We live in the mausoleum of history. It seems our people have no present, just a past filled with horror and a future we can only dream of.
I've heard these words in one form or another from countless wise men — like the primordial goo from which we emerged, our kind is destined to be destroyed. Even when we gain the technology to spit in the face of our cosmic fate and divert whatever civilization-ending asteroid lurks light years away, we seem compelled to destroy ourselves. This is where politics should begin.
Astronauts often return to Earth disillusioned that we squabble over resources on an infinitesimal rock rotating an insignificant star in the middle of an undersized galaxy that creates a tiny ripple as it flies through a universe that we can't begin to comprehend. Although war itself offers little besides inescapable horror, our fighting shouldn't necessarily be seen as entirely self-destructive. Humankind wouldn't be this close to finding salvation from rocks like the one that killed our planetary forebears if it weren't for advances in rocketry during the world wars or the satellite-fueled paranoia of the Cold War.
Like every animal on earth, our conflicts are the catalysts for advancement. Since we're too barbaric to dedicate enough resources to merely feed one another, it's not unreasonable to suspect that in a grander sense, we fight because we're still young. A cosmic teenager reaching out to touch our first moon, while fantasizing about our future in a tiny space station floating just above our atmosphere.
We're trying to figure out how to efficiently govern ourselves, and because capitalism seems to be the best we've come up with so far, America can be lauded for its humanitarian instinct to plant its seeds everywhere. It is difficult, if not impossible, for politicians to connect their policies to abstract consequences in our nation, let alone our civilization. That's why we shouldn't have disdain for our political foes, just the human understanding that none of us are capable of being exclusively right because none of us can know the future.
With the power to spread free-trade capitalism comes responsibility. If we truly believe our country has stumbled upon the best system of government humanly possible, we must remember that our actions today set a precedent for the future. And we have no idea which of our actions history will remember.
Unfortunately, most of our presidential candidates are falling far short of this dictum. They extol the virtue of government somehow "rebuilding the American family." They promote a philosophy that asserts government should act as an agent of social control. Republicans say we should do more than live under God, but what they really mean is whatever interpretation of the scripture is popular at the moment. Meanwhile, Democrats cower in meek protest, with a front-running candidate who has just enough conviction to say whatever seems popular.
If the United States is "right" and our vision of capitalism takes hold, is this really the world we want to inhabit? If so, our future will include a militarized space where we will learn to fight our new wars and a globally despised police force that conducts raids based on fabricated intelligence.
How can we expect the world to abandon radical religious politics when, as its leader, we insist that homosexual relationships are inferior based on little more than a Biblical inclination?
Whenever a policy so clearly introduces a scenario that isn't a sound example for future generations, we have an obligation to protest. This is why politics is our generation's most important study.
Strangely, President Bush and I share a similar globalist philosophy: There is no long-term future for the nation state and divided humanity will fall to its next major challenge. The difference is that he does not realize that the consequences of rash and brutal actions erode the already rough terrain that makes bridge building impossible. Plus, I don't think marriage's alleged sanctity can be threatened by love between two people of the same sex. By asserting government's authority to shape our culture, Mr. Bush implicitly facilitates the rise of the police state.
Perhaps I have misinterpreted the state of our species, and maybe we are trapped in an endless cycle of violence, and the wars of 2007 are no more "civilized" than the wars of 1907 or 1107.
Nonetheless, I am an optimist on Earth, and this is justified because our race has nothing to believe in besides our own potential and an unquenchable desire to believe.
Bassey Etim ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and journalism.
