Most of us didn't ask for the world we were born into, and if given the choice before we came into it, we probably would have changed a few things around. In this reality, however, it doesn't work that way -if we want to see a different world, we've got only a lifetime to rearrange things to our liking best as we can. In doing so we make our time here better, and set the stage for those who will come after us.
With only one short lifetime, it helps we get a good sense of who we are as quickly as possible -you can't do much to create a world that works for you if you don't even know who you are. And part of knowing who you are is where you came from.
What does that entail? Remembering major historical dates and names? Knowing the story of your genetic ancestors? Certainly those things help, but I know for my part I have trouble remembering names and dates that aren't immediately relevant to me (I hardly remember my loved ones' birthdays), and I know that for many, tracing back bloodlines is a fruitless or even impossible endeavor. And furthermore, even knowing your familial history is just one piece of the puzzle, incomplete without the greater context of the the world it inhabits.
In answering this question of where we came from, maybe instead it's most useful to examine the culture that has constructed so much of where we are now. In this sense, our answer will come not from our family history, nor from our history textbooks, but rather from the evolution of our culture examined from a broad, but inclusive, perspective.
This is where things get tricky. Our culture, which in the year 2012 has now taken hold in almost every region of the globe, has up until this point been driven by a very select few. Like captains on a ship or generals in an army, the decisions of these people, mostly wealthy, white, and male, affect everyone beneath them in the cultural hierarchy which has been so well engrained.
This fact is a disagreeable one in light of all of the damage that has been (and continues to be) done, but disagreeable or not, we all have a stake in this culture. A ship going down may claim the lives of captains and crewmen alike -the ocean is indifferent to rank, and so is this planet. For humanity, culture is the vessel through which we navigate the world, and right now ours is leading us astray. The captain appears to either have fallen asleep at the wheel, or simply gone mad. In either scenario, at this point we face a choice: jump ship and take our chances among the waves, or try to steer ourselves back on course.
The waters are looking mighty high, and I don't fancy going toe to toe with whatever sharks may be lurking in the deep. Alas, humanity's strength lay not in its brute force nor exceptional agility. We need the vessel, or at least a vessel, to survive. So the first thing we need to do is claim it as our own.
Such a claim will be hollow and useless unless we truly come to understand the cultural vessel we're in. That means knowing how it has shaped the world we now inhabit, understanding the full narrative that drives this ship. It means knowing not just what, but why.
I don't doubt that there are many different ways to approach this why, but for my part, I'd like to start with the beginning. I'd like to start with our beginning. Because regardless of our color, caste, or creed, we've all woken up now to find ourselves aboard a vessel that's carrying us forward through time. And we're lucky in one small sense -regardless of what has happened to steer us astray, this vessel was built for a very specific purpose: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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