2023-03-01

• Last time, I wrote (basically) about how, page-for-page, history books contain more useful wisdom (for me) than religious texts. Where does this kind of thing come up? Of course, the answer is “all the time”. That’s not super helpful, so let’s be specific. One area where the wisdom of history comes up over and over is around basic social norms. Let’s say you live in a culture that discourages wastefulness. Doing something considered “wasteful” is met with scorn/criticism. And this response is nearly universal and somewhat independent from the level of wastefulness. For example, let’s say you went to the grocery store and picked up a package of blueberries, but you didn’t realize you had some blueberries already in the fridge at home that need to be eaten. Naturally, your spouse or roommates would be critical of these events. They would, very reasonably in this framing, characterize what happened as wasteful and, thus, bad. You can probably imagine them saying something like “how could you make such a basic error?!?” with more than a hint of frustration and incredulity in their voice. Sure, standard stuff here. What does History have to do with this? Well, History would remind you that, yes, what you did was reasonably considered wasteful by your peers. And yes, for many millenia, wasteful decisions have, on regular occasion, received the criticism and scorn of the community as a consequence. But that’s not all history would tell you. History would remind you that this response is actually just one of many that people/communities have adopted in these circumstances. The criticism and scorn, in this case, are not, in fact, required for a strong, thriving community. History would be very clear about this idea: those responses are a choice. They may be the default choice in your community, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a choice. You could choose differently. For example, maybe wasting ~$3 of blueberries, while never laudable or even neutral, does not rise to the level wastefulness that warrants a response as harsh as an incredulous “how could you be so incompetent?” Instead, maybe the response is less absolute and more relative; the level of scorn rises with the level of wastefulness. But that too, is just a choice. It can be the right one or not depending on what you want. It’s up to you. And that’s what History would want you to remember. You don’t have to do things “just because that’s how it’s always been done” or because “this is how I was raised.” It’s not always easy, but you can challenge the defaults and build the life that you want to have. When you start to think like this, it is surprising how often it pops up. And it’s an empowering reminder to realize that it’s (for the most part) all just choices.

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