Character and History

The Lessons of History, Chapter V

By:  Will & Ariel Durant

Overview

The main elements of history repeat themselves because human nature has changed very slowly over thousands of years, and character counts.  Civilizations' morals and traditions have been built up over generations and should not be changed or cast aside lightly.  Change should be instituted gradually and carefully in order to avoid throwing away the legacy that has created our freedom and prosperity.

Highlights

 “The Greeks of Plato’s time behaved very much like the French of modern centuries; and the Romans behaved like the English.”

“…the poor have the same impulses as the rich, with only less opportunity or skill to implement them.  Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.”

Based on historical experience, the vast majority of new ideas (99% or more) are inferior to the traditional ideas they are intended to replace.  “No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for these are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.  A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals, or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.”

Resisting change is as valuable as the proposal of new ideas.  “It is good that new ideas should be heard, for the sake of the few that can be used; but it is also good that new ideas should be compelled to go through the mill of objection, opposition, and contumely (contempt); this is the trial heat which innovations must survive before being allowed to enter the human race.”

Lesson

Because human nature doesn’t change, even good men with noble aspirations who acquire power are almost always corrupted by it and frequently end up becoming worse than those they deposed.  Ideas for change should be debated and tested before being implemented slowly in order to avoid chaos or tyranny.