Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about morality, ethics and what the foundations of those ideas are. The past few days I’ve been dwelling specifically on how or if morality relates to history and past events.

History can not be fixed. No amount of reparations, acknowledgments or apologies can right past wrongs. Apologies can go back forever, no matter what people, country or group is cited. We need to learn from history and not repeat it’s mistakes. That rule applies as much to the aggressor as the victim. Moral judgment only looks backwards for guidance on how to deal with what is yet to come. So what is the role of prosecution and punishment? Is there statute of limitations?

Divine morality is fundamentally worthless in a multi-cultural world. How can someone argue against an opinion which is claimed to come down from the highest conceivable place? However there is a point where the secular foundation of morality parallels the basis of religious morality. Self-preservation trumps all other moral foundations. Religions divide people, when two religious groups clash, no matter what each claims, their moral foundations are not based in divinity, except as their belief in divinity functions to enjoinder their defense against another group who would see them destroyed. Divine morality uses literal interpretations of holy books to justify their own position, when in most cases, those positions actually justify themselves. There is no chosen people, each of us is a chosen person.

Today I found this quote from the 18th century Ukrainian Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav:

If you won’t be better tomorrow then you were today, then what need do you have for tomorrow?

To which I ask, “What need do you have for yesterday?”

The answer seems obvious. Yesterday is the benchmark of our progress. History should be learned from, not dwelt over.