April 25 | Devolution

In a literal sense, we are the apex of human history: everything that happened in the past lead to this moment.

We could then blame all our troubles on those who came before us mucking around a bit too much. After all, we’re the culmination of everyone else’s actions and choices.

More often, we tend to trick ourselves into thinking we’ve sorted it out. The world is a better and kinder place than it was in the past, and people are much better behaved.

One of the unfortunate side effects of this general feeling is we tend to assume the best of ourselves. We’re so busy believing we’re patient, elegant, advanced, nonviolent, and forward-thinking that we can’t believe it when we act otherwise.

Is it possible we don’t actually give ourselves enough credit? We assume each and every act of patience or virtue is simply how we should act all the time by default, instead of recognizing it as a triumph for all of us?… Read the rest