Think Like the People of the Future

    I recently read an article from Henry David Thoreau titled "Slavery in Massachusetts". The entire passage merely explains Thoreau’s views on slavery and how individuals should be worried about the contradiction it presents to the Constitution. My first reaction to his statements, and various other ones in his book "Walden", is the progressive nature of his beliefs. Most of us are taught that people were unaware of how evil enslaving others was. It was a stain on our nation’s history, but now we know better. The collective mind of Americans finally learned that purchasing people as if they were cattle was probably not the most ethical of practices we could have done. However, the past is the past. Correct? then why is Thoreau’s thinking less of the “past” and more of the “present”? How could an individual, who spent the majority of his life within a country that legalized the law of slavery have such modern beliefs? Perhaps, it is the location that he resided in. Massachusetts did abolish slavery in 1783, and Thoreau’s lifespan stretched from 1817 to 1862. However, how did the people of Massachusetts in the 1700s come to realize the atrocities of slavery? Was it from the lack of slaves that they needed compared to the south? Not at all. Being the first colony in America, the state was actually the center of the slave trade. If it wasn’t the absence of slavery or the absence of the need for slavery, then how did the former capital of the practice come to abolish it by the end of the 18th century?

    It seems as though its residents, such as those like Thoreau, realized the dehumanizing nature of enslavement. Through consideration of their fellow man, they understood that all of America needed to be free in order to be just. If people of the past can emulate the people of the present in terms of morals, then how should we as modern humans relate ourselves to the people of the future? It seems as though we cannot forgive our prejudices behind the veil of ignorance no longer.

    With this in mind, I have been re-evaluating my stance on one of my favorite comedy series: "Arrested Development". Created and written by Mitchell Hurwitz, the ensemble comedy guides us through the lives of the dysfunctional Bluth family. Never seeming to get out of their terrible situations, the family attempts to stick together, even though the combination of them all seems to just bring out the worst in each of the Bluths. Although it is my fourth time watching the first three seasons again, I still seem to laugh at the same cues that were constructed by the cast and crew. However, I found myself feeling uncomfortable at some of the jokes that were a bit, let’s say, offensive. Should I excuse the virulent racist Lucille or the sexual offender G.O.B. as just being a product of its time? It would be easier if the show did not try to signal me to sympathize with the characters with sad music after one of them suffered embarrassment. Yet, Mitchell Hurwitz was the one who wrote these characters, perhaps, it is he who is a product of his time. However, if Thoreau can be modern in his thinking then so can Hurwitz be in his writing. At what standard can we hold people accountable for their prejudices before we can forgive them and attribute their views as being blissfully ignorant? How should I, the viewer who use to laugh at each and every one of these "past-its-prime" jokes, see myself?

    It seems as though understanding our prejudices and how much we can forgive ourselves for them is still unclear. Would Thoreau, who advocated for the abolishment of slavery, be seen marching during the Civil Rights movement? Most definitely. Just as those who raise the Nazi flag today would have been Nazis themselves in 1930s Germany, we of the 21st century can no longer excuse our modern thinking by merely stating that it is simply a product of the time. For that reason alone, I will not completely unburden myself as someone who was born in a different generation to excuse my prejudices. Moving forward, I will try to peer over the wall and adopt the morals of the people of the future because I now know that my current views do not and should not just be a reflection of my time period.