We do not learn from our own experiences. We do not learn from our own mistakes. We do not learn from history.

Yes, this is another one of "those" ruminations for which I have been accused of lingering over during my three years of writing here on the Web. Not quite a Jeremiad, but certainly another contemplation of the human psyche.

My pal, Terry Terrian, made it a point before his departure for Europe to tell me, repeatedly, the story of an ancient Greek named Hypoclieades. Where he ran across this Greek tale, I'm uncertain. But he provided it to me as a form of instruction, I believe. He had the audacity to tell me that I reminded him of Hypoclieades, which --- had any other person done so --- I would have been gravely offended and tempted to slug that person.

The long and short of the tale is that an arrogant and extremely wealthy Greek King decided that he would hold a contest, over a number of years(ten I believe), so that a suitable husband could be found for his beautiful and only daughter. During the period, the suitors would be fed and housed, but had also to agree to compete in various atheletic and intellectual competitions. As the years unfolded, Hypoclieades emerged as the certain victor.

The final night of the trial, his victory assured, Hypoclieades was in his cups. Wealth, a kingdom, a beautiful new wife were assuredly his. He was full of himself, danced on table tops, sang, recited couplets insulting all of his competitors and his host(in perfect iambic pentameter, of course.) The next day, the monarch, though grievously wronged and insulted, proclaimed: "Hypoclieades, you have bested all the others, step forward and claim your prize." To which Hypclieades responded: "No. I don't need it. It's all the same to me," and left the kingdom.

My friend Terry, never a master of subtlety, went on to drive the point home by stating that he saw much of that cavalier attitude in me. He recounted that, for hundreds of years in ancient Greece, whenever someone exhibited an overweaning hubris, people would comment, "It's all the same to Hypoclieades."

(At this point, Gentle Reader, wouldn't you want to slug the bastard?)

Ancient history.

Yet, there is so much to make me think of this tale: our national obsession with the cult of personality, as exemplified by the Tabloid Hart feature here at the GENERATOR 21; our present Constitutional crisis created by the peccadilloes of a President who has imprinted this fin de siecle decade and his personal version of Javert, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr; and the personal and private shortcomings of my own life and those of my closest intimates. WE DO NOT LEARN.

"Our" BOB POWERS did us the service of reviewing two excellent(though very different) books on scandalous suffragette Victoria Woodhull a few months back. I was so impressed by the pieces that I have made it a point to look into the books and Woodhull's story.

Even if I had never cracked any other tomes, and specifically avoided histories, these two books alone would serve to put lessons learned into perspective.

The sad saga of Woodhull's life(and especially the Tilson-Beecher trial and its aftermath) alone would be enough to make any reasonable person feel that much of what we experience today, the focus tawdry sexual scandals, the brilliance marred by arrogance and optimism, the trails of destroyed lives, are not NEW to the human experience.

The lessons to be taught should be as clear as the Mesopotamian on Nebuchadnezzar's wall:

1. You can fight City Hall, but expect to lose.
2. Nobody ever lost any money underestimating the intelligence of his peers.
3. The Rich and the Old Boys Club always succeed in the end, right or wrong.
4. Taking the "Alternative" approach to society[publishing, as the G21 does; relationships; life] is a Sure Loser.
5. Cash is King.
6. Believing in a Meritocracy is a Fool's Errand.
7. The Golden Rule and other religious nostrums were made, and spread far and wide, in order to keep the poor from being too bothersome for the rich.

Think about these ineluctible laws of human existence, this passed-on wisdom, as you look at the crisis at the White House, but also as you live your daily life.

Try to determine how easy it is for you to accept the evidence of your own eyes, why don't you?