History
This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.
The questions that illuminate it
Should we preserve the legacy of our institutions, or transform society in the name of progress?
The past hands down an experience no one designed alone, but also injustices no one dares touch any longer; reform can liberate, or undo what worked for reasons we never grasped. To take a position is to say where to place our trust: in what has lasted, or in our power to remake it better.
Faced with what has happened and cannot be changed, should we embrace it or rebel against it?
Accepting, even loving, what has been brings peace and reconciliation, but can look like consenting to the unacceptable; revolting keeps alive the sense that it should not have been, but can rivet us to a wound that will not heal. To take a position is to say how to live with the irreversible.
Does human history follow a direction, or is it sheer contingency?
If history goes somewhere, our struggles add up and progress is real; if it is only a chain of chance events, nothing guarantees that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, and every gain can be lost. To take a position is to say whether political hope rests on the course of things or on us alone.