Treat Past as an Asset

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle February 2008)

Can we do away with our past? Possibly not. Nor is there any need to do so. On the contrary, it is an asset that can work wonders for us if only we knew how to use it.

I have often seen two diametrically opposite responses to the past. The first is to gloat over one’s past. Till recently India didn’t tire of referring to herself as the “golden bird”. The aristocracy and the upper castes assert their superiority with the help of pages from history. This is a response coming typically from a previous champion who is now unable to get through even in the initial rounds.

The other response is to completely ignore the past. To believe that history is the refuge of the weak. Augustine Birrell refers to it as “that great dust-heap called ‘history’.” The downtrodden either believe history to be doctored or consider it to be irrelevant since their description in it is not of any significance.

Unfortunately, both the above responses lead us to various biases. While the former may breed complacency, the latter is likely to lead to a life divorced from culture. It is therefore prudent to follow what Aristotle described as the “golden mean.” Don’t gloat over your past; but don’t forget it either; rather restore it and build upon it.

A society that has understood this secret stands to prosper. Free from all complexes, it navigates across the waters of time and gathers the best of treasures from various shores both close and distant. It is no exaggeration to say that the developed world today is largely a result of the efforts made by the Renaissance men. Leonardo da Vinci and his brethren visited the shores of ancient Greece and Rome and restored light to a Europe that was groping in the Dark Ages.

What needs to be remembered, however, is that the past is only to be borrowed from, not to be copied. Ultimately, it is originality that triumphs. It is the new flower that blooms. But the new flower can’t even dream of an existence if it did not get nutrients from the soil.