Friday, August 29, 2014

The Cycles of American History

 Dr. Dan Eichenbaum - Autumn PATCON 2012
 
Because our lives are short, we tend to see history as a linear progression of events, evolving from what we personally know from our own past, that we then project into the future.

Historians and students of history, however, understand that history is cyclical. The linear progression we see for ourselves is only a small section of greater repetitive cycles that last for generations.

The people of our nation have now been purposefully pitted against each other along racial, financial, and political lines, a division that will, likely, never heal. These divisions are, for the most part, real and have a basis in history and fact. They are part of the normal human condition. In any population, people have different abilities, aptitudes, skin colors, sizes, strengths, etc. Our founders, recognizing this, gave us a system of government that created equal opportunity based on individual effort and responsibility . . . not a guarantee of equal outcomes.

What has changed is the deliberate creation of hostility and animosity.

1 comment:

  1. Indeed. There is a season for everything and there is nothing new under the sun.

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