Human nature will not change. I remind this to myself when I feel despair and the sense of “where is the world going to”? I know it sounds bleak, but it works.
It's infuriating some people whenever i say this, but it's funny to me - not the fact that people get upset, i wish they wouldn't - but that it takes so little to see the patterns, and any argument against this is futile.
History is written and accessible, and the patterns are there from the beginning of history. Human have always been destructive, violent, primal. We were animals and will be for the foreseeable future, so it's important to recognize and remember as we observe this terrible and terrific world.
And while history is never accurate, and even facts, when told in words, deteriorate and change over time as our interpretation of language and meaning evolve and change - we can learn so much from every human story.
Just pick a time in history and you'll find that you're reading the evening news, just different characters, countries, and languages, but they are all the same people, with the same emotions.