If history is our teacher, what kind of students are we (if any).

Drawing lines nurtures divide and conquer. Divide and conquer continues to fracture until chaos ensures.

What will Mr. West learn from the financial lines drawn. Will he turn to / attract other sponsors who support his rhetoric? Sure he’s lost major corporate sponsors — sponsors who left based on what? Peer pressure?

When Mr. West’s sponsors sue him for lost revenues — now the sponsorship game changes.

Morals are tricky creatures. Morals evolve based on norms.

Example. Less than 50 years ago tobacco smokers didn't think twice when or where they light up. Social cultural norms initially accommodated smokers with the advent of ash trays. Today, smokers in some parts of the world are relegated to specific spaces intended to accommodate their desire to smoke. In some parts of the world smokers are shamed when they light up in spaces that they once enjoyed smoking freely.

When norms evolve to embrace learning from historical lessons, then history truly becomes our teacher. Until then, history is but a scoreboard tracking which extreme is fading and which extreme is rising.