Complexity and complacency kill. As you say, everything moves in cycles, and while it's easy to say that we "make the same mistakes", the reality is closer to "the same inevitable forces take effect".

Our societies are driven by emotion, and by reactionary forces. Revolution leads to expansion, which leads to consolidation, which leads to narcissism, which leads to complacency, which leads to inner turmoil, which leads to revolution.

I've recently re-read Asimov's Foundation series end-to-end, and his ideas of how an empire rises and falls, while quite clearly based on Rome, hold very true, particularly in today's world.

All we have now will ultimately end in ashes, and assuming we don't end up with an uninhabitable planet, something new, and marginally better, will grow from those ashes - but it will take time, and the setbacks will be enormous.

As long as we have humans making decisions, the same ideas will take root, the same feelings will be in effect, the same dichotomies of "us" and "them" will arise, and the instinct to hoard for winter will never subside.

The only way out is probably strict technocracy run by benevolent AIs - but it's not one that anyone is going to be willing to accept, as by doing so one loses much of what it is to be human.

Ultimately, you have to accept the bad with the good, enjoy what little life you have, and make your goal maximising the happiness of yourself and others - as there's quite literally nothing else to do.