Past, present and future form a continuum

A couple of statements I’ve made lately fall under the umbrella of a quotation found at the very bottom of this long, long page.

If you haven’t read it, here it is (saves you a trip):

"Past, present and future form a continuum in which each generation inherits a world shaped by the actions of its forebears and holds it in trust for all generations to come." (The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki)

Now, about the actions of those that came before us.

From Land Of The Eagle by Robert McCracken Peck:

“To many New England colonists, the path to prosperity on earth and in heaven was the same. It involved transforming the ‘remote rocky, barren, bushy, wild-woody wilderness’ of North America into a ‘second England’. With hard work and prayer, the Puritans believed they could fulfill God’s command to subdue the earth. In so doing, they would also recreate a comforting, understandable piece of home in a hostile and alien land.”


["From my secret National Gallery files": photos by GH]

About other early Europeans Peck wrote:

“Most of the new arrivals viewed the land as something to be possessed, controlled and transformed. (Many native tribes held the view that the land did not belong to them, they belonged to the land). They saw the Indians’ semi-nomadic lifestyle as shiftless, and their lack of defined ownership as a sign of primitive barbarism. Only with active management, they believed, could nature be made truly productive. So they set about reshaping the land in Europe’s image: trees were felled, fences built, and the land cultivated to Old World specifications.”

The principle of subjugation, not conservation, began its reign.


["Also from my secret National Gallery files"]

And from A Short History Of Progress by Ronald Wright:

“If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature. Ecological markers suggest that in the early 1960s, humans were using about 70 per cent of nature’s yearly output; by the early 1980s, we’d reached 100 per cent; and in 1999, we were at 125 per cent. Such numbers may be imprecise, but their trend is clear - they mark the road to bankruptcy.”

To some extent, the above passages come to mind when I write such statements as -

Live small and prosper

Get small before you get low

Reduce spending, pay down debt, save money for tough times ahead.

***

Past, present and future do form a continuum.

What can we do better now to ease the challenges of the future?

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