What were they thinking?' we ask about our ancestors, but…
““What were they thinking?' we ask about our ancestors, but we know that, a century hence, our descendents will ask the same thing about us. Who knows what will strike them as strangest? The United States incarcerates 1 percent of its population and subjects many thousands of inmates to years of solitary confinement. In Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden to drive. There are countries today in which homosexuality is punishable by life in prison or by death. Then there's the sequestered reality of factory farming, in which hundreds of millions of mammals, and billions of birds, live a squalid brief existence. Or the toleration of extreme poverty, inside and outside the developed world. One day, people will find themselves thinking not just that an old practice was wrong and a new one right but that there was something shameful in the old ways. In the course of the transition, many will change what they do because they are shamed out of an old way of doing things. So it is perhaps not too much to hope that if we can find the proper place for honor now, we can make the world better.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Appiah reflects that future generations will judge our current practices as strange, urging us to anticipate moral progress and act honorably now to improve the world.
In simple terms: Future people will find our habits odd; act honorably today.
Key Takeaway
Consider how present actions will be judged tomorrow.
Themes
ethics
historical perspective
social change
Mood
thoughtful
hopeful
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- policy making
- education reform
- activism
- personal conduct
Key Concepts
moral evolution
cultural relativism
Questions to Reflect On
- What practices today might future generations deem unethical?
- How can we balance cultural respect with moral progress?
A Different Perspective
Changing norms may face resistance and unintended consequences.