legislation or violent revolution.
5. The role of Religion.
Thinkers often dismiss religion, but history doesn't. Religion acts as the "social glue" for the 90% who didn't win the economic lottery. It provides a moral code that laws alone cannot enforce. When belief fades, social cohesion usually follows.
6. Morals are local.
What we call "sin" today was often a "virtue" yesterday.
β’ Hunter-gatherers: Aggression and greed were survival traits.
β’ Agriculture: Industry and sobriety became the new "good."
β’ Industry: Modern independence is shifting the code again.
7. War is the norm, not the exception.
In 3,421 years of recorded history, only 268 have seen no war. Peace is merely an "unstable equilibrium" maintained by a balance of power. Even a philosopher must admit that a long peace can "fatally weaken the martial muscles of a nation."
8. Progress isn't transformation.
We aren't "smarter" than the Greeks; we just have a larger "total heritage." Progress is the accumulation of tools, techniques, and knowledge passed from one generation to the next. It is a fragile chain that must be re-learned by every child.
9. The Takeaway:
History is the map of human character. To know how we will act tomorrow, look at how we acted a thousand years ago. Study the originals. Skip the noise.
* The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
