War what is it good for? A optimistic view of the future

 Attached is Tolstoy’s view of history (from the novel War and Peace}; a very bleak outlook.  And yet it’s hard to find cogent arguments against it.  Is all of history just fate?  Are we all just pawns??  It would seem that humanity just keeps repeating itself.  This would also include epidemics which come every so often to kill unknown millions of people around the world.  Maybe Ecclesiastes has it right, “Vanity of vanities, says the teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.  What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?” (Eccl 1:2-3).  Sorry; this is not an uplifting outlook for a new year.

 

Tolstoys excerpt from his novel War and Peace is thought provoking and full of information.

I have been re-reading  Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series on the Napoleon wars in Europe.

From the British point of view it was simple: It was Napoleon's fault. 

Sadly Hitler did not learn from History. He repeated the mistake of invading Russia. 

Communists said it was a class (economic) struggle.

Right now it is more clear than ever that billionaires have too much political power.  

I suggest we read The Lessons of History by the Durants link $1

As I recall their message was more hopeful. 

HIstory is biased in that it looks mostly at big events that occasionally happen which are not as important as the day to day living 

that occupies most of the time of the human species. 

Also the Durants point out that wealth over history has often been redistributed. 

My own optimism comes from the hope that women will control more of the government. 

My pessimism comes from lack of effort to prevent climate change till it is too late. 

Many people don't like the movie Look Up but it shows how politicians foolishly respond to crises.

The movie is quite a satire..  

The song Imagine by John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people
Livin' for today
Ah

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace
You

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one