The Habitual Irony of the Western World
Since the beginning of time, there has been a constant, and often timely, repetition of events that have often been detrimental to the functioning of entire communities and even countries. A domino effect of issues that no one is addressing, is leading to much larger issues. Issues, such as the collapse of entire empires, are only being addressed after it’s beyond repair. This has been seen 3 times over within the last 500 years with the Dutch, English, and presently seen with the United States losing momentum. In order to combat the fall of the United States as an empire, American youth should be taught a curriculum that details historical events and teaches students to identify historical recurrence allowing them to work proactively to prevent large tragedies.
Ever since history has begun being recorded, the recurrence of eerily similar events has consistently occurred. Historical recurrence is the reappearance of similar events throughout history. Exact repetition of every detail is unlikely, so for the purposes of this paper, we will be comparing historical events that are similar, but not carbon copies of each other. There are many demonstrations of historical recurrence but one particularly interesting example is the sinking of the Tek Sing, Vasa, and Titanic ships. All of the boats were seen as significant, and magnificent. Both the Titanic and the Vasa sank on their maiden voyage, and the Titanic and Tek Sing ships sank due to the vessels hitting a natural landmark. In the case of the Titanic, it was the infamous iceberg; a vast expansion of coral is what ended the voyage for the Tek Sing. The second example of historical repetition is the striking resemblance between Napoleon and Hitler’s reign. Both rulers had pitiful backgrounds and a desire for power, led a coup to gain that power, aimed to conquer Europe, failed to invade Russia, and ended their regimes in ruin. The recurrence of assassinations, genocide, shootings, pandemics, and more have also been prominent throughout history.
Neil Howe and William Strauss propose a reason for this repetition of events called the fourth turning. The fourth turning is a concept that approximately every 20 years a new era, or turning, begins. There are four different turnings, meaning it takes approximately 80 years (the average person’s lifetime) to complete a full cycle, also known as a saeculum. The authors describe the first turning as “[...] an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism, when a new civic order implants and the old values regime decays” (Strauss and Howe). This first era of the upbeat process of strengthening institutions is known as the high. After the ending of the last cycle, the beginning of the golden age begins. War and division have fleeted, leaving behind unity and conformity. The generation raised during this time are known as the prophets. Since they were born closest to the downfall of the previous generation they often predict that similar events will return. Due to this, they often warn the next generation of these cyclical events. They continue by saying, “[t]he Second Turning is an Awakening, a passionate era of spiritual upheaval when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime” (Strauss and Howe). The second turning is known is also known as the awakening. This is when the next generation begins to take notice of the issues surrounding the previous turning. They are known as nomads because they have the drive to expand into the future. This is a period of non-conformity, civil justice, and passion. This generation turns away from collectivism, idealizing the individual. The unraveling comes next and it’s a “[...] downcast era of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions when the old civic order decays and the new values regime implants” (Strauss and Howe). This is when things start getting unpleasant. The final turning, the turning we are currently in is “[...] a Crisis, a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with a new one” (Strauss and Howe). This turning welcomes complete upheaval of the saeculum. This is the turning we are currently in.
Although these examples can be found and compared on the internet, censorship of these events has led to the repetition of violent historical events and the rearrangement of the world order. This changing world order is a concept introduced by Ray Dalio where he describes how significant regimes come to power, rule, and ultimately fall in the same ways. He first describes the British rule beginning off of the coattails of the Dutch empire, then how the Americans became the powerhouse after the Revolutionary war. He then discusses how the American regime is close to dying off. Ray Dalio used his understanding of this changing world order to identify patterns in the stock market. He created one of the largest hedge fund companies in the world, worth more than 22 billion dollars, based on this principle. With this same logic, a curriculum can be created to teach the youth of America about historical recurrence, and generate leaders that will be able to predict the future in many of the same ways.
On the contrary, some people believe that history should not be taught because it could do more harm than good because it prevents the modern generation from progressing. In the article The cult of memory: when history does more harm than good, David Reiff takes that stance. He makes the argument that “[...] collective historical memory, as it is actually employed by communities and nations, has led far too often to war rather than peace, to rancour and resentment rather than reconciliation, and the determination to exact revenge for injuries both real and imagined, rather than to commit to the hard work of forgiveness?” (Reiff) This is a rational argument, however, what Reiff doesn’t take into account is the need to remove the rubble of the past in order to build a good foundation for the future. Society can’t be expected to even begin the process of forgiveness if they aren’t even aware of what they are forgiving. Without having a complete understanding of all perspectives, one that education of history provides, society will not be capable to absolve the wrongdoings of the past because they will hold on only to the limited perspective of what they experienced.
If the majority of the public that belongs to previous generations had the understanding of what historical recurrence is and how to identify it, many American and worldly tragedies could have been better prepared for or prevented. In August of 1914, “[...] the minister of Internal Affairs of Russia, N. A. Maklakov, announced the seizure of Germans’ private property.” (Khodchenko, 2), and in Canada, nine thousand German and Mennonite people were placed in internment style camps. This became a blueprint, and even motive, for the construction of the ghettos and concentration camps in WWII. Had society identified, and taught about this forgotten atrocity, leaders at the time could have identified the makings of the holocaust years in advance, preventing that experience and saving more than six million lives from death. This proves that over the course of history, human beings haven’t evolved enough to naturally select qualities that could save humanity from creating fatal repetitions and displays the need for external involvement to proactively prevent the human race from making these mistakes. The most sensible solution to this problem is to establish an edited curriculum that emphasizes teaching cultural history, identifying patterns, and determining when world events are beginning to develop into historical recurrence. This is important in the prevention of tragedies, such as terrorism, school-related shootings, genocide, and other events that are causing the fall of the U.S. regime. By informing the next generation of cultural traditions and histories we are proactively preventing divisiveness, strengthening our country substantially.
The only way to prevent this country's downfall while also attempting to rebuild from the previous infrastructural, economical, and civil peril, is to inform the general public of the past. Those who don’t learn about history will repeat it. Those who do, are forced to watch as it is repeated all while being mocked and called crazy, that is unless we develop herd immunity to this problem via education. Education is a valuable weapon, one that can never be taken away, and when used correctly, can prevent the collapse of the United States.
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