Learning from the Past

ClickWow.  So much good stuff and I had never heard of it.  The phrase “better late than never” is meaning more and more to me.
I am reading something said by a guy called Patrick Henry at the moment.  He gave a speech justifying Americans going to war in the American Revolution.  He said “I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.”  Speaking of the actions of the British Navy after the Americans had petitioned the British he said, “Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation?  Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love?”  He said “trust it not, sir:  it will prove a snare to your feet.  Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.”
I love heaps of what I am reading but what really got me thinking was when he said “I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.”  I do have a hope, but it is not built on the nature of man.  It seems we never learn.  It does not seem to matter what corner of the globe I go to, there is always human nature at work.  There are good and bad apples in every society.  Some people are willing to use others as unknowing pawns to further their own ends.  Others are willing to give despite consequences to themselves.  Many are like rabbits caught in the headlights.  Been there done that with all three.
Past generations have grappled with problems, but it has never marked the end of problems.  There seems to always be something.  From what I have seen of the past, I have no reason to think that in fifty or one hundred years’ time, we will have no more problems.  People will still be doing acts of kindness.  Others will still be murdering others.  There will still be wars.
How can I think that, let alone say it?  The past.  It strips me of confidence that the future will be any different.  It is one of the reasons why I am big on intervention.  Our track record does not inspire optimism, no matter what the optimists say or think.
That does not mean to say I am not optimistic.  I am.  But my optimism is not born of humans solving their own dilemma.  I have never seen any evidence contrary to decay.  Certainly, we invent better ways of doing things, but nothing yet has solved all our problems.  As someone said to me many years ago, wars serve the purpose of nations letting of steam.  He saw that as a positive to come out of the killing and destroying and maiming of potentially millions.  One positive is good I guess.
Word War One was supposed to be the war to end all wars.  Did we learn from it?  Was the result that we relegated war to history?  It seems what we learned from it was how to kill each other better.
The past and the present says to me we are our own worst enemy.  It is probably why I so like what C.S.Lewis wrote in a poem. “only that now you have taught me my lack, but how late, I see the chasm.  And everything you are was making my heart into a bridge from which I might get back from exile, and grown man, and now the bridge is breaking.” ​ here to edit.