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or to hate others. The wealth motivator has been in the form of territorial avarice, the business interests of the ruling elite, or simply envy of what others have. The pursuit of wealth was behind the Industrial Revolution, America's "Manifest Destiny," our Civil War - everything. If we "follow the money," we can spot the pitfalls and avoid the mistakes pointed out in history. Alas, however, greed and the desire for a better life are at the root cause of all our problems in history, but we continually fail to get the lesson.

* History teaches most people nothing because of the limited life spans of individuals.

If people lived for centuries instead of decades, history would be experience and memory. We tend, therefore, to look at history through a lens of prejudice, conceit and false assumptions. We regard our ancestors as somewhat less sophisticated and wholly unqualified d to handle conflicts and problems. We make the false assumption that failures and cataclysms of history occurred because people back then were insular and lacked wisdom.

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So history is not really our teacher. If it were, the problems of prejudice, religious intolerance, hunger and suffering would have been resolved long ago. History has many lessons and could be a great teacher, but shortsighted human nature and the incendiary passions of nationalism and religion have so far mostly trumped what our "teacher" has been trying to tell us.

Learn more about this author, Jerry Curtis.
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