History isn’t just a grouping of words that tells us about past events; it is also a guide book to solving future problems. I am not saying that every contingency is covered by History, certainly not the ‘what do we do if the Large Hadron Collider generates micro Black Holes that gobble up chunks of Europe.’ Although, it might give us ideas from other world changing events like Krakatoa or Pompeii that we could use.
The Point is that History, is like a bag of tricks for a magician, or point 0 on a reference line, it gives you a place to start and ideas from similar situations, or even better it might tell you what not to do, thereby reducing the time to find the correct solution.
Perhaps it is time for the President to not only have a Scientific Advisor, but also a History Advisor. The important thing to remember about history though, is there is always more than one side, so whoever the person was, would have to not only know history, but love it enough to seek the whole picture, not just that written by the winners.
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