The Past is Just a Foreign Country

“There are young people today who feel that we shouldn’t have developed the atomic bomb, that it was a mistake. And I believe that this is because – through no fault of their own – they don’t have this sense of history. They didn’t live through this almost terrifying period when we thought we were losing the race with Adolph Hitler.” Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, who worked on the Manhattan Project

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” ― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

How should we feel about people in the past who did bad things? It’s a question all of us who have too much time on our hands like to overthink about.

I think I’ve solved it: Just think of the past as a foreign country.

You don’t judge people in a foreign country the same way you judge your own. You understand they have a different culture.

I live in Kenya. The moral lens I apply to issues here is different than the lens I apply in the US.

I just don’t have opinions some issues: Some men (mostly from the countryside) practice polygamy (1). If I met someone espousing polygamy in the US I would say “don’t do that.” But in Kenya, since I come from such a different culture, it just feels like I don’t need to have an opinion on the matter.
Some issues I am fine to express judgement on: A minority of people illegally practice female genital mutilation (2). It is seen as tradition in the culture of some tribes. I think this is very bad and the fact that I am not from those tribes does not stop me from saying so.

I’ve been thinking about this while learning about people working on the Manhattan Project (3). It’s been helpful to be able to say to myself “I have not lived with a fear of Hitler. The context I live in now is very different from what they lived in. So I don’t always need to morally judge their actions.”

I am confident it was morally wrong to drop atom bombs on Japan. I am not sure if it was morally wrong to develop the bomb in the first place.

Learning lessons from history is different from morally judging people’s actions in the past. We should try to learn as much as we can from the mistakes and successes of people who lived before us. But in judging them, try thinking of them like people living in a foreign country.

1. Allegedly 10% of married people

2. Prevalence of 21% as of 2014)

3. Questions around the early development of nuclear weapons feel very relevant to today’s issues around AI – should the US develop AI quickly to stay ahead of China and Russia?

Also I’m an Oppenheimer prepper.