Much of my previous posts relate to memory, a record of the past. On the surface of it memory is one of the less complex cognitive modules of the brain, but I’ve been fascinated by it for years. For one thing, like most things that seem to be simple, when you examine memory fully, it turns out to be multifaceted and complex. As for the past, their is  a raging controversy regarding whether  history should ignored, or carefully examined, and it has nothing to do with that trite statement about being doomed to repeat the past.   Is there anything to learn from the past?  Not everyone agrees.  Coming from a background that generally reveres history not only because I am curious about where I came from and how I developed, I have been taught to honor my forebears whom I would like not to forget. Whenever I leave this earth, I would like to know my life served some purpose.   I subscribe to  Einstein’s model of history  in which each of us stands on the shoulders of those who carne before.

There is a lot to the argument that what is new hasn’t stood the test of time. New music may be entertaining but even if we like it, the effect will soon wear off. On the other hand music of Beethoven has been buffeted by events and has stood up to many generations. That many of us are still affected today after 250 or so years, is a true measure of greatness of the work. By the same token maybe Bach’s music being older, should be respected more. But you could say, maybe not, as perhaps Beethoven’s “newer” music was better in the first place.  Beethoven had more musical technology at his disposal, better instruments and music advanced with time.  When it comes to these two I like the guy I happen to be hearing at the moment.   Many people take the argument of age to an extreme maintaining for example, that the Pentateuch being older than the rest of theHebrew Bible takes precedence, which is more of an authority than the New Testament which is younger. It is  hard to say something that is merely older is necessarily better. Older ideas are frequently outmoded and arecast aside as the Ptolemaic model of the solar system was swept away by Copernicus and Galileo or the old medicine of Hippocrates and Galen being replaced by science.  Still it is  important to have some knowledge of the past, like observing how anatomy unfolds in the embryo.  As biological organisms, it seems crutial that we were not just made whole like a Ford car. The past inseparable part of our present. We don’t come ready made, but develop. That we develop and are not merely produced whole by some factory says a lot about intelligence and our conscious state.

Other people I meet have an exactly opposing point of view and while I personally don’t conventionally think this way most of the time, I  often find their arguments convincing. Much of the past is outmoded and worthless, they seem to say. Has any of us been so successful that we shouldn’t eagerly seek  what’s new?  Predominantly persons who take this tack are young but they also tend to be disaffected. Generally they are not happy with the status quo which to them requires major change. Change seems to be most appealing in political campaigns but how can you know what’s valid if it has not been tested?

But on many counts those who want change may be right. Religions are unshakable beliefs that divide us, long outmoded and ought to have been cast off in the distant past. Many people in authority think in stereotypical ways which stultify change and the betterment of us all. They are the gray headed men who will never give up power.  So quite a bit depends on your mood at that time and ultimately whether you see the past as fundamentally evil or as maybe as a scaffold to build upon. Should you wish to throw away everything, if you are consistent, you’d better be prepared to depend on your own smarts, and maybe live entirely “off the grid” and without relations, the comforts of home, regular meals and shelter, and culture.  We will meet you in the woods somewhere if we ever see you again. Ted Kosinski or Charles Manson. What I mean here, if you reject it all, then you are throwing out lightbulbs, electricity, computers, antibiotics everything.

I wonder about this as I write these words. While I have a large store of things I have written in the past, the nice thing about a blog such as this, is that it allows me to write on the fly and post without much ado, much different than the old days where you had FTP protocols and things had to be planned and preprocessed. Deciding not to use my old stuff is a little like deciding whether build anew or  tear out the kitchen and bathrooms. Obviously, repairing the old is costly. Why not just submit something new? That is what I have decided to do. Please excuse it being rough around the edges.

The Mind of Man in the Mind of the Eternal