Surviving America’s redemption recession
People did great things for themselves and others in America because redemption springs eternal here.
At some point several hundred thousand years ago, prehistoric man realized there had to be a better way. For a long time, whenever he was wronged, injured or saw members of his tribe picked off by the rival tribe, or even by his own tribe, his instinctive response was to get even. At some point, he decided to go a different way. Instead of getting even, he concluded it was better to let the transgression go and move on. When he made that decision, less conflict, more peace and a longer life resulted. Not bad for a semi-hairless hominid.
Evolutionary scientists suggest that a capacity for revenge is embedded in human nature because it helped prehistoric man adapt to his environment. But evolutionary scientists also believe that natural selection eventually made room for another trait to help pass on genetic information. And so a capacity of forgiveness became part of us. In time, world religions eventually enshrined forgiveness (given by the transgressed) and redemption (earned by the transgressor) as core values. Man has come a long way thanks to biological and moral evolution. But no one said devolution wasn’t possible which may explain the reaction to the blackface controversy…
