We’ll be sorry also. Progress is a journey not a destination. Every generation fancies itself the pinnacle of progress—until history reminds us that today’s righteousness often becomes tomorrow’s regret. We keep forgetting how quickly time turns pride into irony.
Maybe we could reflect with a little more humility about how, just as we are doing our best now, perhaps “they” were doing their best with the tools and influences they had available then.
Smoking was promoted as healthy as a scientific claim, beneficial for relaxation and digestion. Advertisements featured doctors endorsing cigarette brands. It was socially acceptable, even glamorous. How do you like me now?
Asbestos was used nearly to the year 2000 as insulation, in flooring and roofing, in homes. Lead was in paint, gasoline, food cans, and pipes. PCBs and formaldehyde were everywhere. Mercury was in fluorescent lightbulbs, thermometers, and light switches. Awesome, huh? Everyone was so sure.
Eugenics, selective breeding, was touted as saving the human race. Selective breeding could “improve” us all. Forced sterilization programs and discriminatory policies were implemented in many countries, including the U.S., under the guise of science.
Not very long ago, corporal punishment, such as spanking or caning, was widely used as a form of discipline in schools, necessary for maintaining order and teaching respect. They were totally sure at the time, just as people now tear down statues of the past since they are sure we are evolved and know better than anyone else. What will someone 20 years from now think of us? Rinse and repeat.
Electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) and lobotomies, an electric drill bit into the brain, were considered effective treatments for mental illnesses.
Child Labor, children as young as 5 were employed in factories, mines, and farms, working long hours in dangerous conditions. The people doing that thought they were evolved also. It built character.
Pseudoscience seemed like science to them. Craniometry and phrenology, measuring skull shapes and sizes to “prove” the mental superiority, and imprisonment, evidence of innate race criminality, no accounting for education, peer influences, parental involvement, and poverty factors. They were sure then they were unbiased. What will we think 20 years from now?
Flappers, cocoon coats, flag pole sitting, fat ties, corsets, radioactive additives for health benefits to food, cocaine and heroine additives, zoot suits and golf knickerbockers, vibration belts, withholding education from females because it would ruin them as mothers, Imperialism — we were oh so wise! And how wise are we this time?
“I’m sorry” is just what today’s humans say to the next generation — without harsh judgements of the past as evil. We’re stupid, not always insidious or racist.
Progress is a journey not a destination.
