Is history valuable?

History is not valuable, because it encourages us to imitate the ways of the past in our modern lives. This is a bad thing, because we as humans have continually developed as time has gone by. If we try to imitate the past, we will be taking a step back from progression. An example of this is Lance's prediction on the Ming and Qing dynasties' durations. He was wrong that they would only last a short time, while it infact lasted very long, lasting up to 270 years. Even though the dynasty endured a long time, the reason for their endurance was their cutting off connections with the outside world. If modern America tried to imitate this way of government, it would be a disaster, since we depend on global exchange and communication to be productive. For example, we depend on the import of foreign scientists from all over the world to advance scientific research, such as a cure to AIDS. Without these external resources, our productivity would be much slowed down. This is why history is not valuable in the modern world.