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"History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes."
Whoever is attributed to have first made that quote, Mark Twain or someone else, does not really matter.
More important is what seems to rhyme again, after historical lessons are not learnt. Do events seem to occur again in varying forms, more because human beings as a society are embedded in their ways, mindset and political behaviour?
History seems to repeat when we reflect on the fall of massive empires. We are told that such political behemoths were not eventually sustainable due to rebellions, food insecurity, loss of trading hegemony, religious change, collapse of governance, etc.
The things that made empires great no longer exist when such entities begin to collapse. Borders have been transgressed, militaries have been gutted, foreigners have made incursions and the last generation of rulers were not made with the same guts and talent as the empire founders.
The rules, checks and controls that made an empire great in its heyday no longer exist by its end. Rome was an ideal when it was managed by Senators - then came dictatorship and disorder.
The last Chinese dynasty rotted and collapsed when it looked inwards rather than adapt and adopt the challenges of a new world order. The Ottoman rulers could not hold on to various and diverse corners of their vast lands. The last vestiges of the Soviet Union promised better political freedom but not economic opportunity. The Japanese imperialists ventured out beyond their islands on a hunger for natural resources available in the rest of Asia, but floundered when it got hit with the early version of terrifying nuclear war.
The Moghuls did not survive the onslaught of colonials who came with better technology, divide and rule strategies and a sweeping rush of the growing British Empire ( where once the sun never set upon her colonised lands). The British Empire became a shadow of itself by the 1970s but still holds the allegiance of Canada, Australia and New Zealand through Governor- Generals.
So which next contemporary empire is gradually destined to fall?
And then there are corporate collapses. East Asian thinking notes that businesses do not last beyond three generations of ownership. When a successful idea is over run by competition, contrition, conviving of narrow mindedness by its Board or top management and lack of capability, its inability to change often overwhelms its outdated structures held on and modus operandi.
If customers and suppliers are berated or not appreciated, the foundations of a business are quickly torn apart, unless one dominates the market.
When channels of sale and delivery or nature of market are significantly changed, inflexibility and lack of innovation are sure doom sayers. Think of Kodak, Tupperware, the taxi industry, television channels, etc.
Rhymes of history affect us in parts of our everyday lives.
Why are infrastructure like highways and railways built with generous contracts given to private equity with the public taxpayer holding the repayment liability?
Why are casinos encouraged and thriving with not much concern about the social costs?
Why is priority given for immediate profits rather than concerns for environmental or public health?
Why are so many aspects of life privatised by government, with lack of monitoring of the performance and behaviour of those given public grants to run a service?
Even when there is obvious grief, disappointment and underperformance from those privatisation exercises, most Governments carry on in the same way, Australian Royal Commission hearings and recommendations or not.
Why are unhealthy foods allowed to lure, captivate and be consumed by individuals based on convenience, with lack of disclosure of balanced information and low cost driven with turnover emphasised revenues?
Despite the obvious sufferings incurred from outbreaks of war and use of aggressive weapons, the "civillisation" of human societies and geopolitics thrive on division, aggression, arnaments and conflict, rather than more seriously embrace shared values and moral practice.
Human selfish tribal mores over ride many alternatives - that is essentially driving the repeat of historical human behaviour and outcomes.
The specific players on the world stage can change, but not the acts, drama and memory.
What is the point of knowing and understanding history? To know the past is to prepare for a better future - in theory at least.
History can rhyme but stand out leadership can break or reduce the cycle. Such a leadership need not be from the political or religious field.
#yongkevthoughts
