Preparing for the Weekend of Remembering

{sigh} Being a Philosopher Queen is not all it is cracked up to be.  But I did ask for the job.

She stared at the white piece of paper with a sharpened pencil in her hand.

OK, it is always good to start with a well known saying.

 Lessons learned from experience should not be relearned from new mistakes

No, that is not it, as she angrily drew a line through the sentence.

OK, what are my themes for this annual period of introspection ?

For over three centuries we have looked back at what we once had. The Old World that ended 349 years ago today. All of our electronics and much of the electricity we depended on for survival vanished with an invisible solar flare.  Yet, this was just the final death blow for a civilization that was already clearly dying.

Now, perhaps, it is at long last time to turn our eyes forward to the future. Mindful of the past - none-the-less the Old World is slipping into history to join the Vikings and the Roman Empire.

We set aside these three or four days, as winter arrives and the days shorten in the North, to think about what was, what is and what will be. What is worth doing - and what just destroys ourselves and the world around us. What is worth working for, worth living for and even what is worth dying for ?

Ok, not bad - but I am going down a well worn path. She laid down one pencil and picked up another.

One of our traditions is that politicians, and everyone else, can say the truth as they understand it on this weekend without it being held against them. I may have need of that tradition.

There is general agreement that the Old World doomed itself - driven by the verities of human nature. Humanity, including Scandinavia, destroyed the world we lived in while extracting, or just destroying, everything that could not be replaced in a truly mad rush to consume MORE! As all others rushed forward into our mutual doom, we Scandinavians pulled back just a bit from the rest in the plunge other the cliff.

We prepared and adapted while there was still time to do so - even though we were not clear about just what we were preparing for. We were far from perfect in our preparations, but we did make an effort towards sustainably, redundancy and reducing our use of fossil fuels. 

Nature placed us in a favorable place as Climate Chaos engulfed the globe. We settled Greonland as the glaciers retreated and used that experience to settle Antarctica in turn.

We found, and clung to, a different part of human nature - our rationality. And if we ever depart from this, we need only look elsewhere in the world to see the inevitable consequences.

Good :-) as she grabbed another pencil.

We are now slowly emerging into a different stage of our development. So far, for over three centuries, we have been walking like an exhausted person, putting one step in front of another, trying to just keep going. Just now, perhaps, it is time to raise our gaze to the horizon.

Where do we want to go ? There are many paths we can take from here, in every direction. Providence, and our own rationality, has given the Union of Scandinavia & Antarctica an opportunity that appears to be unique in the history of humanity.

{sigh} Is that enough ? Perhaps. Let me  eat supper and reflect.

After a fine dinner with the President of the University of Bergen, some Deans and selected students of excellent mixed vegetable soup, cod cheeks (Presidents do eat well), new potatoes, asparagus and rhubarb pie she returned to her task.

At dinner, they had discussed the Alien Invitation (all were strongly in favor of "Yes"), the academic balance between the three pillars - Technology, Social Sciences and Humanities at universities, the state of Antarctic education and the limited number of students that came North.

With her mind refreshed, and belly full, she picked up the pencil again.

There is something in human nature that wants MORE - and rationality can be used to rationalize this very basic human drive. Far too often rationality follows and does not lead this desire for more.

We settled Greonland and then Antarctica to replace the lost lands of Denmark - or so we told ourselves. It is impossible to recreate those moments in history, but I wonder if we would have still settled the new lands out of a lust for expansion if we did not have millions of Climate refugees looking desperately for a new home ?

OK, time to make that link. As she picked up a new pencil.

There is one path open to us that promises MORE - but more rationality. The Alien Invitation will expose us to novel ideas, concepts that will challenge us and unique ways of thinking. Millennium of experience and thought by dozens of civilizations are available to us. 

The limits imposed by nature will give us time to reflect and absorb these new worlds of thought.

She put down her pencil and went to get a cup of hot tea out of the insulated carafe used after dinner.
ANYTHING to escape from the difficult pain of writing !

Beyond the unique opportunity presented by the Alien Invitation, we live in a world where our Union is currently First among nations. The best technology, the largest population by a modest margin and the only mines not yet exhausted. But we are still fewer than 9 million people, our technology is a century behind the Old World peak and our few mines are finite.

We need to plan for the longer term, as our foremothers and fathers did.

For almost four centuries, our civilization has been like an exhausted traveler, struggling to survive.  We struggled just to put one foot in front of another - to just keep going !

Now, after almost four centuries, perhaps it is time to left our gaze from the road, and the obstacles,  immediately ahead and look to the horizons.

The Old World, like the Vikings and Roman Empire before them, is slipping into history as the centuries pass by, one by one. Ahead are a number of possible New Worlds, still shrouded in the mist of the future.

We have an opportunity, perhaps unique in human history, to shape our own destiny. But before we ask "What do we want", let us ask "Why do we want it ?"

This could use some editing - I used the Vikings & Romans twice - and that weary step by step analogy twice.

But that is the truth! For centuries we have been struggling just to get by. Now we finally have time and energy - and enough dominance - to look at our longer term options.

A world wide empire ? That would last a few centuries, and what would that gain us ? The "us" of humanity as well as the "us" of the Union.

Perhaps a benign assimilation, much like the Roman Republic assimilated the rest of Italy ? Some peoples, yes, maybe. From all reports Zealand might fit in. Maybe Nuwinga, Ganda - perhaps even Meriga. Although that Gaia nonsense would be an issue. Even our friends the Rus and New China would likely not become very good Scandinavians.

The world is much much more than just a few selected peoples. Assimilation of all is not the path - even if it was possible.

Rationality and valuing the long term social good are our hallmarks - traits not easily taught to others. {sigh}

Perhaps a good nights sleep will give me the answer to the best path for humanity for the next few millennium. Or perhaps the Aliens will just tell us. {chuckle}

She laid down her worn pencil and prepared for bed.