Page 7 - Discover Summer 2023

meaning; rarely have such profound words been it is. Tragically, one component of human nature
so often repeated in vain. The sin of human is the notion that we as individuals, or in our
pride, conceit, is the vehicle by which we allow own select groups, are clearly superior to other
ourselves to believe that we have superiority over individuals and groups. This manifests itself in
nature and its laws. our view of preceding generations. We cluck our
tongues and chide our forbears for their human
Try to imagine a youthful generation that
weaknesses, as if somehow, we are immune to
reveres the wisdom of its elder generations.
them ourselves.
While such a paradigm no doubt exists in the
world, it is outside the sphere of dominant Yet, despite our self-aggrandizing spiritual
culture. Youth, by its nature, is rebellious. Woe evolution, we all need to be “brought up”, or
to the parent who is not prepared for this “raised”. New babies are born every day, and
eventuality. they develop all of the normal human traits over
time. Not all of these traits are good and noble;
Indeed, woe to the culture that imbues its
else, there would be no need for parenting. New
youth with unprecedented credibility, as our own
parents who fancy themselves better equipped
culture surely has. Lack of life experience endows
to raise a child than those who have spent years
young people with an inordinate sense of their
refining the process often amuse me. They shun
own wisdom, for in their own limited universe,
the advice of their parents and grandparents,
many of their “enlightened” notions have never
who somehow managed to raise them in spite of
previously existed, and are therefore “new”.
overwhelming ignorance.
Few would dispute the claim that hindsight
This is not to say that parents of adults are
has 20/20 vision. Fewer still seem to connect that
perfect; it is just to point out that their progeny
idea with the aforementioned Santayana quote. It
tend to believe it of themselves. Therefore, the
is easy to look back on events in the past and pass
new parents approach their job with an inflated
judgment, since the outcome of those events is
sense of their own enlightenment, and the
undeniable.
inherent goodness of their own child. Eventually,
When we look back at the darker moments they get a huge dose of reality.
in our history, such as the Spanish Inquisition,
The sad truth is that we are all composites
or the Holocaust, our hindsight immediately
of both good and bad thoughts, feelings, and
grasps the concept of the abject horror of these
intentions. We deny this at our own peril. Good
events. It fails to apply the inherent lessons of
people (with the exception of the Virgin Mary
history, because people have a tendency to rush
and Jesus himself) are not born that way. Their
to the judgment that “we are more enlightened
character is the result of their own conscious
now.” That’s easier to accept than it is to realize
decision to choose to be good, assisted by many
that tyrants do not market themselves as such.
environmental influences. Even at that, they all
Some mask their insidious intent behind noble
are subject to the temptation to act badly. To err
intentions in order to gain power, and others
is human.
become corrupted by the power that they later
acquire. The answer lays not so much in choosing In fairy tales, the monster is pure evil and
leaders wisely, as it does in denying them the ugly in appearance. In the real world, there are
power to control us. beautiful monsters everywhere. They have a
tendency to flourish in environments where some
The truth is that to be truly enlightened, one
people believe that their leaders can effectively
has to embrace the concept that we are not.
use road signs to tell wild animals where to cross
Human nature is what it is, and despite our
a highway.
fantasies to the contrary, it will always be what

www.discoversmithmountainlake.com 5