MOSCOW

“MILLENNIALS AND THEIR Successors really need to study more history, because I am sick and tired of hearing that this atrocity or that disaster has changed the world forever. It hasn’t. Indeed the world hasn’t changed very much since the last Ice Age.”

Professor Tacitus Gibbon of the Yes, It Really Is All About Dates And Events School of History at Herodotus And Thucydides University in Magaluf says modern Western knowledge of what came before is in a shocking state of disrepair.

“They know more about a Galaxy Far Far Away than they do about their own past. What a pity there was no focus on history at Hogwarts. Look, there are changes across the timeline of history, but often what appears to be major turns out to be far less over time. I cannot emphasize the importance of time when considering history. Remember, Jews have been contesting that strip of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean for three millennia. For much of it Judaism had been virtually expelled from that piece of land, a few thousand left there. God knows how many of those who call themselves Palestinian are actually the descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity and then Islam. Tax breaks played as much a part in the latter than any adherence to faith.

“Iran – it used to be called Persia – was a major player in the Middle East during the Greek and Roman period. At one point Christians used to have a large presence in the region. The only major change in that neighborhood in the last two thousand years, is Islam. But empires have come and gone there since the Sumerians. Indeed, the Turks, whose empire collapsed a century ago, may be returning to the game once more. Further north and west Europe lost its position in the world over two world wars, but the continent has reorganized itself. It didn’t go away. It’s power was reduced, that’s all. Even the war going on with Russia now is nothing new. I cannot count the amount of wars and empires that have passed through those lands – Mongols, Russians, Swedes, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, British, French, Italian.

“The British still practice the same foreign policy they have followed since the French threw them out of Europe in the 15th Century. If they cannot control the continent they make sure no one else can. Hence the attitude to an ever-closer European Union.

“China is in one of its unity periods. To probably be followed by a disunity period.

“The newest major player on the world scene, the United States, is a breakaway empire, founded by Europeans as an act of revenge by the French on the British. It is too soon to say whether it has any longevity. People there still look back to their origin countries. That means the sense of Americanism is fragile. And there are pressures as between the cultures, and from the huge post-Spanish Imperial culture to the south.

“Human life spans make people want things that happen in their lifetimes to be significant. Modern humans – being very narcissistic – virtually demand that everything that happens to them is earth-shattering. Not the case. Take an airplane and fly over ancient landscapes, see the outlines of long ago. Perspective. Perspective.

“Bibi Netanyahu may well invade Gaza, but short of killing everyone there, it will have the same effect as a hurricane. And it will pass. Revenge has a short shelf life.”