Understanding History Wouldn’t Have Helped Here

In addition to what Spinoza said here, we have Hegel’s clever remark that “the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

Regardless, what we’re running into here and now in the United States is unprecedented in American history, which means that even a robust understanding of history would be of no help whatsoever. Since the country was established in 1776, there have been exactly zero attempts to overthrow the federal government–until now, of course.

Here we have a former president inventing lies about the validity of an election in an illegal attempt to remain in power.  We might think that effort failed, but it may be too early to make that claim.