History Re-runs

From our Bitch While You Can series.

"Bitch While You Can" might create the impression we are writing about the History Channel, rest assured, we are not.

One of the popular shortcuts in Western thinking is that history will repeat itself if you don't learn from it.

After a few decades of life and a few hours on the internet, we suggest that you never use the above phrase again, ever.

With the numbnuts of the world marching toward yet another war because it is a lot easier to do than fix your own crap at home, one warning sounded a few months ago is worth repeating.

Europeans were warned about a possible threat from Western European jihadists returning from Syria. While the thrust of the warnings was nothing but the worn out "be afraid, be afraid" of under-employed and over-protected bureaucrats, there is a kernel of truth to it.

It has happened before. Guys go to war, get traumatized, radicalized or even more radicalized than they already were, and what do you get?

Maybe with the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I coming up in 2014, this will be picked up.

The numbers of potential returning jihadists are small, very small, but History tells us that even the smallest numbers can be exploited. 

To put it another way, the EU countries may have achieved a 4 Sigma level (in some countries maybe even 6 Sigma) as far as "real" terrorists go, creating a need for other designated scapegoats.

History is the ultimate patient teacher in the university of life: it repeats the lessons over and over. Like any good teacher, it does not repeat them as empty rote drill but modifies them slightly every time while keeping the overall learning goal.