Enslaved by the Past

Does your history, heritage and tradition fill you with pride and make you feel great? If the answer is yes, you might be sitting on a fallacy. 'Pride' is what you feel due to your  own achievement, not by ‘belonging’ to a group. You build self-confidence based on your self-worth. Taking birth, in a particular country or community is a matter of chance and not choice.

At office, a colleague said in his defence, "but, this is how it was always done in the past". To which another colleague responded "we need to learn from history, not repeat it". This sentence stuck with me and got me thinking: what is the utility of history, past, traditions and heritage?

Recently watching many discussions on ‘how great our heritage is’ I always remember what Ayn Rand said: “A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race - and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.” One can feel proud of what one has achieved and the change one has brought about. And one may feel 'lucky' about being born in a certain country. One is not obligated however, to defend whatever’s transpired in it. The only valid mission is the one that makes your present and future better.

Man’s faculty of judgement enables him to do that which is right and advocate it. Not because it is a tradition, not because it is done by his race, group or past. It is rationality which enables humans to regard each other as ‘thinking individuals’ and not as mere products of race and religion. When listening to someone, our mind immediately attributes the other person's motives to his background or community. But these generalisations could be based on our biases. A ‘bias’ is a sub-conscious judgement and often a poor substitute to thinking. We use our past, history, traditions, heritage, and personal experiences to form our biases about others. Doing what your community does, is the easiest way to belong and 'to fit in’.

Generalisations are convenient but dangerous. By defending that which is yours, just because it is yours, you miss the opportunity to assess matters with various viewpoints that others bring. We form our allegiance by looking at the popular narratives (the zeitgeist) and then we only look for things that reaffirm these beliefs.

 

The TV debates we see are a proof that our minds are preset and not open for judgement. The debates are platforms to show-off one's ability to collect and propound the arguments that favour one's stand. Each day, we have the freedom and responsibility to think rationally and decide what is right. In matters of critical importance we choose the easy way. The way of fitting-in. The easy way of being enslaved by the past.

It makes things worse because the prescriptions for future we derive from the past are taken literally. Being enslaved by the past, is being trapped in dualities i.e. in the us vs them. There is no neutral, progressive and futuristic option. If a barbaric act was committed hundreds of years ago, doing the exact opposite is not rejecting the principle behind it but accepting it and being enslaved by it.

We need to study the past and be ready to be free from it. Reconcile what was wrong by stating it. Take stock of the present using the latest knowledge and plan for a future that is not trapped in the narratives of yesterday. The only valid mission is the one that makes your present and future better.