Very well put. One of the most profound insights I received in my formal liberal arts education (outside of my technical training) was about the nature of history. I was taught that history and its interface with the future, the present, is the result of forces and trends, things happen for a reason, but not for any particular purpose. There is no great conspiracy, there is no cabal of evildoers pulling strings in the background. And there certainly is no Justice League fighting for what's good and right, either. For the most part, shit just happens. History is the aggregate result of everyone maximizing their self interest. The present is the integral of the function up to now.

This doesn't mean that there are no evil people, or that there are no conspiracies and cabals manipulating things behind the scenes. People do like to take advantage of the situation. But these are all localized events and social forces limited in space and time. And what's really scary is that the most undeniable villains somehow manage to convince themselves that the selfish pursuit of their own self-interest is justified by reason, patriotism and civic virtue. Even Hitler fancied himself as working tirelessly for his people, and Pol Pot felt he was helping bring about the Worker's Paradise. No monster ever conceives of himself as a monster.

There is no cycle of history leading inevitably from one step to the next, no
barbarity-slavery-feudalism-capitalism-proletarian dictatorship-socialism upward spiral. There are at best a few general trends and patterns that arise from our biological nature, our psychological makeup, our cultural heritage, and our current collective organization. Any attempt to impose an overall order on them is the amazing capacity of the human brain to perceive patterns where none really exist.

This point of view is anathema to the True Believer, who needs a foul enemy to justify the establishment of his own prejudices at any cost, a devil who makes total war an absolute necessity, a moral crusade.

No I'm not counseling that we should just drift with the flow. We can all contribute something to the Great Experiment, and sometimes, we can even see the result of our contributions on the lives of others. And of course, we do have a moral obligation (whatever that means) to oppose injustice and work for greater understanding. I am not a pacifist, sometimes one must fight.

But beware he who claims to have all the answers, and all the virtue. That is one of the very few human claims we CAN confidently say is dead wrong every time, all the time.