As
I proclaimed the other day on 9/11 out of sorrow and actuality - sadly history
has shown us and time is proving out "we do forget.” While understandably many people took this as
a criticism of the times we live, I was expressing a much bigger picture. There are dates that should live in infamy
and moments of history that should never be lost, that are relegated to the
history books that nobody reads. These
events live in the past that we cannot relate to or empathize with. And the further we are from them the more we
have ease and tranquility, as if no such event had happened.
But
what does this mean for our understanding of the past and actions in the
future?
I
am not the first to express such a sentiment.
We can see this in one of Adam Smith’s earlier works “Theory of Moral
Sentiments” which he wrote around 1759.
In chapter three of that book he goes on to describe the struggle of one
man’s empathy with two different incidents.
“Let us suppose that the great empire of China,
with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an
earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no
sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon
receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of
all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy
people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of
human life, and the vanity of all the labors of man, which could thus be
annihilated in a moment. …And when all this fine philosophy was over, when
all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his
business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease
and tranquility, as if no such accident had happened.”
Now
speaking of that same comfy man, but this time the news – a forecast of great
personal pain – hits closer to home.
“If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow,
he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore
with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his
brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object
less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.” - Adam
Smith Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
Is
this no different than a generation that lived through a crisis that reset a
cultural’s thinking to several generations later that are removed from those
events and live as if that accident never occurred.
One
of the major consequences of this is that we not only do not remember history
but we do not learn from it either. As a
culture finds tragedy and a reset - that impacts a generation - it is brought
together and the thinking is we shall never forget. But while history is circular,
it is partly because time is linear and moves forward bringing a culture
further and further from that event.
Truth is as generations come and go – we do forget. We know of the life changing event of the
past but it no longer changes our lives today and the lessons are softened or forgotten
as well. The cost of this is that we end
up repeating many of those same mistakes and drift back towards the next crisis
or reset – completing the cycle.
As
I proclaimed the other day on 9/11 out of sorrow and actuality - sadly history
has shown us and time is proving out "we do forget.”
While
we are beginning to see the slight fading of the true impressions of September 11,
2001 we are also seeing the lost lessons of past cycles.
I
leave you with a very brief exert from my latest book “Cultural Cycles: Examining
the History of the United States – Why it Repeats Itself, and the Next Looming
Reset”. I hope you read it, if for no
other reason to better understand what and why we see the sins of the past
being relived today. Maybe just maybe we
cannot fully emphasize with our past but possibly we may be able to learn
something from it.
“Everyone in this era is both farthest from and
closet to a Reset. Most were born after the prior Reset and – like something
that is occurring clear around on the other side of the globe – you may
empathize but you can never internalize. Much like the telephone game, as the
history lessons get passed from one phase to the next, it loses it purposes and
feeling. At the same time, there is a growing pessimism of the direction we are
going and warning signs of what is to come. Sadly, though, the usual wisdom of
the Sage is unheeded, and the youth are so far removed from the past that any
warning signs go ignored until we are past the point of no return – and as far
as history…we are doomed to repeat it.” – Eric Wilson Cultural Cycles 2017
learn more about the book and even pre-order a copy @ http://www.culturalcycles.com
