When someone says "history repeats itself", they don't mean that events are destined to follow a repeating pattern for eternity, they mean that humans have an inherent nature that will repeat itself unless we make an effort to change it.

Like, the reason we learn history is so we can identify the mistakes our ancestors did and make better decisions that will lead us away from repeating them.<br><br>Instead of thinking of it as the world being a never-ending loop, think of it as a branching tree that constantly grows. While the root stays the same, the tips of the branches change. History repeats itself until we manage to change the way we approach certain events and make different decisions.