don't think twice, it's all right

...And I feel like when we read history, we learn ways things can be done which -- worked (!) -- you know they worked, because you can read the history, or hear it from someone who was there, & see the results after.

We can take some knowledge and wisdom from history and implement it, so we're not always constantly trying to "reinvent the wheel."
(When I worked as a lobbyist, our state legislators used that phrase sometimes: ideas get brought up in the form of bills being sponsored, sometimes, by someone who's new to the legislature -- someone with more experience would point out that this idea has been brought up before, & here's what happened -- or the idea was brought up before and passed, and then here's what happened. And then say, "We don't need to spend time trying to reinvent the wheel, here."

[Then after the voters passed Term Limits, we had such a high percentage of newly-elected people all the time, the institutional knowledge was gutted and legislators in general had no concept of 'reinvent the wheel' and they'd run around reinventing all the time, it seemed -- getting "ticked," talking louder to seem more right -- reinventing the wheel so much that after a while they seemed to be simply "spinning their wheels"...all term limits does is lift power from the legislative body and distribute it between the executive branch and the bureaucracy.])

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A guy I used to know said to me once, "Why would I want to read history? That happened already, it's over."
(Merrmmfph.)
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Some might say, "Past is past; I'm only interested in the future!"
People talk about the future,
predict the future,
make plans / promises for the Future,
and they're all full of baloney.
The "Future" is blue sky.

Like in the 90s when nafta - cafta was gearing up. "The lower-paying, plain regular jobs are going to be sent overseas, while here in America, we're going to be highly-paid knowledge workers." (I'm serious, I know I heard that phrase "knowledge workers" -- maybe on CNBC -- and it sounded kind of silly and more importantly unconvincing, even to me, Not An Economist.) ...

Artists for some reason usually portray stuff in "the future" in a depressing light -- movies, books about the "future" -- I don't reademorwatchem -- too scary.

Meanwhile some business dudes (masters of the universe) and their selected economists will sometimes portray "the future" in happy, optimistic, glowing terms ("knowledge workers"!!) -- in order to sell the public on new arrangements which will be good for them and bad for us.

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