CONTENTS
1) THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
2) FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
3) THE MILITIAS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
4) THE SEPARATION AND THREE WARS RULE
5) THE PRESIDENTIAL BABY BALLOON AND THE REPETITION OF HISTORY
6) ANNIVERSARIES
7) COMPUTERS AND COMMUNISM
8) ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
9) OTHER EXAMPLES OF HOW HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
1) THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The French Revolution of 1789 brought the world into the modern political era. it has echoed across time and space in other revolutions.
The Russian Revolution of 1917, popularly known as the October Revolution, was an obvious repetition of the French Revolution. It brought the end of the rule by the tsars, replaced by a modern republic, in the same way as the French Revolution. Napoleon, whose ruled followed the French Revolution, carried the ideals of the revolutions by way of his extensive military conquests and this is what ultimately planted the seeds of a repetition of the French Revolution, in 1917 in St. Petersburg. The ideals of the French Revolution were also brought to eastern Europe by way of Napoleon's conquests. Could it be just an accident that 1989, when Communism ended in eastern Europe, was the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution? The execution of Nicolae Ceausescu, like the execution of the Romanov family in Russia, was preceded by the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette.
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How about the militias of Pakistan.
Has anyone ever noticed the close similarity between the Islamic militias of Pakistan and the buccaneers and privateers of centuries ago? By my definition, a pirate was simply a robber. But a buccaneer or privateer or, in French terminology, a corsair, were similar in nature to pirates in that they raided ships but, unlike a simple pirate, a buccaneer, privateer or, corsair, only raided ships of nations with which their country was at war. They were independent of the official navy, but operated in conjunction with the national interests.
The militias of Pakistan operate in exactly the same way, not directly controlled by the government but useful to it and usually acting with coordinated interests. It is really amazing how much Osama Bin Laden had in common with Captain Morgan. One was raiding in the name of religion and the other in the name of simple accumulation of wealth.
4) THE SEPARATION AND THREE WARS RULE
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5) THE PRESIDENTIAL BABY BALLOON AND THE REPETITION OF HISTORY
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Symbolism is also important in understanding how history repeats itself.
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9) OTHER EXAMPLES OF HOW HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
The Pashas breaking away from the rest of the Ottoman Empire, to rule Egypt separately, is a reenactment of Ptolemaic rule of Egypt after the Greek Empire fragmented flowing the death of Alexander the Great. Alexandria, the city that Alexander had founded in Egypt, probably surpassed Athens as the center of the Hellenistic world. But it was not ruled from Greece in the same way that the Pashas would break away from, and would no longer be directly ruled by, the Ottomans.
Here is what I think is an amazing example of how history repeats itself. It has been added to the compound posting on this blog, "How History Repeats Itself".
The leaders of the major western nations recently announced a crackdown on global corporations that got away with not paying taxes. Such corporations often have their headquarters in a nation with low taxes, even though they do most of their business in other nations with higher taxes. The plan was to force these companies to pay taxes according to where most of their business was done, regardless of where their headquarters was located.
The focal point of places to put money in order to avoid paying taxes on it is the Caribbean. Possibly the best-known so-called tax haven in the world is the British Virgin Islands.
I notice something really interesting about how history repeats itself.
In the Caribbean is the island of Jamaica. Back in the days of piracy there was a notorious hangout for pirates on Jamaica's south coast, not far from present-day Kingston, known as Port Royal.
Piracy is a little bit complicated. My understanding is that a pirate was simply a robber. A privateer or buccaneer or, in French terminology, a corsair was a pirate who only raided ships of nations with which his country was at war. With no coast guard or radios to call for help many ships were at the mercy of pirate ships.
So much of the plunder that the pirates got was brought to Port Royal. It was buried under the sea by a terrific earthquake.
Can you see the historical similarity between Port Royal and the modern-day tax havens of the Caribbean? I have never seen this pointed out.
Just as pirates once prowled the Caribbean and brought their plunder to Port Royal, today there are tax havens in the area where it is quick and easy to set up a shell company, a company that exists only on paper, that can hold money without putting the money in the real name of it's owner, and where little or no tax has to be paid on it.
