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There is much to learn from history, but it has not really been our teacher. Rather, we have been poor learners and have failed to see the obvious lessons of history. If the proof of any lesson is in its application and practical application, then why haven't we "students" learned anything much? Put another way, if our "final exams" from previous history lessons involved making the right choices, why have we failed so many, many times?

Let's explore a few lessons that history tried to teach, but we have failed to learn:

* Nationalism and religious fervor have been the most potent and toxic elements of mankind's history, leading to oppression, wars and misery throughout.

The foregoing should be a self-evident and valuable lesson. It has not, however, been our teacher and has never guided our recorded actions, which are the stuff of history. World War II is a prime example. The war began and spread throughout the globe when our leaders ignored the lessons of World War I. The Jewish Holocaust was allowed to happen because everyone ignored the history of anti-Semitism from the Inquisition of Spain to the pogroms of Russia. Even when we saw the destruction of atomic weapons at the end of World War II, we nevertheless began an insane race to build up a stockpile of these lethal agents of genocide.

* People (and countries) tend to behave in ways that make perfect sense to them, historical realities notwithstanding.

The foregoing statement may seem to be somewhat of a tautology (i.e., a needless repetition). But if there is any great lesson we can learn (but seem always not to) it is that history has never been a good teacher to those who feel that somehow continuing the same behavior will result in a different outcome. Why else would Germany rearm and start World War II, especially after being defeated just one generation before? Stated another way, even the mentally ill behave in ways that make perfect sense to them. We remain somewhat "mentally ill" to the extent that we continually repeat mistakes and patterns of dysfunctional behavior that failed previously, regardless of the lessons of history.

* When trying to figure out motives and historical outcomes, follow the money.

Wealth, hence power, has been behind nearly every significant historical movement from before the Peloponnesian Wars through the Industrial Revolution and beyond. This is an explanation of human and group behavior that has allowed leaders tobeguile their people to willingly die in wars

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