What have we learned from the past, when

the gift of deceit released devastation and death
in the ancient city, rebuild and destroyed in Homeric tales;
90 per cent of indigenous people were killed
by conquistadors bringing European diseases to the new world;
religious struggle fuelled war across Europe for thirty years:
uniting, dividing, igniting people, then dying;
one assignation triggered a rapid chain of events
killing forty million people in pain, in torment and trenches;
one man released an evil curse on millions of innocent people
across continents, across cultures, across generations;
a political potential murdered more than two million individuals
to create a state of emotionless mute agricultural workers?

Ingenious deception can win any war
and biological warfare is a powerful tool,
Enlightenment does not reach the human core
and social trauma cannot be cured by dissolution.
Burned bones cannot carry any weight
and condemnation does not name the dead.

Is that all we’ve learned from the past?