"the victors always write it" - that is so true! And the literate. The voiceless have little voice in the past beyond archaeology; their bones do speak sometimes.

Yes, I'm with you on the inspirational quality of many "stories" in history. I can easily see how my adult character had its seedbed in my childhood love of explorers sailing into the unknown and heroes whose (noble) thoughts put their bodies into peril!

I think Man does move forward (in time and technology) but agree that we seem to have progressed very little in the wisdom of using either the time or the technology for anything other than the instinctive feeding of primitive appetites (which you could call selfishness and egotism).

No wonder we enjoy our hard-working, responsible Gackt as a relief, eh?