Afrasianet - Laila Nicolas - Durant's final lesson is that lasting victory lies in the "trace" of civilization; true civilization is what brings together the fragments of human heritage to bequeath it to future generations as a beacon that protects humanity from "slipping back into barbarism."
In a televised speech, Benjamin Netanyahu quoted from Will Durant's historical book "History Lessons" a much-debated phrase about "Genghis Khan's superiority over Christ."
"It's not enough to be moral, it's not enough to be just," Netanyahu says, "and unfortunately history proves that Christ has no superiority over Genghis Khan. Because if you are strong and ruthless and powerful enough, evil will prevail over good, and aggression will prevail over moderation."
Remarkably, by reading the important philosophical book by Lowell and his wife, Ariel Durant, Netanyahu distorted the ideas of the book to serve his narrative of the use of excessive and brute force and to justify genocide by pointing out that evil triumphs over good, and that Christ's values about humanity have no place in history, ideas that are completely contrary to the book and the conclusions contained in it.
What is in the book "History Lessons"?
At the beginning of his analytical study of history, the author poses a fundamental question: Have you found in history merely an amusement for the stories of the rise and fall of nations?
Or did you draw any enlightenment from it for our present situation? While history is awash with the names of conquerors who built vast empires with iron and fire, the question remains: do they represent "victory" in the existential sense, or are they merely biological symptoms in the context of a power struggle?
Durant proceeds from the premise that "history is a branch of biology." In this grand laboratory, states are subject to the same laws of "natural selection" and the struggle for survival.
Hence his phrase: "Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and evil; they define good as what survives, evil as what perishes; and the universe has no prejudice against Genghis Khan."
In this description, the book makes a "realistic" observation of the workings of material history. Material power, with its armies, economies, and technology, is the arbiter of "momentary" conflicts (as Durant reaffirms), and states that ignore the logic of power and settle for moral idealism often disappear at the feet of the more "adaptive" and cruel rising powers.
Nevertheless, speaking of the impact of Christ, he points out that the moral development brought about by Christ became a tool for the destruction of ancient theology: "Just as the moral development of the Greeks weakened their faith in the feuding and adulterous gods of Olympus... The development of Christian ethics has slowly eroded ancient theology. Christ destroyed Yahweh (meaning that the moral image of Christ destroyed the image of the old vengeful God)."
He returns in the final chapter entitled "Is Progress Real? Durant incorporates the impact of Christ as part of civilizational immortality.
Durant sees "material victory" as a quantitative and spatial victory. Genghis Khan, Alexander, Napoleon; these have achieved spectacular material victories, but they are "time-bound" victories.
Economic and political history is a cyclical pulse between a "contraction" that mobilizes wealth and power in a few hands, and a forced "extroversion" that dismantles this centralization when it exceeds the limits of social capacity or possibility, making decay an inevitable tax on the imbalance between efficiency and justice.
In the book's general philosophy, the author points out that material history is "a grueling repetition of the mistakes of the past on a larger stage." Countries that are only financially victorious leave behind ruins and graves, but they do not necessarily leave a lasting "meaning."
This kind of triumph is described by Durant as "baroque"; that is, it breaks rules and patterns for a while, but it does not change the essence of human nature, which remains competitive and greedy.
Later, at the end of the book, Durant moves from a "realist historian" to a "humanist philosopher," where he proposes the idea of a "permanent victory" that transcends military power.
In his dissertation, Durant concludes that "great civilization does not die completely," but remains alive as a "life-affirming tapestry" of human history.
Citing the classic model of the transition of Greek civilization to Rome, he asserts that "permanent victory" is not military but a "cumulative process" of ideas, values, and aesthetics. In his view, true progress is not measured by material or technological strength, but by "increasing the abundance, preservation, and use of this heritage."
Durant concludes his vision with an optimistic outlook that goes beyond historical materialism: for him, history is not just a "record of crimes and sins," but consciously transforms into a "heavenly city" and a "vast homeland of reason." In this city, saints, creators, and philosophers remain alive, while the "generals" who have left nothing but ephemeral power go into hiding.
Durant's final lesson is that lasting victory lies in the "trace" of civilization; true civilization is what gathers the fragments of human heritage to bequeath it to future generations as a beacon that protects humanity from "sliding back into barbarism."
Laila Nicolas - Professor of International Relations at the Lebanese University.
