Nothing New Under the Sun
Accepting that some things won't change helps us to focus on the things than can
Human beings are notoriously self-centered.
I do not mean that every person I meet on the street is only thinking about themselves. I know quite a few relatively selfless people. But as a species, we more often than not center ourselves in whatever narrative we are telling.
This shouldn’t be surprising when we look at the long arc of human civilization. For most of human history, the goal has been survival. Reaching middle age meant making it past 25. If women survived birthing all of their children, they were extraordinarily lucky if they got to see all of those children live into adulthood. Disease and accidents and malnutrition sent most people on the planet to an early grave. Reaching a 50th birthday was a gift, or a curse, depending on the life the individual was living.
Over the last few centuries, those of us living in the developed, industrial world have forgotten what it was like to genuinely fight for survival. This is especially true of Americans. While we have watched war break out around the globe, we’ve been spared the worst parts. We haven’t had to display bravery in the face of falling bombs. We haven’t had to decide if we were willing to risk our lives to save our neighbors from genocide. We haven’t had to scrounge for basic necessities because supply chains have been destroyed by both the enemy and friendly fire.
Does that mean everyone in America has been living the good life since her inception? No. Does that mean we are all living the good life now? No. But since the end of the Civil War, we have lived in a country experiencing relative peace and unmatched prosperity. It is a reality that has often blinded us to the struggles of those around the globe and to the very real threats knocking on our door.
And yet, many of us are now recognizing the very real threats facing us right now. We worry about the potential for a collapsed economy. We worry about our immigrant neighbors. We worry about jobs being replaced by AI and other new technologies. We worry about the rapidly changing climate and the impact it will have on us and our children. And we struggle with the friends and family who do not share our worries about the future.
As a history major, I have long understood that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does echo and rhyme. No two empires are the same. No two collapses of a civilization are the same. No two “bad” leaders are the same. But they do have something to teach us about a similar time we are living through.
As the author of Ecclesiastes wrote:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
On Christmas Day my husband and I went to see A Complete Unknown, the new Bob Dylan biopic. Besides being a phenomenally performed film with a near perfect soundtrack, it once again reminded me of the cycles of history, that in many ways there is “nothing new under the sun.”
Dylan made his mark on the musical stage during the 1960s. His music spoke of desires for peace and equality during a time when American boys were being sent to the other side of the globe to fight in a losing war and revolutionary leaders were being assassinated in cold blood. Freedom Riders were risking their very lives to ensure everyone had the right to vote and little girls died in church bombings.
And yet LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Schools were being integrated, whether people liked it or not. Women gained more rights. By the end of the decade, a man walked on the moon.
The problem with progress is we want it to follow a straight line. We want our victories to be met without challenge. We want to believe there will be no setbacks. We want change to be met with open arms and seen as beneficial for all, failing to acknowledge that progress for all often means the loss of power for some. And that loss of power will not be accepted without a fight.
Because there is “nothing new under the sun.”
Yes, we are facing unique challenges: global climate change, the explosion of AI, the complete realignment of global influence, etc. But that doesn’t mean the past doesn’t have something to teach us about our present. That doesn’t mean others don’t have words that can guide us through to the other side. If we are to meet this moment, we need to apply the wisdom of the past.
Unlike the writer of Ecclesiastes, who lamented “Everything is meaningless,” I believe that embracing the idea that there is nothing new under the sun is hopeful. It means others have faced similar challenges and somehow got to the other side. It doesn’t mean they all survived, but there were enough survivors to give us a roadmap to follow as we endure our own trajectory changing challenges.
If the only way out is through, let us look backward to figure out how to move forward. After all, even with the hopelessness of the earlier chapters, the author of Ecclesiastes eventually wrote,
“Anyone who is among the living has hope.” Ecclesiastes 9:4
As we wrap of the first quarter of the 21st century, we can have hope too.
Are you looking for a way to allow the past to inform our present? There is still time to join my slow read of 1984.
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