The term "history repeating itself" or the many similar phrases are usually considered an oxymoron today. Knowledgeable, critically thinking historians are now insisting that history never truly repeats itself. Are they right, or is there a way of understanding that saying that perhaps hold up under modern scrutiny?
Twenty-four hundred years later, Adolph Hitler was conquering Europe with such speed and ferocity that most German commanders considered the war over. But the failed attempt to subjugate Britain in 1940 would leave Hitler impatient. Instead of biding his time and directing the full force of his military against the British Empire, his hubris would get the better of him and he ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union. As his political ideology overrode sound strategy, Hitler would take more and more control over the military, believing the earlier setbacks were due to the stupidity of his generals. He would allow no retreats, not even to save surrounded armies that would do more good to live to fight another day. His own pride became his downfall, and like Xerxes, his empire crumbled and was overrun by the very people he had set out to destroy. Thus, even though history may not truly repeat itself, human nature's worst tendencies continue to show themselves: pride, arrogance, and aggression. Until mankind has been redeemed from its tendency to such vices (something we cannot do on our own), history will continue to march to the same tune and bear witness to the same lessons that we as human beings refuse to take to heart. |