Overcoming the Monster

I remember my 10th grade history teacher, Mr. Olscamp, shrieking in a high pitch fitting for a role in MacBeth, "Those who do not know their history are bound to repeat it".

He was referring to the similar errors in judgement of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte.

The english word "history", is lent from latin with origins from the Greek word historia, which meant finding out or narrative.

The word story is a derivative of the word history or its predecessor historia.

The word story also comes from historia.
A story is a narrative on a sequence of events, whether real or fantasy.
History supposedly recounts only actual events.

Yet when we break it right down, history is nothing more than a series of stories. Are they factual or fantasy? Unless you were there, you can't be entirely sure.
Napoleon is credited with saying, "History is written by the winners of war".

What I have witnessed is that stories repeat.

They are told with different characters, different events, different locations. But there are only seven basic plots to any story. Everything else is a derivative of the seven plots.

Imagine a character who is utter evil. One who takes no prisoners. A killer. No love interests. No emotion.  The evil mission is the only thing that drives him. There is no internal struggle. He kills. He's mechanical, not maniacal. He will terrorize until he is destroyed or he completes his mission.

Who is the character?
Terminator (the first movie)
Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Drago (Rocky IV)
The shark (Jaws)
Voldemort (Harry Potter)
Jason (Friday the 13th)
Michael Myers (Halloween)
Bane (Batman)
Grendel and Grendel's mother (Beowulf)

These movies all recount the same plot. It's called "Overcoming the Monster".

Each story starts with a menacing introduction to the villain. The reader is afraid of him/her. He is introduced to the hero and the rest of the storyline details how the hero fights an epic battle until he defeats the villain.

History repeats. The stories change based on the narrator. But in reality, they are all similar in plot.

The stories are simply repeating. They tell the same story with a super villian and someone who is challenged to defeat the super villain.

In real life, we see real life monsters in "characters" like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden.

Has anything really ever changed? Or do we just like a good Monster story.