Maybe Captain Morgan could be the patron saint of these Caribbean tax havens.
11) THE TIME OF TROUBLES AND THE GORBACHEV-YELTSIN ERA
Vladimir Putin recently stated that he had to drive a taxi to earn enough money at the time the Soviet Union ended. Let's have a closer look because I notice something really interesting about how history repeats itself.
Understanding history is so important because we tend to repeat it, often without realizing it. Here is something absolutely amazing about how history repeats itself, that helps explain the history of Russia in recent decades. History tends to repeat itself everywhere but not necessarily with the same timeframes. The history of Russia is remarkable because it has a way of repeating the same timeframes.
The two great dynasties of pre-Communist Russian history are the Ruriks, which consolidated the country, and the Romanovs, who ruled until they were overthrow in the October Revolution of 1917. The Romanovs specially built St. Petersburg as their capital, which we visited in the posting on this blog, "St. Petersburg And The Romanovs".
A number of Rurik Dynasty leaders were named "Ivan". The two best-known today are Ivan the Great, who was the first to refer to himself as the "tsar" (or czar) and his grandson Ivan the Terrible, who was the first to refer to himself as "Tsar of all Russia".
The Rurik Dynasty died out but the Romanov Dynasty didn't immediately come to power. There was a gap of fifteen years that was called "The Time of Troubles", and lived up to it's name. This was the period 1598-1613.
"The Time of Troubles" was a time of great instability in leadership, poverty and, foreign intervention in Russia. It was a time of a series of pretenders to the leadership, the so-called "False Dmitrys". "The Time of Troubles" were brought to an end only by the election of Michael Romanov as tsar. His grandson would become known as Peter the Great, and would build St. Petersburg as his capital, moving the capital from Moscow.
The Romanov Dynasty lasted until it was replaced by the Bolsheviks, or Communists, in 1917. The history is somewhat more complex than the Romanovs being overthrown by the Bolsheviks. Tsar Nicholas II had already abdicated, and was replaced by the Provisional Government which had failed to win the confidence of the people. That government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution of 1917.
The first Communist leader of the new country called the Soviet Union, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) was Vladimir Lenin. A "soviet" is a local council. Lenin was followed by Josef Stalin. The Stalin era was when the Soviet Union had to deal with the Second World War, and there were great purges in which countless people were executed.
After Stalin's 1953 death the country greatly moderated and liberalized under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. He was followed by Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev. After the death of Leonid Brezhnev, in 1982, the Soviet Union was led by two successive elderly leaders, who both had short tenures. These were Yuri Andropov and then Konstantin Chernenko.
The March, 1985 death of Chernenko marked the end of the "old guard" of Soviet communism. The economy was in need of reform. Chernenko was replaced by what was to be the first of the next generation of leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev, who initiated deep reforms in the system.
But Gorbachev's reforms would lead to both the end of the Communist system and of the Soviet Union itself. While the Gorbachev era would be a great time for democracy and world peace, it would be a difficult time in the Soviet Union. An attempted coup, by hard-line Communists hoping to save the system in August 1991, only hastened it's end.
Gorbachev's reforms faced opposition from the more liberal side, as well as those who were trying to save Communism. Boris Yeltsin had once been an ally of Gorbachev but while Gorbachev recognized that the system and the union needed reforming, Yeltsin resigned from the Politburo and publicly destroyed his Communist Party membership card and was willing to allow the Soviet Union to break up if that was what the republics wanted.
Russia had been the central republic of the Soviet Union. It became an independent nation, along with the other republics, when the Soviet Union broke up near the end of 1991. Russia was led by Boris Yeltsin who tried to lead the country straight from Communism into capitalism. The political instability and economic difficulties continued, and there was a coup attempt against Yeltsin in 1993 just as there had been against Gorbachev in 1991.
My thought is that Gorbachev's reforms were more about politics while Yeltsin's reforms were more about economics. Gorbachev was trying to preserve Communism, in terms of economics, by bringing in more democracy. Yeltsin definitely did not move the country toward democracy, he ordered tanks to open fire on his own parliament, but did move toward Capitalism.
Russia finally got back to stability with the advent of Vladimir Putin, who had been chosen by Yeltsin as his successor, in 2000.
