[September 27, 2025] I was sitting in the veterinarian’s waiting room to have my dog, Bella, have a blood draw. Amazingly, the room is crowded and there are another four Yellow Labs there, looking friendly. I’ve been thinking recently about lessons learned from the twentieth century, which should be obvious, but they are not. Few are as visible as we might ordinarily think. What are the greatest lessons from this past 20th century?
Now that I’m home, I looked up what those lessons might be, and I got mostly mixed results; often, the lessons listed were not really lessons for humanity but for hawking a product to sell. I’m not selling anything, except my two books (link here and here). All joking aside, what are those lessons worth talking about and can they actually make a difference in our lives today?
- Communism is a failed ideology with tragic consequences.
- Democracy triumphs as Globalization crashes.
- The Value and Dangers of Technological and Medical Advancements.
- Economics supersedes War as a Foreign Policy.
- The expansion of Traditional Education Lifts us Up and Out of Misery.
- Marriage and Children are the key to Survival: national, community, and personal.
- Judeo-Christianity is a Fundamental Component of National Success.
- The Advancement of Truth and Responsibility is a Core Component of Life.
- Even the Most Respected and Valued Institutions can become Corrupted.
- Private Property is a Motivator to become a Better Person.
Many will disagree with my list of the 20th century’s greatest lessons. I hope so, and that they will take the time also to list those they believe are the greatest. For now, I just let the list hang out there without comment. Later, I plan to write about each and state why I think any of these should be on the list.
There is one crucial lesson not on the list, but that lesson came in the 21st century. That lesson is that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion do not work and make our lives miserable. There are derivatives of DEI that are still hanging on, based on the emotional state of compassion, which continues in the West and destroys everything it touches. More on that later.
Please add to this list and explain why you’ve added a lesson from the 20th century.
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Great start, Gen. Satterfield. I think the computer revolution needs more discussion.
Sir, nice list. Let’s not forget the impact of artificial birth control measures. We have yet to fully understand either the social implications (both good and bad) or the biological impacts (same). The lessons are not yet fully learned , despite being readily available since about 1960. There are far more downsides to artificial birth control than we currently are willing to know or admit to.
Sir, great list. I would add one. I would add that a lesson from the 20th century is that love matters more than we may know. And that while love does not solve problems, it sure makes finding the solutions so much better. Please keep up the great blog posts for us.
DEI is definitively a 21st century FAFO.
I’ll say but there are plenty of school teachers and school boards who are clinging onto that piece of sh## to the very end.
Yep, good one. Excellent article. I look forward to Gen. Satterfield discussing these 10.
Forrest, while taht may be true, that DEI is a 21st century idea that blew-up education, its roots were definitely in the latter half of the 20th century. We will need to deconstruct this insidious ideology that supports it before we can better understand the long-term impacts. That ideology is feminism in all its forms.
Very good start, Gen. Satterfield. But I think #4 Economics supersedes War as a Foreign Policy is a 21st century idea and only got a real take off when President Donald J. Trump began to use it in the form of boycotts, tariffs, and restrictions on trade. Otherwise, I’m not so sure we would be where we are in the world. But, economics requires leverage and the USA has leverage by the very fact that we are the largest economy in the world. The old idea that China would overtake us was just a fantasy as we see them in decline today on a number of fronts. What China does is not important. They require large scale imports to survive, the USA does not. They require huge exports also to ahve the cash to buy imports. The USA does not. There are fundamental differences here and China has lived on the World Globalization idea for far too long. Time today to pay the piper.
Very good article, making me think.
#11. Advanced computing has helped refine our abilities to build better infrastructure at a lower cost per unit.
#12. DEI is dead. Ah, not a 20th century lesson but one that I think we knew before the 21st century. Older folks knew better than to try to make the lives of those who would trash them better.
Good point, Unwoke Dude. There are many more lessons but the trick is that a lesson is learned at a minimum cost. However, that is exactly what didn’t happen in the 20th century. We learned that Nazism and Communism is highly effective at killing and starving people. The misery is unparalleled. So, why do we still love Communism so much? That is something we need to address with historical education, little of which we do today. And we are paying the price of not teaching t,he horrific downside to Commuspnism.
Rather complete list of the big lessons. I’m glad you put the abject failure of Communism first. I would add all of Communism’s sister derivations. Like Socialism , Democratic Socialism (whatever that is), and Progressivism.
Yep.
Read Gen. Satterfield’s book ‘55 Rules for a Good Life’ for a better view of 55 lessons.
https://www.amazon.com/55-Rules-Good-Life-Responsibility/dp/1737915529/
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