I just received a voice mail from my nephew levying the weight of what our older generation has left for his younger generation. There was desperation in his voice--a sense of hopelessness. He was looking at the previous 30 years--his legacy--of war, resource depredation, and spectacular debt, all things that have been perpetrated by us--collectively. He blamed me, the one adult that he was able to rail against, and to talk to. I took it for a little while. I carried the guilt and shame of my life's excesses and I hung my head. Then, after a moment of honest reflection, I stood back up and faced him.
Yes! We, as a generation, have let greed and ignorance define us more than we want to admit. We have left our children with unpayable debts, an ecosystem (arguably) teetering on the brink of failure, and the collective guilt of imperialistic hubris. However, am I personally responsible? Are any of us "responsible?" That is a very different question, one that bears considerable and honest contemplation.
I am reminded of a conversation I once had regarding Thomas Jefferson and slavery. The other person railed against Mr. Jefferson and his supposed hypocrisy, for his high-minded writings on the inherent equality of all people, regardless of color, and his ownership of slaves to run his plantation. He accused him of an even greater level of prejudice and discrimination than the majority of his peers. He even called him a traitor for even making those suggestions without first "making it right!" In other words, Mr Jefferson was worse for knowing that something was not right in his his world and not actively doing something about it.
I listened. I thought. I wondered. What was it like to be in his shoes? What was going through his mind each day he rose to attend his land, business, and convictions. What I came to was the conversation I have with the current generation of environmentalists and the need to drive cars and fly in airplanes to do the work. Some environmentalists live in a cabin in the woods, gardening for the bulk of their food, and while living with a relatively small footprint on the planet, have little influence in the world beyond their own community. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Meanwhile, others, such as Al Gore most famously, have taken up the standard and worked diligently to spread the word about what is happening in the world and to try and get the larger population to see, understand, and live in a more conscious and respectful manner. Thomas Jefferson was politician. He had plantation, means, and respect. He was a person who had great influence in the world. He wrote the Declaration of Independence--the single most important legislation for equal rights in the world! Yet, I also realize (without justifying the practice) that he had his limitations and a structure that he had to live in--to work his land, maintain his powerfully influential place in the world, he had to maintain his land in the manner of the time.
Each of us lives in a structure, an ecosystem of sorts, that is environmental, social, political, and educational (a foundation of knowledge based on what we have been taught and learned for ourselves). Within this structure we must find a way to live and prosper (by what ever definition). Thomas Jefferson could see the failings in the system he lived in, but he also had to live in that system. If he were to grant freedom to all of his slaves, shut down his plantation, and given up the life he lived there would have been virtually no one who would have given him the time of day and his legacy of civil rights and a living democracy may not have survived. Born out of the horrific legacy of slavery and colonialism is a system of democracy that solidly stands with us, and for the foreseeable future. We all live in our social system. But not all of us are willing to speak out against those parts of our society that are in need of change, but we are a part of that change regardless!
So. Nephew. I hear you. And my answer is that I will do better to speak out and do my best to leave a legacy that you can be proud of. I hope it is enough to stand against that other legacy, the one that is not so admirable.
