Although individuals in
our society suffer from this fear of the future; rather, our culture seems to
suffer from a fear of the past and/or a fear of the present. If not a fear of
the present and past, then certainly an addiction to the future.
Indeed, we are about to
celebrate this addiction with New Years Day. New Years Day: a day on which we
resolve to make changes (for the better) in our lives, a day on which last year’s
calendar is taken down and a new one hung up, a day on which we look to new
beginnings and anticipate the good things to come.
Our culture is almost
predicated on the future. It’s called progress. And progress we must.
Progress is good, progress is the epitome of modernity. Progress proves the
worth of our society and culture. We measure it with growth. Growth in the
economy primarily; growth in prosperity, growth in technology, growth in the
GDP.
‘Grow,
grow, grow’ is the
rallying call of progress and our addiction to the future.
But, what are we
running from? What are we running towards? Why is the future more important
than the past, let alone the present?
Originally progress
simply meant to take a forward step. Since the 1600s it has come to attain the
sense of moving towards something better.
We must ask though,
better than what? Importantly too, we must ask, better for whom?
Our (westernised) sense
of time with a past, present, and future is moulded on a seamless, linear
concept. Non-westernised cultures, however, conceive time in more circular, or
spiral, ways.
Vanessa Machado de
Oliviera notes that this seamless, linear concept of time is one of the
promises of modernity. But, there is a violence in this promise. It is, states
Oliviera, ‘resting on the delegitimation and elimination of other knowledge
systems.’ 1
Our (westernised)
concept of time and the notion of progress underpins European
colonisation as well as exploitation of nature. Our (westernised) notion of progress
too often includes the ideology of defeating nature; the conquest of nature
as it has been labelled.
Ironically, our
addiction to the future ensures that we are unable to recognise the harms that
are done to other people and to nature. We are so focussed on looking to the
future that we fail to notice the harms that become manifest in our wake.
Furthermore, our
addiction to the future can stymie our individual human development. The human
development journey consists of various stages. At each stage there are lessons
to learn, skills to be acquired, and concepts to be incorporated into our
growing understanding of ourselves and the world.
One psychologist who
has mapped this developmental journey very well is the eco-psychologist Bill
Plotkin.2 Without going into details of his map, Plotkin does note
that of the eight stages, most westernised people get stuck in what he calls
patho-adolescence. However. Plotkin, and other similar psychologists claim that
it is always possible to re-visit earlier stages (even in later life) to learn
and incorporate the lessons from earlier stages.
But, our future-addiction
inhibits this. The future, in modernity, is always better than the past, it always
brings with it improvement. Returning to an earlier time, or stage, is an
admission of failure and a worsening of circumstances.
Such future-oriented
thinking is a mistake. Ironically, being focussed on the future prevents us
from growing as a human.
So, as we acknowledge
the New Year let us begin the process of overcoming our fear of the past and
present. Let us start to overcome our addiction to the future.
Notes:
1. Vanessa Machado de
Oliviera, Hospicing Modernity, North Atlantic Books, Berkely,
California, 2021
2. See especially, Bill
Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul, New World Library, Novato, California,
2008
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