We don't stop to think about it often, but we're in a remarkable spot in the universe and in time.
Our home is a planet set far apart from other possible, but yet unseen, domiciles of other creatures. We can see pretty far these days, but there is no sign yet of another inhabited planet even half so well suited to life like ours. For practical purposes, we are alone.
We have many indications that our home planet has been here for quite a long time, subject to the definition of long, and time, held by different people. There is no indication that that time might expire soon, considering that it has not expired for quite a long time before us. Uniformitarianism is a comfort and a friend, reassuring us to look beyond our own limitations.
We as dominant creatures, however, are here for a relatively short time. We are transient, in the best sense of that term. There have been others here before us and there will be others here after us. For now, we are here, and what a view!
Our home is a planet perfectly suited to life for carbon-based life forms like ourselves and the creatures with which we share it. We have here a wide variety of temperatures and climates along with the power to create year-round microclimates within our homes to suit our most persnickety wishes and whims.
In this Anno Domini 2022, we have the ability to move around, even beyond our immediate home ranges, choose our diets, choose where and how to live, and to create or destroy.
We seem to be capable of full self-awareness (for those paying attention to such things) so that we can see and judge ourselves and others. That means we can observe ourselves and our dilemma here. We have discovered education and can gain knowledge, although that is a process that must be repeated more often than we seem to get around to it. That means we can makes lists of choices and use any wisdom we might retain to choose among them.
From this self-awareness there has developed an ability (on the part of some people, at least) to reason and to discern truth, then to separate it from error. This capacity for reason has not had all the bugs worked out of it yet, nor has everyone become aware of its benefits, but it's there to be used and improved. People in every era don't have to go back to the days before it began to be cataloged to construct it again. Like the wheel, it's a concept other people worked out while we only have to become aware of it and learn to use it. We have the concept of "improvement." That's going to come in handy, I'll predict.
We have developed a broad-based history. Over some considerable time, 5500 years or so, we have become better and better capable of chronicling what has gone on before. Historical artifacts, then written history and biography have given us an improving, but still imperfect understanding of the past. We have inexpensive ways to store and retrieve the knowledge, thanks to Gutenberg and many others, like Ottmar Mergenthaler, my personal favorite. Not so long ago we were taught that historical knowledge doubles every generation. I'm sure that interval has shrunk dramatically over the past thirty years, making the prospect of finals and orals even more daunting that it was for my generation. More importantly, it makes the task of sorting verifiable and relevant data from the other stuff all the more important and, lamentably, less likely. Our planet has seen many great events and no small number of lamentable ones. We know about both kinds. So far, someone has always been willing to write stuff down so we can pick over it later, except when the court house burns.
We have pretty good knowledge, but there are still plenty of things we don't know. There are important mysteries that remain unsolved. It's important to have intellectual challenges with us all the time, to keep us from getting the bighead too much. ‘Think you're smart, do you? What have you done to bring about world peace?' That one always backs them down, at least a little. The guys who actually did bring about world peace, Richard Cobden and John Bright, aren't around any longer, more's the pity. That's why education is important for every generation.
Okay, okay. I hear the philosophers out there mumbling that I got to history before I got to philosophy. I admit that philosophy is the only discipline broader than history, but I'm an historian, so just get over it. Write your own column and cover this stuff in any order you like. I'll still insist that until you can look up what happened, knowing what it all means isn't real useful. Broad-based doesn't mean useful. That's one of those philosophical chicken-and-egg arguments. We'll stick to the real stuff.
Here's a bone for the philosophers out there. From our standpoint in AD 2022 we have competing philosophies and religions here on our orb. These philosophies have developed over a lengthy time frame, accompanied by historical documentation to help us understand their effects. People may choose among these to enable or solidify their belief systems.
We have religious systems both developed and revealed. We have historical documentation to help us understand belief systems, too. We may choose among these, at least according to some beliefs. Other systems posit that we have no free choice and must fit into a belief structure determined and defined by others. Take your pick!
Our world includes fascinating cultures, costume, and food. We can choose from these, too, and use them to understand each other better, or we can use this knowledge to divide us and exaggerate the differences.
We can choose with clear vision to defend our freedoms or sit idle while others take them away
Some countries and philosophies have chosen freedom as the best way for people to live. Many of us think that this freedom and faith is the key to every benefit that we enjoy on this earth. But even in our country, founded in the searing light of the Enlightenment, freedom is under attack. Many of us choose to live here or choose to stay here because of this freedom. Others, in disturbing numbers, seem bent on extinguishing the freedoms so many enjoy. Even using our reasoning capacity, this is hard to understand, especially from people who have grown up with the same benefits.
The choices are at hand just when we need them. We can stop thinking and questioning and follow people who would lead us astray or to places where only they will benefit. Having chosen and reaffirmed freedom in the past, we live in a place where freedom has come under attack. We can choose with clear vision to defend our freedoms or sit idle while others take them away.
We are present on our planet at a dazzling time, one of the peak moments in our history, and at or perhaps near the peak of the run of Western Civilization. What a perspective we have, what a view! Let's hope it isn't just past the peak.
So here we are. In light of our remarkable situation, what's the next right thing to do?
Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II, may be ordered from Indiana University Press.
