Context of Thought

Anyone who knows much about the development of the United States knows about the general frame of mind that many Americans had about the west during the 18th and 19th centuries. Manifest Destiny was the idea of expanding and developing in a westward direction. Setting up ranches, mining for gold, or completing the railroad is evidence that we viewed the west as a great resource as well as a worthy adversary. Conquering the wild west was a way to show man's dominance over nature. Flash forward to the present and we see a paradigm shift.



I was flipping through a local art magazine and reading about an art festival that was hosting guest speakers and artists, all of whom declared to be passionate advocates of conservatism in the west. The title of the advertisement I read was called, "Western Visions," and I couldn't help but think of the stark contrast between the current western vision and the vision of the west in Manifest Destiny. Times have changed and the world seems to have shrunk since the days of Manifest Destiny but the paradigm shift from conquering the west to keeping it as it is appears to be very abrupt. Was there a time after Manifest Destiny but before conservatism when we were content with the west or even apathetic towards it? How did the transition occur all the way from Manifest Destiny to conservatism? However it happened, it shows a different way of seeing things in different times: a different context of thought.

This led me to thinking about the context of which we think in time. Right now, it is obvious that our current context of thought is tinted in the hue of green. Whether we are pretending to be stewards of the earth or genuinely protecting what is left, the idea of being green has certainly caught onto mainstream.

If you look back into the past (around the time of Manifest Destiny), you will see plenty examples of people acting and believing in more superstitious things than we do nowadays. People believed in witches, ghosts, and even thought leeches would suck the sickness out of your blood. People in those days were a lot more prone to believe in things they could not see.

However, even today we believe in things we do not see; we believe in logic, an unseen understanding of why things are the way they are. Logic is not a tangible thing and we cannot perceive it with our five senses. We trust things like science when they use logic to tell us that everything is composed of atoms (or even quarks), even though we cannot see atoms. In that sense, we believe in things we cannot see because we trust in logical thought to get us to that point. (The idea of ghosts and atoms as unseen things we believe in under different contexts of time comes from the book: Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) In our current context of thought we see that we put our trust and belief in unseen things just like we did in the past.

Unlike our belief in unseen things, what has changed is the context of humanity's thought. Currently, we believe our actions are having a consequence on the earth even if we cannot see it individually. It may seem obvious to us right now that we really should embrace conservatism. It seems to fit with our current thinking because it is logical. It is, in fact, logical to maintain a good condition of earth because it will benefit our children. The logic appeals on a long term basis: the prolonging of our species.

The context of which we think in time shows us that humanity is prone to falling into group-think tendencies (be it good or bad). Whatever context of thought humanity will move into after logic, hopefully, we will be aware enough to look beyond temporary goals that may be as selfish as Manifest Destiny was.

As for the local art festival out here in the west, it may very well be that the art will speak to people in a language of beauty that is beyond any logical reason, begging to preserve the west.