It Only Takes a Basic Understanding of History and Human Nature to Know What Comes Next

“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain

It seems impossible to reconcile that “history” might happen again, this minute, right now, while you sip your coffee and decide which parts of (what surely must be) the latest conspiracy theories to believe. 

Part of you may believe there is some truth to the collective chatter, but maybe not all of you, not yet. Nobody would really do that. It’s too complicated. There are too many people involved. It’s too evil. 

But why do we think this? 

We have no problem understanding that we are surrounded by people who hurt other people, or steal belongings, or achieve personal gain by causing another’s ruin. We have places for them in every state: they are called jails. We accept without question that one priest who raped children. That was unfortunate. What a bad man. We accept without question that woman in the daycare who hit an innocent two-year-old. So glad she can’t hurt children anymore. We accept without question that crooked player in the financial arena who abused other people’s money in order to line his own pockets. Happy he was caught. Every single day we hear about these crimes. They are relentless and pervasive, and we accept it without question because they are bite-sized. Palatable. That was just one evil person we saw on the news today, but now they have been removed from society. Phew. Over and over and over and over.

We also, no matter what side of the political spectrum on which we sit, accept that the world of politics and politicians has always been—and probably always will always be—corrupt. In fact, we are so used to this notion that even the word “corrupt” holds little meaning. It is fluffy. Yea, yea, they’re corrupt. There are jokes about it. Acceptable mainstream society jovially typecasts politicians as people who are easily influenced and bought by the highest bidder. We accept this. We know this. To what degree are they corrupt? Well, we aren’t entirely sure, but we cross our fingers and hope it’s just to a mild degree. Hopefully they won’t negatively affect us too much this term.

But to imagine that there is (gasp) a group of billionaire criminals from many countries –  criminals who are either themselves politicians and lawmakers, or control politicians and lawmakers? Noooooo. That, my friends, is too much to consider. No thank you, I’ll have no part of that, says at least half of the world, drawing a line in the sand. All of a sudden, as if by magic, poof! The politicians at the top can’t possibly be that bad. That corrupt. And besides, we all know that money doesn’t really buy things, does it? Certainly not silence, or corroboration. It’s not at all powerful, is it?

But why do we believe this? Why do our logical lines of reasoning come to a screeching halt? Because it’s too impossible to imagine. I get it. It’s hard to accept, and it’s hard to wrap your brain around. It would also be an admission that we have no control, and any façade of personal freedom is now threatened. It’s an ugly truth, and our brains don’t like it. Further, it’s too big to even process, because that would mean everything we’ve always known has been a mirage. And there is value in keeping that mirage intact. 

These politicians would never take away my personal freedom. They can’t! They wouldn’t! There’s too many of us! Said the citizens of practically every single society before being wiped from the earth. 

It can’t be all of them. Not all politicians are corrupt. (Which is true. We do have some good ones. But not many.)But politicians are humans, and humans are easy to tempt: this is the collective universal story across time and culture. It’s not difficult to get people on board with corruption. It’s either too financially tantalizing to resist, or too frightening to oppose. It’s not complicated. It’s just simple human nature. And hey—let’s even give a few of them the benefit of the doubt, and say that maybe they didn’t believe their role would really have much of an impact on the “bigger picture” at all. A harmless corruption, and a nice fancy pool.

But a war can’t break out today! Said the citizens of every single society on the brink of mass genocide. We tend to hold onto this rather magical and child-like fairy tale that corrupt dictatorship, wars, and genocides only happen in history. Obviously, we are all safe today. We have learned, haven’t we? No one would let it happen to us again. Especially not the philanthropic, morally upright global leaders, who definitely have our best interests at heart, and who are not at all concerned about losing their power and control.

The one thing we have learned is that we have learned nothing. Granted, humanity has never really learned anything, in the history of history, at least in terms of not repeating the ugliest, darkest times. Most of us aren’t even scared. Even most patriots, who are fully tuned in to the terrifying evil of this elite global network seem to think that there’s enough of us, and that in itself makes us safe. As if they haven’t been plotting and planning for this for decades. As if we have. 

Wars only happen in history. It was so long ago, Afghanistan. Vietnam. Korea. World War II. World War 1. The Civil War. Now we’re done! We’re in modern times now, where nothing like this could happen again, obviously. Because we are connected, we have social—oh, wait. Shoot. Hm. Well still, nothing will happen. 

Our collective idea of “history” is nothing more than an unobservant method of denial. Human nature will never change—not ever. From the beginning of time to the end of time, those at the top will do anything, including killing or hurting a lot of people, to stay there. History is not in black and white. It is last year. Last week. An hour ago. Before you started reading this article.