In movies set in the past, characters sometimes marvel at the wonders of “modern” ingenuity:
- “The new-fangled telephone will revolutionize our lives and guarantee more time to do what’s truly important.”
- “The miracle of plastic will save the world.”
- “With this cutting edge pill, people’s chronic pain will disappear without the thinnest threat of addiction.”
I made all those sayings up, but it’s safe to assume people have said similar things in years past and been applauded for seeing the future so clearly.
- “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” — Oliver Cromwell.
A friend of mine didn’t let me get away with a lazy observation the other day. Jay came from India to the U.S. He’s a naturalized citizen and a world traveler.
I said it feels like a civil war is raging. He said that if you look around the world, you’ll see real civil wars are far more horrendous than anything happening in our beloved country.
“How about a civil cold war?” I said.
“Yes,” he replied with a smile, “maybe that.”
Scientists say we’re primed to see the negative because it kept us alive back when our kind were potential food sources for wild animals. Bad things stand out because they could end a life that, up until that point, was going pretty darn well.
When a bush rustled, it was smart to imagine a lion ready to pounce. If it wasn’t a lion, you ran from the wind and looked silly. If it was a lion, you earned the glorious opportunity to witness another sun rise.
• “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” — Robert Frost.
So we have a negativity bias, the instinct to see threats and problems first even if it causes us to make mistakes.
I don’t think it’s controversial to say innocent people have been charged and convicted not because of their guilt but because powerful people wanted the case closed.
Let’s pray it doesn’t happen often, but the possibility of such gross miscarriages of justice explains why our legal system is so ponderous and frustrating.
- “It’s over, and can’t be helped, and that’s one consolation, as they always say in Turkey, when they cut the wrong man’s head off.” — Charles Dickens.
We also mess things up on a personal level. We don’t need government help because we can cause unnecessary pain and suffering all by ourselves.
• “Men are men, they needs must err.” — Euripides.
I’ve had people try to read my mind. That is, they’ve seen an action or a facial expression and interpreted what I must’ve been thinking
Mom did this a few times. We had arguments where I didn’t have to say a word. She assumed my side of the argument, and I was too offended to correct her. Looking back, that was my mistake.
- “Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.” — Freeman Teague Jr.
These quotes were written years ago, when people considered their fellow humans and themselves and realized how exceptional everyone was at going astray.
In our time, we’re busy piling mistakes on top of each other, but we’re only human beings. Later generations will judge us. All we can do now is realize we’re in this together and blundering toward an uncertain future.
- “It’s very easy to forgive others their mistakes. It takes more gut and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.” — Jessamyn West.