Now here is what I find to be so amazing about how history repeats itself. The Gorbachev and Yeltsin years were a time of instability during transition between the Communist era and the permanent post-Communist era. Not only is this a repetition of the history of the "Time of Troubles" from 1598 to 1613, four hundred years before, but it lasted exactly the same fifteen years, 1985-2000, as the original "Time of Troubles".
We saw in the posting on this blog, "Why We Should Understand The Mongols" May 2016, that the Soviet Union lasted just about exactly the same amount of time that the Mongol Empire did.
Then there are the historical parallels of the prominent grandfather-grandson pairs, with the grandfather being the founder of the empire or dynasty. The two most prominent names from the Mongol Empire are it's founder, Genghis Khan, and his grandson, Kublai Khan. This is reflected in the two dynasties of Imperial Russia. The Rurik Dynasty had the famous Ivan the Great and his grandson, Ivan the Terrible. The two most prominent names in the Romanov Dynasty were the founder of the dynasty, Michael Romanov, and his grandson, Peter the Great, who founded the city of St. Petersburg.
This grandfather-grandson pattern does not repeat in Russia's Communist era, which was really a dynasty, because the leadership succession was not hereditary, but notice how Lenin-Stalin very much reflects Ivan the Great-Ivan the Terrible.
History tends to repeat itself everywhere but in Russia even the timeframes repeat themselves.
12) THE SERIAL KILLERS OF LONDON, ONTARIO
One of the greatest mysteries in the world is why such a nice city as London, Ontario would be known for it's serial killers. Admittedly I haven't spent a lot of time there but it has always been one of my favorite cities.
According to information online London, Ontario once had, for a period of about twenty-five years, the highest concentration of serial killers in the world, relative to it's population. This refers to the number of killers, but not to the number of their victims. It is believed that between 1959 and 1984 there were, at the very least, six active serial killers in London, Ontario, four of which were caught. These killers were certainly copying each other.
The utterly ironic thing is that, even during this time of the serial killers, London was considered as a relatively safe place to live. That makes this even more of a mystery.
Many attempts have been made to explain this concentration of serial killers in what is otherwise considered as a safe city. The explanations that I can see online just don't make sense to me. One explanation is that Highway 401 passes through the city. But every city has at least one highway nearby and it doesn't seem to create serial killers anywhere else. None of the killers that were caught were coming from elsewhere to commit their murders.
London is often used as a test marketing city when new products are introduced into Canada because it is believed to be an "average" Canadian city. For some reason this has been used to explain it's concentration of serial killers. But using most of the reasoning that I have seen Hamilton should have a concentration of serial killers too, but it doesn't.
The reason for the concentration of serial killers in London, Ontario is tragically simple. It is an ideal example of how history repeats itself. Understanding history is so important because we tend to repeat it, often without realizing it.
Let's begin with the name of the city. London, Ontario is named for London, England and seems to do whatever it can to imitate it. The river that passes through both Londons is the Thames River. The streets of London, Ontario are named for places in and around the original London. It once had a Crystal Palace that evoked the one in London, England. The main museum of London, Ontario is also designed to evoke the Crystal Palace. The city has a park named for Queen Victoria and a neighborhood called Sherwood Forest.
London, Ontario can be considered as a museum city of the British heritage of the English-speaking part of Canada.
The prototype of the modern serial killer is London, England's Jack the Ripper. In the autumn of 1888 he is documented as almost certainly being the killer of five women in the Whitechapel district, although some believe that he likely killed more.
Jack the Ripper was never caught or identified. There are a multitude of theories about who he really was. The killings attributed to Jack the Ripper stopped abruptly. I consider it possible that he died and that the police knew who he was but purposely kept it quiet. His victims were prostitutes and, in an effort to control prostitution, wanted prostitutes to be worried that he might still be out there, and their customers to be worried that they might end up getting blamed for the killings.
Certainly many other serial killers far outdid Jack the Ripper. There are two reasons that he is so well-known.
The first is that the widespread distribution of daily newspapers was beginning just at the time his murders were going on. The newspapers made Jack the Ripper famous just as his killings greatly boosted their circulation.
