Get Your Premium Membership

Living In The Past, Part I

I’ve heard people say it online, “Stop living in the past, don’t you know it’s the current year, you’ve got to catch up fast.” Most often said by Marxist types, which just seems strange to me, since they follow ideas now aged nearly two centuries. And while they try to dress it up in all sorts of new coats, it’s still a ruthless, old idea that slaughtered countless folk. On top of that the arrogance That goes with such a phrase… just strikes me as ridiculous, in a hubristic way. “Stop living in the past,”they cry, but I will plainly tell that all humans live in ‘the past,’ and can live nowhere else! First off, there is the obvious, the brain’s reaction speed, that millionth of a second when it translates what eyes see, So that that world around you now is not the present, no, what you see happened a millionth of a second ago. That means that all you see and sense is very recent past, present gone before detected, it all happens that fast. Does present even exist though? It you look at it close, all units of time get smaller, no end to that, you know. By the time you can even think, the moment is long gone, so all cognitions is past-tense, you can’t say that I’m wrong. Lift it up to a larger scale, knowledge is history, since any subject we’ve learned on happened previously. Any tech that you’ve ever used had to be made, produced, any knowledge that’s written down someone already knew. All these things happened in the past, it contains everything, without these ideas we can’t live, no past, no existing. The past contains all that we’ve learned, what works and what does now, when someone laughs at it I know their brain is full of rot, since every argument we have, the damn language itself, all are structured on the past, and it is there we dwell. All the ideas that have shaped us, the stories we enjoy, the clothes you wear, that damn cell phone, jobs in which we’re employed, the human nature we’ve evolved, stubborn and unchanging, means no one can escape ‘the past,’ it’s endless cycling… CONCLUDES IN PART II.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2024




Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem.

Please Login to post a comment

A comment has not been posted for this poem. Encourage a poet by being the first to comment.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things