Mistakes

"Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody's perfect." Those are two of my least favorite phrases in the English language. Yes, people make mistakes, that's just a given. But people who use it as an excuse for not attempting perfection really piss me off. However, that isn't the point of this entry. Smart people, wise people, those who try hardest for a goal make mistakes that dwarf those of normal people. It is part of what makes them great and one of their biggest weaknesses. That's why they must try even harder to think things through, especially those with influence. And now we're getting to the main point that I am trying to make with this entry. I've been mulling the ideas for several days now, thinking of parallels with the past and how we can avoid mistakes in the present and future.

Throughout history, the smartest, the most influential have been the ones to make mistakes that set progress back for years. Look at the founding of the United States. This country was founded by one of the most exclusive brain trusts to ever attempt to found a country. Unlike the monarchies, oligarchies, and tyrannies of the past, they had the foresight to frame a republic with a document that is still relevant over 200 years later. They set forth rights, duties, and a balanced government that was only imagined beforehand. It was a beautiful thing and the Constitution is still one of the most perfect documents in the history of the world. But even the true geniuses who founded this country were unable to imagine an economy without slavery. They accepted a great injustice for the sake of stability and economics. They sacrificed what was right, what a majority of the framers saw as a wrong, for the sake of holding onto the power and economy that slavery fueled. In less than 100 years the country was fractured over the issue, half the country unable to foresee an economy without clinging to the past, the other pushing the economy and future forward. The right and wrong of the issue was secondary justification.

The economy pushed by the Northern states had its own problems. The slavery was by circumstance and less formalized, but it was a step in the right direction. It was far from perfect, and is the direct ancestor of the problems we face today. The coal and oil powered industries that pushed the economy of the future are now 100 years out of date. The current powers that be cling to the past because it is simpler and they can't imagine an economy not driven by gas powered cars and coal burning power. They hide behind fear of instability that pushing forward will bring. Cost and difficulty are the excuses people hide behind, refusing to acknowledge the rightness of change. It isn't that the people in power are stupid, they are smart, but they are making the same mistakes that the founding fathers made with slavery. Yes, the attitudes are changing, but still people, smart people, cling to the past.

There are other examples that can be made, but that is the parallel that stuck in my head as most appropriate. Smart, intelligent people, refuse heath care reform because they don't see the necessity. Financial geniuses don't see the problems with the banks because they are blinded by their own attempts to cling to power and wealth. They aren't idiots, they are just fools. Progress needs to be made and what is right must be done for the sake of everyone. Those who hold back progress and who use their influence to scare people into voting against their self interest are as close to evil as really exist in the world.