Waiting For The Next Wave

History is a funny thing. It lays out our past in a timeline filled with interesting peaks and valleys. Valleys would indicate wars, famines, plagues and such, which mire such a timeline with great consistency.

Whereas the peaks strike me as far more intermittent...and extraordinary. They figuratively plow the road for a perceived gradual progression. Perhaps that perception of consistency is misleading.

One of my favourite movies is The Barbarian Invasions and in it there is a scene that illustrates my point on these epiphanies.

It appears mankind’s peaks are Punctuated Equilibrium to Darwinian Evolution, which is to say apparent sudden changes happen that greatly benefit the species. To the species as a whole they appear gradual however to an individual mortal wearing its monkey suit for 80+ years, they appear dramatic and sporadic.

The movie puts forth the notion that revelatory intelligence is not consistent and gradual from the human perspective, but rather intermittently bold and supported by a national collective.

This is a fascinating premise.

There are seemingly great expanses of time that nothing much changes. History is besieged with these periods of malaise as mankind rides along on the shoulders of past giants until...boom. Brilliance once again reveals itself in very defined pockets.

Here are some examples elucidated in the movie.

416 BC Euripides premiers his “Electra”. Two rivals attend, Sophocles and Aristophanes as well as two friends, Socrates and Plato. Quite a gathering of intelligence in one spot at one time in history. Philosophy is born.

1504 Palazzo Vecchio on facing walls were two painters: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Also present was an apprentice named Raffaello and a manager Niccolo Machiavelli. Art and the art of power undertake a transformation.

1776-1787 Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton and Madison. These men crafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution giving rise to the most powerful nation on earth.

There are many more example of these pockets of surprising brilliance. Shakespeare and Marlowe. Galileo and Kepler. Descartes and Pascal. Nietzsche and Strauss. Edison and Ford.

However I feel we are currently in the doldrums.

When I was a small boy, Epcot Center at Disney World offered us a glimpse into our “Jetson-esque” lifestyle of the 21^st century. It was magical.

You see the 70’s was a heady time. America had actually landed on the moon 8 short years after JFK set it as a goal in 1961. Epcot decided based on further consistent breakthroughs, by the year 2000 we would be living in a world of flying cars, automated mastery and medical marvels.

Unfortunately the last thing I remember Doctors curing was Polio and we still drive around in glorified Model T’s.

One may argue that there are examples of brilliance in our lifetime, but of the evidence before me thus far, I would disagree. Sorry to those hoping I would conclude with the "Double O" (Obama/Oprah) crescendo.

We are consumed by money and money was not the ultimate goal that led to the great moments above. I don’t think greed/capitalism is likely to be the answer, for it is mostly a myopic and self-serving vision. It would seem high minded quests for beauty and truth hold the truer promise.

Perhaps we are due for some greatness...a bastion of brilliance that will lift all boats. I’m not giving up hope that somewhere out there as you read this...something tremendous is brewing.

-Life is complicated and far from perfect but it is still great