The cycles of history
It is up to us to determine whether our descendants see our moment in this cycle as a turning point that brought them joy, or mourning. This is the second in a series of year-end reflections.
“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
This quote of uncertain provenance, often attributed to Mark Twain, seems the perfect introduction to a reflection on how history informs the current moment.
Human experience is cyclical. Driven by the seasons and the daily transition from day to night and back, cycles repeat themselves in our understanding and imagination. Yet every circuit is punctuated by an equally common longing for change, a desire to break the cycles that feel destructive or meaningless.
And here we are, witnessing events in real time that are certain to mark historic eras: a global pandemic, a last-ditch effort to moderate climate change, massive demand for equity and reckoning with systemic racism, and an attempted insurrection that impeded the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in the life of this young democracy.
Both of our major parties appear deeply unable to rise to the moment. One party chooses complete obstructionism and sponsorship of conspiracy theories, hostile representations of violence, and undermining of faith in elections. Both are far too beholden to large donors to break out of the cycle of gridlock and inaction.
We have been here - a version of here, anyway - before. Our history as a nation founded on the deep paradox of promoting a groundbreaking idea of equality alongside intentional exclusion of certain folk from that equality is still with us. We are in another cycle of arguing about who is “in” and who is “out,” who has the right to vote and make independent decisions about their health care, who has the right to access the halls of power, who truly stands equally before the law.
We now face an existential challenge to break the cycle of gridlock, power-, and fear-mongering; to rise to the occasion and begin our next cycle at a new level, a deeper commitment to equality, to inclusion, to an ethic of care. Future generations will reflect on our moment as a turning point in the ongoing cycles of history.
It is up to us to determine whether they see it as a turn that brought them joy, or mourning.
I am grateful for your company on this journey.