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There are three ways you can look back at history:

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1. Chaotic \u2013 \u201chistory has no path. Events follow one another randomly, and any effort to impute meaning to their whrigling succession is hopeless.\u201d
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2. Linearism \u2013 history as progress, \u201cthe belief in indefinite scientific, economic, and political improvement\u201d, linear time is a unique (and usually progressing) story with an absolute beginning and and absolute end.\u201d
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3. Cyclical \u2013 repetitive, \u201ctime is endless, yet also endlessly completed and renewed, propelled by elaborate rituals resembling the modern seasonal holidays\u201d
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In, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy, Will and Neil make the claim that history is cyclical. And they provide many examples from the ancients.

Season 4
\nEpisode 5