Record

Technorati Tag(s): History, Opinion

Nature and weather experts keep foretelling unbearable heat in the future because of the Green House effect. Melting Poles. Chaos.

Analysts predict that war and/or natural calamity might simply wipe off our race.

History suggests that an ice age is in the neighborhood.

History suggests that an extinction is also in the neighborhood.

They know all of this.

Then they accuse you of being a pessimist.

All of our politics, our tastes, our emotions, do they matter in the big picture? Do you know what a 7 year old kid who lived, say a hundred years ago, felt, liked, hated, wanted, in, say, Cape Hope? Not just any seven year old kid--we're not generalizing personal thought--but a specific one.

I don't.

If we know something of someone, it's because they left a record that was found.

You see, the desire to show your life might be typically narcissist, but without it, there would be no recorded history.

We don't think that what we do everyday--those small things like brushing your teeth with a toothbrush--are noteworthy, but I doubt if the Harappan civilization thought much about making clay pots. The knowledge that they did make pots is important to us future explorers, because we can, knowing that fact, form a suitable chronological progress line of technological advancements.

Who knows, the next sentient race after us might one day pick up your toothbrush from an excavation site and wonder what it is; then refer records--books, more importantly film--and place the object as a toothbrush.

The point is, we're never really sure if we're making history or just doodling our way to oblivion.

The point is, none of the races before us knew that, either; they still willingly or unconsciously left records. They had no idea if their records would survive--or at least that's my opinion--but leave footprints behind they did.

The point is, if they hadn't left anything, we wouldn't have found it. And that is a good enough reason to leave our own record. We might not live forever, but our essence--however tattered and unfinished and obliterated--just might.

Our future might be shaky, and we might not be able to do anything about it, but our future's history is in our hands.