The Fallacy of “It’s Always Been This Way”

It’s amazing how many people subscribe to the philosophy that says what always has been will always be. The only time that’s valid, is when the cycle is at least as long as an old person’s life. We humans have a bad habit of forgetting what’s happened to our species and societies before. We tend to believe those who went before were stupid savages, rather than the intelligent, wise and flawed individuals who brought us to where all the wonderful things we have today were possible. We may have invented the most recent advances in the way we live, but the foundation for it all was laid by people who went before us.

Yet we continue to believe we’re superior to them in every way. We’re not.

The Romans were pretty smart, but their empire fell. It fell for a number of reasons, foreign conflict, too much relying on outsiders for the basic requirements of life, etc. Lots of mistakes brought down the Roman Empire, and we’re repeating many of them today. Yet we believe we’re smarter than they were.

We have people in our society and in our communities (maybe in our own families) who believe that since real estate has always gone up in value (it hasn’t, by the way) that it always will (it won’t). When you ask those people about how sustainable a system is that has housing prices going up faster than income is, they kind of break down and admit they’re hoping for their leaders to supply an answer to that. Those leaders are working on an answer, not just the kind of answer the ruled people are looking for. The answer is for the benefit of the ruling class. It’s important to keep that in mind.

For instance, if you look at Dick Cheney’s financial disclosure (available online), you’ll see that the Vice President is heavily invested in, among other things, Euro-based investments. The Vice President of the United States, according to his financial disclosures, doesn’t believe in the U.S. Dollar, and since he and his cronies can have a great influence on the health of that particular financial instrument, I pay attention to that opinion.

Sure, according to rules, it’s a “blind trust,” but anyone who believes Dick Cheney isn’t directing the investment of his money is just drinking Kool-Aid.

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