The Futility of Relitigating the Past: Embracing Forward Momentum
by Don Hall
Michigan Avenue. Saturday morning. A father and his, perhaps ten year old, son pulling a pair of suitcases on wheels, marveling at the buildings and general size of Chicago. They stop for a moment at an odd segment of an ancient mosaic embedded in the concrete sidewalk. The kid, with his Spiderman backpack, is fascinated.
They are approached by a, maybe twenty year old, man with all the air of an opportunist looking to get a few bucks from a couple of tourists.
“Gimme five dollars so can get something to eat.” It isn’t a request, nor a demand. It is simple a statement of desire or need.
“I’m sorry. I can’t. We’re on a pretty tight budget.”
“I got NO budget, man. Gimme five bucks.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Yes, you can! Look at you. Three bucks?”
“Please. Please just leave us alone.” The man is positioning himself between the panhandler and his son. He is getting visibly uncomfortable.
“You don’t gotta be racist about it!”
The words hit the father out of the blue. “Wha…? Racist? I’m NOT a racist!”
“Four hundred years! Four hundred years! You OWE me reparations! FIVE DOLLARS, PLEASE!”
————
Hours later. The same stretch of street. An older couple strolling through the semi-substantial press of bodies rushing past them. A young man doing the transgender thing or cross dressing thing—it’s hard to tell as he is wearing a dress but has a thick brown beard—accidentally bumps into the man. As if the slight and momentary crash was a catalyst for everything he feels is wrong with the world, the old man barks out.
“In MY day—
Oh no. He didn’t just say that, right?
“In MY day men didn’t wear dresses! Watch where you’re going, Alice!”
… Alice?
People part away from him as he stops and starts a full on rant about things in his day.His companion (wife?) seems embarrassed but stands quietly as he loses his cool. He spews out a short list of the way things were when he was younger and how it has all gone to hell. It was better back then; it was civilized.
————
I’m watching Paul Giamatti in the Black Mirror episode Eulogy about a wounded older man who, in a fit of humiliation and frustration, blotted and cut out the face of a love that blow up in his face and now faces her death. His trip through what was and what might of been is familiar. I wonder through the tears what might have been had I never married HER. If I could go back in time and CHANGE my decisions.
There’s a peculiar human tendency to clutch at the past like a security blanket, threadbare and reeking of nostalgia. We romanticize bygone eras, convinced that the ‘good old days’ hold the answers to today’s conundrums. But here’s the rub: progress doesn’t give a damn about our sentimental yearnings. It marches forward, relentless and indifferent, while we trip over our own feet trying to rewind a tape that’s long been chewed up by the cassette player of time.
Nostalgia is a seductive liar. It whispers sweet nothings about simpler times, conveniently omitting the rampant injustices and backward thinking that plagued those periods. We cherry-pick memories, constructing a rose-tinted narrative that never truly existed. This selective amnesia fuels the desire to relitigate the past, to reopen settled debates under the delusion that dissecting yesteryear will illuminate our path forward.
But this is fool’s gold. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Attempting to superimpose outdated paradigms onto contemporary issues is like trying to play a vinyl album on a Spotify playlist—it just doesn’t work.
Humans have an innate craving for do-overs, a chance to correct past mistakes. This manifests in our obsession with reboots, remakes, and revisiting historical decisions. We believe that by re-examining and re-arguing past events, we can extract new lessons or, worse, validate our current biases.
Yet, this is an exercise in futility. The variables have changed; the players are different. Contexts evolve, and what seemed like a misstep then may have been the only viable path. Dwelling on ‘what could have been’ is not only unproductive but also paralyzing. It’s akin to driving forward while fixated on the rearview mirror—you’re bound to crash.
Progress is not a polite dinner guest waiting for everyone to be comfortable before it proceeds. It’s a bulldozer, clearing paths, breaking barriers, and often leaving those clinging to the past in its dust. History has shown us that societies that resist change, that anchor themselves to antiquated ideals, are doomed to stagnation and decline.
Consider the tech industry: companies that failed to innovate, to embrace new paradigms, have been relegated to obsolescence. Clinging to past successes blinded them to emerging opportunities. The lesson? Adapt or perish.
Relitigating the past isn’t just unproductive; it’s dangerous. It diverts attention and resources from pressing present issues. The Extreme Right claws at a non-existent paradise where women were subserviant to men, gays were still closeted, and America was a juggernaut. The Extreme Left rages about the horrors of the same place as opportunity to get that craved do-over. While we bicker over historical interpretations, whether the country’s origin date is 1619 or 1776, real-time challenges escalate, demanding immediate action. This backward focus fosters division, as differing perspectives on past events reignite old conflicts, hindering collective progress.
Moreover, an obsession with the past can lead to a regressive mindset, where outdated values and norms are resurrected under the guise of tradition. This not only stifles innovation but also perpetuates issues that progress aims to resolve.
The antidote to this backward pull is a resolute focus on the present and a visionary gaze toward the future. It requires acknowledging past lessons without becoming ensnared by them. We must cultivate adaptability, resilience, and an openness to new ideas.
This doesn’t mean dismissing history; rather, it involves using it as a reference point, not a blueprint. The goal is to build upon past foundations, not to dwell within them. By doing so, we honor the past not through endless debate but by creating a future that reflects its lessons and transcends its limitations.
Relitigating the past is a fool’s errand, a Sisyphean task that distracts from the imperative of progress. The past has had its say; it’s time to listen to the voices of the present and future. Let’s not be the architects of our own stagnation. Instead, let’s be the pioneers of forward momentum, charting paths unburdened by the chains of bygone eras.
After all, the only way out is through—not back.
