And this ‘linear’ sense of time, Eliade insisted, was a relatively recent innovation in human thought, one with catastrophic social and psychological consequences. In his view, embracing the notion that events unfold in cumulative sequences, as opposed to recapitulating some deeper pattern, rendered us less able to weather the vicissitudes of war, injustice and misfortune, plunging us instead into an age of unprecedented anxiety and, ultimately, nihilism.

— dawn-of-everythingch. 12

homeward-boundwk. 4: stand-up comedians & the "callback" - people love the callback because it affirms that the past means something. [TR: https://dougald.nu/remember-the-future/]