The kooks are coming out of the woodwork. Again.
One of the subjects that I’ve taught over the decades is U.S. history. My major in college was English, but history has been my avocation. I find it fascinating to trace how much things change while simultaneously remaining the same.
It’s kind of crazy, really.
But that’s why history is so useful. Similar dilemmas keep popping up again and again.
As George Santayana said, “Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.” And the great Harry Truman, a self-taught student of history, said, “The only thing that is new in this world is the history you don’t know.”
Mankind’s accumulated knowledge has increased exponentially over the millennia of recorded history—particularly in the last century. We used to store knowledge in millions of books in huge libraries. Now we can store it all in a broom closet full of computer chips.
But at the same time that knowledge has taken leaps and bounds, human nature and brain power have remained at virtually the same levels as those of the pyramid builders.
Evolution marches on in all plants and animals, but it takes millions of years, not hundreds. So we can’t look down our noses at the ancients, probably not even at the cavemen. Their petty biases, jealousies, faults, and neuroses are, sadly, still ours.
Are we less animalistic than our ancient brothers? Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no. Many events of the Twentieth Century and this century would go in the “no” column. There’s no need to document the obvious. And the same could be said for the ancient people in relation to their ancestors.
We are not technologically where we are today because of some sudden flowering of the human intellect in recent years. Instead our comforts have come, to paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton, from standing on the shoulders of giants who in turn stood on the shoulders of other giants who somehow managed to incrementally think and lift themselves above their own times.
Usually an advance came from the inspiration of one great mind that was in turn supported by other above average intellects who had the courage to perceive and appreciate the improvement in thought.
Yeah, well anyway, back to history and the lessons it teaches to those who pay attention.
I tell my students that all through history, including American history, when the economic system of the time goes into a dive, the kooks come out of the woodwork.
Yeah, you heard me, kooks.
Kooks that ordinarily wouldn’t garner any attention whatsoever—would in normal times, in fact, be laughed out of the place—in times of distress, these kooks finally find a desperate audience looking for a messiah or at least a messianic message.You can look it up. It’s almost like clockwork.
When people are hurting, the kooks come out of the woodwork promising simplistic but ill-considered solutions. And all-too-many people pay them heed, thereby becoming kooks as well.
Still, the original kooks and their follower kooks make up only a minority, but this minority can also be a motivated and dedicated gaggle that can cause worlds of trouble.
Currently, an all-too-large part of our population is suffering from the effects of the Great Recession, the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, a time when people looked for easy answers and admired the dogma of kooks from both the far left wing and the far right wing.
Yep, the economy is down now, and we’re right in the thick of it again. And predictably, the kooks have come out of the woodwork.
Fortunately, for the better part of U.S. history, saner heads have eventually prevailed. Most Americans have been too smart for the kooks. Let’s hope this particular aspect of history continues to repeat itself in similarly positive ways.
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