Time is On Our Side … Really? - Ask It Basket
September 8, 2008 by Randy
Filed under Ask It Basket, Christianity, Civil Rights, Culture War, Current Affairs, People
Jay S. writes:
Why is it that time is the permission of our day? When we hear the phrase “This is 2008″ which is usually stated after a statement about a particular behaviour or act, why does time allow for liberal thought and actions? Is this an obvious answer - or is it just an excuse?
GREAT question and while it is probably out of my league … I’ll give it a shot :).
I honestly don’t think it is just a liberal issue. The declaration of time carries with it and underlying assumption that as time progresses so does wisdom and understanding in every avenue of the human experience. Usually people assume that their own opinions are manifestations of that progress. I have noticed an underlying conceit that moderns are somehow more wise and intelligent than of generations past.
On one hand, time being a barometer of progress is true. Who would have thought we would be where we are at technologically a hundred years ago? … or even twenty years ago. The sciences and medical fields have also progressed in a similar manner. We could come up with a bunch of different examples of how time does bring wisdom, understanding and progress. But my guess would be that most of those would be found in the objective disciplines and inventions. When it comes to personal and social progress the human track record is full of hills and valleys marking great gains (MLK and the Civil Rights Movement) and great horrors (WWII, Islamo Fascism.) On the personal and interpersonal levels … we are all over the place.
Morality, intelligence, social paradigms and relational wisdom however is a different story. It’s these personal attributes that I believe are being referenced in the following scripture …
Ecclesiastes 1:9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
I am by no means a “wise” person … have you seen some of the silly stuff I post on here, Twitter and Facebook? But from what I have seen and experienced there are stages to personal progress that every human faces and has to learn for themselves. Education leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to understanding. Applying/testing that understanding with resulting reflection/analysis can bring wisdom. But of course if all of that isn’t pursued without reverence for God … it often leads to people thinking themselves wise and/or “above” the intelligence and frailties of the past. They might also take a superior stance to their peers that looked at all the same evidence and came up with different conclusions.
I am apt to say (and probably have), “You’d think in this day and age we wouldn’t blah blah blah …” when I personally think that something is a no-brainer. But I really don’t think I should because of the unspoken self-sufficiency assumed to be able to make that kind of a statement.
And as always, I reserve the right to be wrong :).
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