Posted by
Virginia Daddy on Monday, May 19, 2008 11:25:03 AM
I am reminded of a quote a history professor of mine loved to use: "Should we say that although the world changes, it changes slowly; or that although the world changes slowly, it does change?" The quote, by Carl Becker, raises an interesting paradox within the study of our past: while the world does change, what is the nature of the change?
I won't pretend to speak definitively on the topic, as I don't think it is possible to speak with such authority. But I think it is useful to consider the changes we have seen in our history to better understand our present. How does the world change, quickly in short bursts or slowly over time despite seemingly big events? How, then, does this process explain our current situation?
I'll start backwards, answering first the question of what our situation is at the moment. It seems to me that in the early part of the 21st century America, we are in a place where there are more questions than answers. We have people searching for definition in any number of places. We have a huge and increasing number of answers for these seekers, and few seem to be convincing, only adding to the questions. Socially, people seem to think there are right and wrongs, but defining those is subjective and fear offending others. Politically, we see two trends coming together. First, we see something resembling hatred to the other side and second, we see a disdain for such hatred. Reconciling these opposite tendencies is where much energy is focused. Spiritually, there is little definition, as whatever one deems acceptable is considered most important, as long as that "truth" is not forced on another.
Our present situation, therefore, I would define as somewhat chaotic. It is difficult to pin down exactly where our society is and where it is heading. For each piece of news, we see another piece with something different. That said, the trend in our politics and legislation is to allow the chaos to reign. We see laws that continually expand what was once thought taboo by allowing behaviors and thoughts previously frowned upon by society as a whole. In a word, we are more liberal.
How, then, did we get to this situation? Without placing value on our current state, how we have arrived here following decades, arguably centuries, of developing thought. I do submit that our current state is a product of hundreds of years of developing thoughts and ideas. I do submit that our arrival at this current state of seeming chaos is the result of slow change. Despite the seeming frenetic pace that we see around us, the current state is the result of a build up of ideas rather than an immediate explosion.
A book could be written, and probably has been, that discusses this development. To give a few sentances I'll say that looking back to the beginning of the Renaissance, with the growing curiosity that the early scientists brought to Europe, we see the seeds being sown. We could even expand to Greek and Roman times, and other cultures of the Middle East and Asia to see these ideas beginning. Questions of our existence, and questions about the world around us are not new, and thus we see a slow build up to our present state.
What is happening, now, though, is important, as doubt has seemingly crept into our lives. This is a new word in this discussion. People are so inundated with information, they doubt what is true. On the surface, this seems like a new trend. But I wonder if it really is. And this is where we run into the discussion of the world changing. Numerous examples can be cited to suggest doubt has been prevelent prior to our present era. Going backwards: Vietnam, the World Wars, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, the Revolution, Colonization. Each of these times, just in our own history, created a sense of change that greatly changed our society and the philosophies within. In fact, the end of WWI alone was a period of hugely radical shifts. Having gone through the 19th century and a number of years of plain and simple growth and expansion, where many thought we had moved past the need for war, such a devestating war destroyed their vision of the world.
One could argue this was a huge shift in the world, but just the same, we could have been returning to a prior state. So it is now. While we have so many new challenges and so many new ideas, the end result is not terribly different from where we were in previous eras. While people now seek to find a "post-partisan" government, or a free and productive society, it is not much further from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle or Fitgerald's The Great Gatsby. Or even further back, is it far from The Leviathon or the Social Contract?
No, I would submit, that we are not. And what application might this have on how we view today's world? I view it with reserved optimism. We face huge questions, but the answers will work themselves out, and time will keep moving. The decisions we face will have profound impact on our lives, but we also have seen such problems in the past, and each time, we move on. And when we move on, we sometimes have great difficulty, war, oppression, poverty, etc. But always, the greater good prevails and the extreme is vanquished.
(Note: I do not advocate a stay out of it course. We need our voices to be heard, and our presence, as conservatives, is necessary. But we ought not to despair, as I expect the experiements of the left in regards to abortion, gay marriage, and any other cause of the left, will fail. When they do, we need to be there to pick up the pieces, and ensure the world continues to change.)