Towards Janusian Societies
Towards Janusian Societies
Understanding History Is Key to Civic Life
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I’ve been finding myself thinking more and more on how leaders and societies use the past. Some would embrace it in totality, forcing us backwards to a perceived golden age whilst stymieing the progress we have made. Others would bound forward into the future, paying little attention to what has come before, obsessed with “the new”. Still further, the vast majority I would posit have little consideration of either of these extremes, content (or forced by circumstance) to remain wholly in the present. None of these positions is tenable because societies and their leaders need the wisdom of the past to moderate the quest for the future, in the hopes that both could improve the condition of all us in the present.
A society, after all, is only the sum of its people. As a species, we (that is Homo sapiens) have evolved - both in physique and thought - through our successes and failures, each informing the direction that the next generation is to take, usually (though not always) towards the most literally fruitful outcome. This is what we might call “genetic learning”, whose goal is the propagation of the species. But a less talked of counterpart to this learning is “historical learning”; that is the ability to record, remember, and act upon past information for the benefit of future human flourishing. It is less cold, less merciless, than the biological version: tempered by our better natures.
Many today are not aware of the past. Only 13% of 13-14 year olds in the US is versed in US History, whilst amongst my generation (Millennials) 66% cannot identify what Auschwitz was. That this is a failure of education is apparent, and whether more sinister motives are at work is unclear (nothing being as pliable as an ignorant populace). Regardless, these individuals exist in an unmoored present, unable to gain knowledge from both former triumphs and follies, nor able to apply that knowledge in a manner that could encourage human development. Without the map that the past provides, societies themselves become rudderless rafts. Their peoples scramble to stay afloat, with no way of navigation; for how can they read the perils written in the currents, the flows of time appearing so opaque without the guide of history?
These communities would thus proceed, Janus-faced, having learned that civilization is not a machine with levers that are pulled to realise results, but a living organism…
How can a strong understanding of the past not be considered essential for those engaged in civic life? How are citizens, how are leaders, to form logical answers to societal problems if they lack examples from which to draw? No child would be expected to grow and thrive in the world without the experience and example of parents or guardians. So too, no citizen can be expected to function fully without a grasp of what has come before - so that they may understand how past actions led to particular outcomes and thus consider the consequences of their own actions in a like manner.
Being thoughtful about the past and considering it carefully, one can emulate its strengths and cast off its foolishness to craft equally thoughtful societies. These communities would thus proceed, Janus-faced, having learned that civilization is not a machine with levers that are pulled to realise results, but a living organism whose thriving is dependant on the knowledge of what is beneficial and harmful to that organism, and the wisdom to not repeat previous mistakes.
Educating all with the faculty to understand and interrogate history might result in a citizenry aware that, above all, it holds society (and indeed the world) in trust, stewarding it with reason and doing so passionately. Such citizens might prize leaders who, using that same knowledge, can subtly tilt us towards brighter shores.
The past, albeit very different from today, is a roadway to the future. We owe it to our descendants to come, to the potential of what humanity could be, to all learn from those past societies and their peoples. History cannot be considered a closed book: it is written by each of us every day of our lives. We must make sure whatever history is written in our names is one we know will secure the future of humankind.
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