Book Summary: The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
I came to know about The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant from one of Naval Ravikant’s tweets. This is a good book that attempts to elucidate the lessons that we can learn from our 3000 years of written history and work on ameliorating our mistakes. Personally, I believe there is an importance in reading and learning from history because we cannot make plans for our future unless we are conscious of our past mistakes. And in the long run, history is just the teaching of philosophy in practice.
The Book over a glass of wine 🍷
Humans are highly functional animals and over the course of our history, our societies, our behavior, our ethics have changed but our genetic nature has remained the same. There will always be inequality in society because the skillset is not divided equally across the pool and few smart individuals will always end up controlling the majority. Other than genes, we pass our ideas to the future generations and the quality, adaptability, and survivability of ideas have the been most prominent factor in the rise and fall of different societies.
The Lessons of History summary
Our knowledge of the past is incomplete. Most of history is guessing coupled with the biased nature of humans to oversimplify the events.
There is nothing scientific about history because history is seldom factual.
We must progress forward with a partial perspective. A total and encompassing perspective is never possible.
Nature is the most powerful thing in this world. Humans can never win against nature and nature ultimately decides the course of human history.
Geographical factors used to be the factor behind the development of societies but as technology advances, humans can overcome harsh geographical conditions. Climate is no longer the controlling factor but it limits us. A drought can break an established society.
Life is competition. It is peaceful when food abounds, violent when there are mouths to feed. Cooperation is the ultimate form of competition.
Cooperation expands with technology. We form families, groups, societies, nations and our every action is to ensure our “group” survives.
Nature loves inequality. Like Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, this inequality allows us to focus on the strong and outgrow the weak.
If the human brood is too numerous for the food supply, Nature has three agents for restoring the balance: famine, pestilence, and war.
The concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable. It is periodically alleviated by violent destruction or peaceable partial redistribution.
Freedom and equality cannot co-exist together.
There have been many experiments in human history to bring about freedom and equality (like Communism in USSR) but it always resulted in a dictatorship (party or individual) with military-enforced equality (i.e totalitarianism)
Rather than equality of outcome, we must strive for equality of opportunities.
Only the men below the average desires equality. Those of are conscious of being above the average desires freedom. In the end, superior ability always win
Nature loves breeding. It likes large litter and fights for survival because it wants to eliminate the weak
Intelligence is the result of individual education, opportunity, and experience.
The basic reality is competition. If you are not competing in life, what would you develop? A certain degree of competition is necessary not only for progress but also for survival.
The history of governments is the constant struggle between democracies, autocracies, and socialism.
Democracy has done less harm and more good than any other form of government.
Conservatism helps to test new ideas. If new ideas cannot stand the testing views of conservatism, they are usually not useful in the long run.
The hero is the product of the situation. No one can be a hero just out of the sheer will. Unless there is a situation and you are the lucky one with certain useful abilities trapped in that situation, you can never be a hero.
Morals and ethics are how societies discard misbehaviors.
Persons under 30 should never trust the economic, political, and moral ideas of other persons under 30.
Normally, men are judged by their ability to produce. Except in war, when they are ranked based on their ability to destroy.
Religions have a way of reviving themselves. We can never get rid of religion because the human mind craves meaning and the easiest answer to the meaning of life is God. We want to believe in stories and myths coupled with strict belief codes are the best option we have at our disposal.
Without religion, it is very possible that the world would have been less moral. Yes, immorality and crime still persisted, but the forces of religion probably dampened their effects.
It is very dangerous for an individual to think that — even with 30 or 40 years of studying — he can judge and overcome the collective wisdom of the human race. Old ideas are very powerful.
It is very possible that religion has enabled humans to collaborate all throughout history and make civilization possible.
War is a constant in history. In the 3000 years of written human history, only 240 years were without war.
But looking at history, there is one thing that we can be certain of - materialistic progress.