Don't know much about history? . . .You might want to think again.

That tiresome 4-word phrase, "This time it's different"

Of course, to that, history has its own rebuttal. . .

I’ll admit it, back in high school I didn’t appreciate or respect the subject of history.  In my mind it was just an exercise in memorizing past people, places, and dates, totally irrelevant to the current “new” world and what was then going on at the time.  Yep, back then it was the 1970’s, and we had just endured the tumultuous and culture-altering “60’s”.  A generation was bucking “The Establishment” and independent thinking seemed to be everyone.

Ironically, in my college science fiction course at the time, my assigned readings were the futuristic classics, “Brave New World” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.  In class we learned that the writings were steeped in historical perspective, and the authors had written these futuristic works in part for the purpose of conveying societal warnings, and were using history and/or present time events as evidence of these lessons.  Although I found the books quite entertaining and imaginative, I was convinced that from a predictive and futuristic accuracy perspective, such writings had “missed the mark”, and human nature was moving on a totally different trajectory.  In other words, as a naïve young adult, my arrogant attitude was “this time it’s different”.

Okay, fast forward almost 50 years; and as my mother always reminded me, “Only a fool never changes his mind.”  Now, I’ve become reverent about history.  I’ve learned that buried in the many layers of history are pearls of wisdom, warnings to be heeded, and vast lessons of the human experience.  And like the cycles of the sea, there are definitely recurring patterns, especially if one can look beyond the day’s “snapshot” of living in the moment.  As a good friend of mine once said, “History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.”  

As an example, I remember back in the late “dot com” days, going to a party attended by a group of ‘20-somethings’ who were working in high tech.  As an older and seasoned finance person, I had already seen my share of career ups and downs, and been humbled in business more than once.  So, I was cynically humored when one of these young techies schooled me on the new ways of the world, telling me that it was a new economy, historical business fundamentals were no longer applicable, and yes, “this time it’s different.”  He went on to share with me his life plan - that from the appreciation of his company’s ongoing stock options, he’d surely have his house paid off in the next two years.  And in the coming years he’d have the financial security to possibly retire, with freedom to then pursue more leisure activities.  

BTW - I don’t know where that young man is today, but I’m betting that 20+ years later his house still isn’t paid off, and he’s still working, with no foreseeable end in sight.

Anyway, today, more than ever, I’ve become skeptical when hearing the tiresome phrase, “this time it’s different.”  That’s because if you dig deep into the annals of history and look hard enough, especially with a keen eye on perspective and common sense, you can usually find that the ‘circumstances du jour’ are in some shape or form a “remake” of something that has happened previously.  Sure, the scenery has changed, the special effects have improved, and the characters are different. . . but, the base storyline of human nature and nature itself usually has a distinct familiarity.

Bottom line:  If we don’t learn from history and fail to continually bring its vast lessons into modern day perspective, we won’t move forward as individuals, or as a society.  And next time the phrase “this time it’s different” is thrown about, we might want to at least fact-check the claim against the chronicles of history.  There we might find that in actuality we’re waking up to the sound of the Sonny and Cher song, “I Got You Babe”, while looking out the window in search of “Punxsatawney Phil”.