If the ideal we desire can only be reached in the future, why should we linger in the present?

Point-time, as Byung-Chul Han describes in his book The Scent of Time, is living life as a series of disjointed experiences and replaces narrative-based time.

Time is no longer seen as a progression where past events lead to current circumstances and ultimately, set up future results (narrative-based) but as independent slices of duration (Point-time).

An extension of point-time-based thinking is: If all time is current and present, to change what we experience currently, we have to progress into a future time period.

Thus it makes logical sense to speed through our current experience to realize the "salvation” only the future can bring.

Today Creates Tomorrow

An issue with this thought process is the idea that future results are not a product of present circumstances and choices.

The future will refuse to be different if we do not carry out new ideas and actions in the present, barring the influence of a currently absent source.

This faith takes all control and power over the future and surrenders it to the unknown.

The proper course of action is to remember: To change the future, we have to change what we are doing right now.

Otherwise, the future will have no choice but to look like a further progressed present.

All Do, No Think

Accelerating the progression through time also eliminates the intermittent contemplative breaks needed to determine what needs to be changed creating the worst kind of experimental society.

A society whose experiments are comprised of all random actions with no control.

There is no:

• Evaluation to see what levers would be best to pull.

• Looking backward because that would slow advancement into the future.

Quality changes we need to improve the future can only be made after observation, contemplation, and rejection of haste.

It does not matter how fast Columbus sets sail for the new world and all of its treasures if he packs hastily and brings no food, supplies, or crew.

Pursuing a new or better destination must not cost the prudent, deliberate practice of observation.

Future Non-Utopia

Not everything in the future will be good.

There will likely still be sickness, famine, war, dictatorships, and physical and mental health crises.

Not everything in the future will be bad.

There will likely be new technology, science, ideas, leaders, movements, and experiences.

Blindly running into the future without contemplating what needs to be changed in the present, creates more of what is already here.

Past Non-Dystopia

Not everything in the past is good.

There is corruption, lies, slavery, prejudice, death, ignorance and manipulation.

Not everything in the past is bad.

There are inspiring stories, monumental developments, your ancestry, and reality that cannot be scrubbed or looked over.

Total ignorance of the past creates a present repetition of the worst aspects of man which carries into the future.

The future is bursting with potential but, if we do not slow down, and take an honest, albeit uncomfortable, look at ourselves and our actions, we will be doomed to see the same mistakes played out again for our descendants.

In Mastery,

Matthew