History notes

History is interesting, and sometimes instructive. I'm not sure whether to classify these as lessons learned, or rules to apply. "Embrace the power of and."

1. "Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved." People are screwed up everywhere.
2. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." That's a really good rule, but you can find exceptions. There are people with the integrity to handle power. I say nothing about their personal lives; some of them have been seriously unpleasant. But they managed their public responsibilities correctly. The problem for the rest of us has been that there's no way to accurately identify these people--volunteers should be instantly disqualified--and as sure as Absalom this kind of integrity isn't a hereditary trait. (Possibly this is because because their screwed-up-ness can manifest in family relationships, or possibly because noblesse oblige is wildly unpopular among the entitled.)
3. Maslow to the contrary, the most powerful human need is for self-justification. This means histories need to be read carefully. I tend to trust warts-and-all histories a little more. Sometimes. I'm not sure how far I trust Procopius.
4. The virtues and skills that successfully build a tribe or an empire aren't the same as the ones that successfully maintain it. Sometimes they militate against stability--think of Alexander the Great.
5. In a related feature, the virtues and skills needed to attain power are not at all the same as those needed to use it well, or even necessarily to hold on to it.
6. Corollary: wisdom is not needed to attain power. It might even be a liability.
7. Some people hunger and thirst for power. They make it an end in itself, and are very dangerous.
8. In dangerous times, people will put up with evil characters, provided those evil characters are on their side. They will make tradeoffs--"We'll forgive those crimes and give you X amount of land if you'll stop the invaders from killing/enslaving us." It is very easy to judge their decisions from a point of safety.
9. "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time..." A lot depends on how long you need to fool them.
10. People love magic words. By and large they don't think too hard about what they mean.
11. After a generation, nobody remembers benefits, but everybody remembers injuries. Generally the forgetfulness is faster than that.
12. Mobs are fickle. Rulers are even more so. Don't even ask about courtiers.
13. Rulers can't trust anybody. Nobody should trust them.
14. One goodie today is worth ten tomorrow.
15. Tribalism is the default setting for human relationships.
16. People are pretty much the same mix everywhere, but different cultures value wildly different things. Lots of groups have (and some still do) valued "killing non-persons and taking their stuff." As a more innocuous example, Western individualism isn't that common around the world. If you don't appreciate that, you'll never understand them.
17. Some cultures are worse than others. Even the bad ones have some virtues anyway. They wouldn't survive if they didn't. It is stupid not to recognize those.
18. History is a wonderful opportunity to look at your own culture's values.
19. What the rulers want doesn't always match what the common folk want. One famous example is the US Civil War. The leaders of the South were explicit about what they wanted. What they urged the common folk to fight for was something different.
20. Religion is extremely important. It is the center of a civilization. Rulers find some religions easier to turn to violence than others, but they usually find a way. Atheism has been even easier to manipulate.
21. In dangerous times, it is not fun to be a woman. And often in non-dangerous times too--it depends very strongly on the culture.
22. Sometimes providing an option to your enemy to let him back down and still save face works. Sometimes it doesn't.
23. UPDATE: Even slaves have to be taken into account. If there's nothing in it for them, you have to spend lots of effort to keep the oppressed oppressed.