The Past Meets the Future

[coberst]

The Past Meets the Future

Recently David Brooks wrote for the New York Times an article labeled “The Past Meets the Future.

This was an imaginary conversation between Mr. Past and Mr. Future.

Mr. Past focused upon our failure to understand the past and in so doing we make egregious errors such as the Iraq War. He admonishes us not to take insane attempts to solve historical problems when such matters must heal themselves slowly in the course of time. He admonishes us to seek the happy mean, as Aristotle would say. He suggests that we just try to get by today and maintain some decent order that one thing will lead to another and we will all get by.

Mr. Future reminds of the Exodus story and how this story indicates what a people can accomplish if they never give up. Generational journeys are possible and they can account for revolutionary changes. The ‘Exodus frame of mind’ gives us the power to ‘move mountains’. Examples are M.L. King, Gandhi, and Moses in the Promised Land.

“Tocqueville gets at this when he writes that freedom "is ordinarily born in the midst of storms, it is established painfully among civil discords, and only when it is old can one know the benefits." The adolescence of freedom is painful, but what is the alternative?

I think that we are in a period that might be called a “fork in the road. If we do not find a better path into the future there very well may not be a future for humanity.

I think we have the capacity, i.e. brain power, but we lack the character and will to do the things that will lead to a revolutionary adjustment. This is, I think, a time when young people either get off their ‘intellectual couch’ ditch their intellectual ‘Twinkies and chips’ and get an intellectual life or their children my not have an opportunity.

I say that an ‘intellectual life’ is necessary but not sufficient for their future. I say that the day when the ‘happy mean’ is sufficient is dead and gone.

Hey, wake up, do you agree?

[Accountable]

I get frustrated when I see people try to find a quick solution to a slow problem.



* Get rich quick schemes

* 6-minute abs

* fad diets



Intellectually, they know that anything worthwhile and lasting takes time to achieve, but they're not willing to put forth the effort - or more importantly, the patience - required for such achievements.



So instead, for really important issues, they either give up or - arguably worse - compromise their values in machivellian pursuits.



* Abortion of convenience rather than sexual restraint

* Embryonic stem cell research rather than respecting others' beliefs

* "Creating" evidence to convict a suspect rather than following protocol

* Assigning undue importance and emphasis on evidence to justify war.

[OpenMind]

More is required than just an intellectual life. The most important requirement for any human is compassion. This, however, is something that can only be acquired through hard experience.

Intelligence is a tool for the compassionate and the discompassionate alike. Hence the importance of compassion without which all the intelligence in the world will not help us.

With compassion, intelligence and knowledge can be applied to bring about a life beneficial for all of humankind.

[coberst]

Open Mind

I agree.