“We post-modern humans tend to think that technology and evolution are moving the ‘creature that reasons’ forward. We have, after all, landed a man on the moon and conquered the scourge of most of the ‘old’ diseases like measles, whooping cough, smallpox, polio, the plague, etc. Surely we have evolved into a more civilized species. We’ve had relative ‘peace on earth’ for the last 40 years, that is to say, no world-wide wars.” (1) Are things finally looking up?
Before we assess whether America as a community is moving forward or backward we would have to assess both the outward evidence and the evidence “within.” “The number of Americans who receive Social Security Disability Insurance for mental disorders has doubled during the past 15 years.” (2)
“Those who see history for what it is, a story, may come to realize that it has always been thus. We get up each morning and create fundamentally the same story as we did the day before which becomes ‘our story’ and we expect it to change but it never has—and it won’t—until we admit that we have grown weary of the old story, the old identity and the old catastrophic behaviors.” (1)
“The Bush administration opened with a second Pearl Harbor [9-11], ended with a second Great Crash [The Great Recession of 2008], and contained a second Vietnam [Afghanistan/Iraq] in the middle.” (3) Does history repeat itself? It’s worse than that—it never changes—so it doesn’t matter whether we read it forward or backward. For more insights that will support those of us who are willing to make profound changes in our story click on the link below.
Insight # 124: The worst that can happen to a human being is to allow oneself to be swept along by the “lights” of reason. Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis)
Link:
- “History, Time and Progress” in this blog and also in print version, The Human Community, pages 41-46. (1)
Reference:
- Henry, Roy Charles. The Human Community. Simple Reality. October 2016, pages 42, 95.
- Rampell, Catherine. “The Half-Trillion-Dollar Depression.” The New York Times Magazine. July 7, 2013, page 14.
- Frum, David. “Who Decided?” The New York Times Book Review. October 20, 2013, page 12.
