having *knowledge of history leaves you no better *prepared for the future
Yes and no, Musick.
Philosohpically, I believe you are absolutely right, but not so much in practical terms.
Contrary to the "popular saying", history never repeats itself, nor would anyone really expect it to, if they thought hard about it. Each event has a different set of conditions - often, different people involved, and always, the world has changed since last time. Even the people, if the same, have changed to a greater or lesser extent. So, *to that extent, you cannot reliably predict any outcome.
However, when events are temporally close to each other, and the personnel and other conditions are 'constant', the likelihood of an identical outcome (or one so nearly identical as to not make a difference, in practical terms) is very greatly increased - possibly to the point where it is 'safe' to make a prediction.
(e.g., I bang my head on the wall. It hurts my head and doesn't dent the wall. If I repeat the experiment on the same place of the same wall within a few minutes, there is an overwhelming chance that it will still hurt my head and will still not dent the wall.)
