By Dan Hazen / Herald Forum
I’ve been thinking about the Paradox of Theseus: the problem of whether a ship, which over time, has every plank replaced until none of the original ship remains. Is it still the same boat? If not, when did it become a different boat? Many more head-scratching questions follow.
Smarter people than myself have been unable to agree on an answer, so odds are I won’t find one today. But perhaps we can say that there is at least something of the boat which endures. Maybe it’s corporeal and we just haven’t discovered it yet, or maybe it’s something like “spirit.”
Whatever your view, around 500 years ago, the civilization we call “The West” emerged, and each successive generation of Westerners has replaced the previous one like planks in Theseus’s ship. But people are not planks. Each generation was freighted with deep influences from their ancestors, thereby altering the overall shape of the ship of the West, so that the culture we now occupy is not just a copy of the Enlightenment Culture of the 17th century, it is an evolution. Exploration became exploitation, independence became individuality and gratitude became greed.
We become aware of this metamorphosis by looking backward and comparing ourselves to what we were. The temptation is then to make corrections to our path forward based on those observations. The problem is that no one is looking forward. We’re speeding down I-5 at 70 mph in reverse. If you’ve ever tried to steer a vehicle at high speed in reverse, you know you begin to over-correct and mistakes amplify until disaster brings the trip to a sudden and violent end. Monarchies were “corrected” by revolutions which lead to capitalism or communism, both of which are “corrected” by despotism, which when polished up a little, is just monarchy all over again. Now we’re really swerving back and forth, faster and faster.
So, never look back? No. Just recognize its limited worth. Your rearview mirror takes up only 3 percent of the area of your windshield.
There is a dearth of visionary leaders in the West (in politics for sure, but in churches, culture, education and even technology). Instead, we have a cadre of panicked internet personalities at the wheel, yanking it left and right, terrified that past errors repeated will cost them personal power. No one is charting a reliable or just way forward and I have come to believe it is no longer possible. The car is out of control. Leaders have piled one failed correction upon another until the whole operation is so huge and unwieldy that it has it’s own momentum, and turning the wheel no longer makes a difference.
Healthy, lasting cultures cannot be built on corrections of the past. They must be built on vision, and they must be small.
So, if we become aware, it’s like being thrown clear of the careening vehicle. As we roll to a stop, certainly bruised and cut up, but not seriously injured, we can stand up and see our surroundings for the first time in 500 years. We can slow down and focus on what’s beneath our feet and who stands beside us; the people who are literally within reach. Then, together, we can take stock of what’s next.
Love your neighbor.
Dan Hazen lives in Marysville and works in Everett.
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