Historical patterns do not determine future outcomes

Evidence

To stress the unhappy relevance of this half-forgotten period for contemporary events does not mean, of course, either that the die is cast and we are entering a new period of imperialist policies or that imperialism under all circumstances must end in the disasters of totalitarianism. No matter how much we may be capable of learning from the past, it will not enable us to know the future. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 33

Categorization

• XREF: A methodological caveat relevant to how the Islamophobia field should use historical precedent without deterministic claims. — connects to: Statistical models cannot anticipate events outside their sampled historical range — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 112; The inevitability of history is an illusion of hindsight rather than real determinism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 216; Historical templates shape post-transition decisions because they are cheap and credible information. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 133 (+1 more)