The second is the scandal that the killings caused in Victorian society. The British Empire was near it's peak and this exposed the underside of society that many in the upper classes pretended didn't exist. Belief in the Theory of Evolution had become popular and these killings set off soul-searching about what a godless society might end up being like.
Historical forces are powerful. With Jack the Ripper being so unfortunately famous, and London, Ontario seeking to emulate London, England, doesn't this make it seem likely that one or more serial killers should emerge in London, Ontario?
So much about the killings there bear some resemblance to those of Jack the Ripper. I am not claiming that any of the killers were consciously thinking of emulating Jack the Ripper but we tend to repeat history, often without realizing it, and this explains why such a nice city as London, Ontario became known for it's concentration of serial killers.
13) PUTIN AND HITLER
Vladimir Putin has, in at least some quarters, been likened to Adolf Hitler, with the "Z" on military vehicles in Ukraine being compared to the swastika. But this is a really interesting example of how history repeats itself. Understanding history is important because we tend to repeat it, often without realizing it.
Napoleon didn't initiate the French Revolution, which opened the modern political era, but he was what ultimately emerged from it. Napoleon conquered much of Europe, bringing the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire to an end. It was Napoleon's conquests that brought the pyramids and ancient Egypt into the modern consciousness.
Napoleon also invaded Russia. He actually got further in Russia than Hitler later would, managing to capture Moscow. Although Napoleon's venture into Russia ultimately ended in disaster.
What Napoleon did accomplish was to spread the ideals of the French Revolution across Europe, it sought the overthrow of the monarchy and was very hostile to the established church. Napoleon could not possibly have dared to imagine that, more than a century after his failed attempt to conquer Russia, a repeat of the French Revolution would take place there. It would result in the overthrow of the monarchy that had successfully resisted his invasion. It would be the October Revolution of 1917.
Hitler would later invade Russia, now the central republic of Soviet Union. Like Napoleon before him, Hitler's forces would advance deep into Russia but would ultimately be unsuccessful in conquering it.
But history tends to repeat itself and if Napoleon brought the ideals of the French Revolution to Russia, which eventually resulted in a replay of the French Revolution that overthrew the Tsar, then shouldn't we expect that Hitler would bring something to Russia that would eventually emerge also?
Indeed just as Napoleon, although failing to bring down the Russian monarchy by military force, planted the revolutionary ideals that eventually brought it down, so the Soviet Union that Hitler failed to conquer would eventually break up and the leader that would emerge out of it would end up, at least in some quarters, being compared to Hitler.
14) THE OBELISK AND THE REFORMATION
Does anyone see how the obelisk in St. Peter's Square led to the Reformation? Image from Google Earth.
The trouble with history is that it has a way of repeating itself. We sometimes purposely repeat history but more often without realizing it. The presence of the obelisk, brought to Rome by Caligula, caused the history of ancient Egypt, as described in the Bible, to repeat itself in the Catholic Church.
The Egyptians had the Hebrews as slaves, to make bricks for the incessant building that the Egyptians were doing. The Catholic Church copied this with the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Instead of having slaves making bricks the Church had people buying certificates, known as Indulgences, that their sins were forgiven. The money being taken in was used to build the Basilica.
Many people, especially in northern Europe, considered this as blasphemous, that salvation could be purchased. Moses had emerged, in the Book of Exodus, as a leader to demand that the Pharaoh let the people go. In exactly the same way Martin Luther emerged as a leader to demand that the Church reform. People were always being pressed to give money to the Church, but the money was being used to build this magnificent new basilica in Rome and so that Cardinals could live in palaces.
Instead of the Ten Commandments, on stone tablets, Martin Luther had the Ninety-Five Theses, nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg. The presence of the obelisk had caused history to repeat itself, with the Pope falling into the role of Pharaoh.
After Pharaoh had let the Hebrews go he changed his mind and sent a force to bring them back, which was destroyed in the Red Sea. History repeated itself in the Catholic Church, with the Spanish Armada being the sent to bring the Protestants back.
After reaching their Promised Land, the Hebrews divided the land among the Twelve Tribes. Likewise, instead of having one church like the Catholics, the Protestants divided into a number of denominations.
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