REMEMBER LIU XIAOBO

A speaker on a morning talk show suggested that 9/11 and the past decade had involved a confrontation with Islam. Although that may appear true to some extent, I feel that there is a deeper confrontation at the base of our present crises. As an historian I see a deep conflict between past and present, on many levels, in which many look back to an idealised past which represents to them all that is wrong with the present. Instead of learning from humanity's past struggles and errors they want to do the impossible thing - go back to a past which essentially only exists in their own minds. This perception seems to exist equally among Islamic extremists who would resurrect a time when Islamic civilization was humanity's advance guard and Fundamentalist Evangelicals who want to go back to a world which fits their viewpoints, which they seem to think existed at some point in the past. But of course the two things that cannot be done with the past are to return to it, or change it. For human beings time moves only in one direction; we are constantly moving into a new and unknown future, which will demand new thinking and new solutions. We must learn what the past can teach, but understand that we face challenges that no previous generation has faced