[Clint_E]

Your concept of projection onto leadership would have some merit if there was no such thing a mass media and consequently an easily swayed public. Perhaps the city-state of Athens would support your view. But see, that is the weakness of your 'sunk treasure' view of history. How in hell do you know where to go if you refuse to remember where you have been?? How would you know if you are entering a minefield if you refuse to acknowledge that your missing leg was due to entering that same minefield??

[monocle]

One avoids pitfalls by what experience and analysis one has gained, but that does not mean attempting to rectify that which one can't - the past. History may be the prologue of the future but it is not the future.