Recent Repetitions Of History

History is so important because there is a strong tendency to repeat it. Sometimes the repetition is intentional but we often repeat history without realizing it.

IS AND ASSYRIA 

This week was the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of the Islamic State Caliphate. Has anyone noticed how history repeated itself? Here is something that I have never seen pointed out.

IS was known for it's barbarity, brutal public executions and killing people by the dozens or hundreds. But what do you notice? The territory occupied by IS, in Iraq and Syria, is close to being the same territory occupied by the Assyrians in ancient times, who were especially known for barbarism and brutality. In fact the IS Caliphate was announced from the city of Mosul, which was the site of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. 

Might this be just history repeating itself or might IS have done this on purpose? Knowing that the history of the region goes back to ancient times and that there is a strong sense of history, IS could have been trying to get themselves subconsciously linked to the power of Assyria which was practically irresistible, at least for a couple of hundred years. 

Whether or not IS was linking themselves with Assyria purposely it is not the only such example of history repeating itself in the region. During the Crusades there were Christian orders of knights that protected and assisted pilgrims to the Holy Land. These are the Knights of Malta, the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller and, the Knights of St. John. The Islamic militias in the area, most notably Hamas and Hezbollah, are repeating this history. 

THE FRENCH FAR RIGHT 

The French political far right, led by the Le Pen family, is periodically in the news. It recently won a significant political victory. But why would the far right be so prominent in France, which is generally a moderately socialist country? 

There is a simple answer, and it involves going back into history. France had a royal family for a thousand years. The event that opened the modern political era was the French Revolution of 1789. The king and queen, of the Bourbon Dynasty, were overthrown and guillotined. What ultimately arose out of the revolution was Napoleon, although he had nothing to do with initiating the revolution or executing the king and queen. Napoleon would end up being the prototype of the modern dictator. 

The Bourbon Dynasty made a comeback after the time of Napoleon, this time as a constitutional monarchy bound by the constitution of the republic. The House of Bourbon was replaced by it's cadet branch, the House of Orleans, before the French monarchy was finished for good by the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848. 

But as we saw in the posting "The Theory Of Kings", April 2022, monarchy is the way that society has been run for thousands of years. Kings are not going to just go away. In fact they haven't gone away at all, we just don't usually call them kings anymore. Kings today are often seen as rightward leaders that "act like a king" and typically don't show a lot of respect for democracy. 

The far right that is so prominent in France is effectively the return of the French monarchy. There is the book-length compound posting "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015.