What Happened to it?
You would think more people would have it, but sadly current conditioning is causing it to be lost as a part of our mindset. Today not having forethought, rarely results in inconvenience, extreme hardship or death. Having it, seemingly benefits only a few of the most astute.
Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as; a thinking or planning out in advance; I include, considering the likely consequences.
I once believed that everyone, to a lesser or greater extent, had it and used it in their daily lives. I now believe that very few have the gift or have been taught it as a skill, and fewer still have any reason to use it daily, or ever.
I believed it was common. I was born and raised in rural settings and harsh climates more than 10 miles from the closest towns. My father taught us as children to anticipate our wants and needs because only weekly trips to town were possible. We learned quickly to think ahead to keep from going two weeks or more without things we wanted or needed. It was common practice among farm neighbors in rural eastern South Dakota to tell others when we were planning to go to town, and ask if they needed us to pick anything up for them. All understood the reality of their circumstances. The winters were harsh and potentially deadly. Often people were trapped in their homes for days or weeks by closed roads from snow and ice storms. If you didn’t think ahead, you could easily freeze to death, or starve for lack of food, or die of minor injuries or ailments for lack of simple medical supplies. Being prepared wasn’t just the Boy Scout motto, it was survival.
When you depend upon farming for your income and for some of the foods that sustain your existence, you saved and protect seeds from previous harvests to plant in the spring. You grew and preserve some foods and stored them for your personal use during the following seasons. You raised livestock to sell and a few to eat, or to collect milk or eggs from, for your own use. You safely stored other supplies, like blankets, or guns and ammunition, fish hooks, poles and line, fuel, hardware, tools, buttons, needles and thread, all of these kinds of things were kept on hand to be available when needed. All of these preparations were taken because of necessity, but considered and acted upon via forethought, and refined and improved by the memories of experiences, some that ended badly for others, learning by their sometimes fatal mistakes.
Next we moved to the middle of the Mojave Desert about 12 miles from the nearest real town. The climate realities were different, but forethought was still critical. Food and water were critical. We didn’t have to worry about freezing to death or growing our own food, but fuel and reliable transportation were critical to getting food, clothes, and medical care. The same kinds of forethought, planning and preparedness behavior were critical again.
Since everything and everyone I knew constantly provided object lessons from daily life, I just assumed that resourceful, caring, serious people everywhere thought ahead, imagined accurately what resources they would need, planned and prepared in advance to meet their needs and desires. That way they didn’t find themselves dying of thirst and out of gasoline too many miles from survival.
I had heard tales of the terrible things that had befallen those who didn’t think ahead. I couldn’t imagine people who were so thoughtless. Then, as my life unfolded and I moved to larger towns and visited big cities, I discovered many people who had no reason to think ahead. Larger places with many more people and abundant supplies nearby whenever needed. As I learned of the still larger world, I found there were places where abundant food grew on trees, and meat could easily be collected year around when desired. Climates where temperatures were moderate all year and housing and clothing could easily be made when needed from readily abundant plants and animals.
These peoples didn’t need forethought at all. Few if any special provisions would benefit them. No one was starving, freezing to death in a couple hours, or dying of heat stroke in a single day. Emergencies were so rare that no preparations needed to be made for them. They were just endured and quickly over, if they ever occurred.
Government systems, social safety nets, and reliance on the largess and caring of the citizens of their communities, and government services have made forethought unnecessary for survival in all but the most remote harsh climates. Even comfort and convenience are available in all but the most remote places, if you have reliable transport and a few personal resources.
Schools don’t teach forethought or even rational thought for that matter, it has been decades since I’ve heard of an elementary or secondary school teaching logic or reasoning, not to mention the determining probability, understanding certainty, or evaluating various potential outcomes.
Creative thinking is assumed to be a talent, and no attempt is made to teach it. If survival, comfort and convenience were the only reason for imagination and forethought then teaching them would seem to be a waste. Of course, teaching it requires knowing of it and the reasons for it, which are widely unknown by today’s so called teachers. So there are few who understand the need, and fewer still who could explain it, and even fewer that can see the need to apply forethought to other life processes like; determining needs verses wants, cause and effect logic, rational decision making , effective argument, advanced preparation, efficiency, or understanding any of today’s complicated issues, and many other modern lessons that make life and human relationships easier, less painful, fulfilling, comfortable and productive, with minimum frustration, anxiety, and stress; basically the good life!
Most of today’s social, cultural, financial, and legal, health and lifestyle mistakes can be traced to ignorance, lack of rational forethought, inability to foresee the probable future using cause and effect deductions. If you do this; that will probably happen.
Only with imagination and forethought can one hope to understand the people and events that whirl about them, and the tragedies that seem to befall them without reason.
Whatever the dilemma, forethought is the beginning of solution.
You would think more people would have it, but sadly current conditioning is causing it to be lost as a part of our mindset. Today not having forethought, rarely results in inconvenience, extreme hardship or death. Having it, seemingly benefits only a few of the most astute.
Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as; a thinking or planning out in advance; I include, considering the likely consequences.
I once believed that everyone, to a lesser or greater extent, had it and used it in their daily lives. I now believe that very few have the gift or have been taught it as a skill, and fewer still have any reason to use it daily, or ever.
I believed it was common. I was born and raised in rural settings and harsh climates more than 10 miles from the closest towns. My father taught us as children to anticipate our wants and needs because only weekly trips to town were possible. We learned quickly to think ahead to keep from going two weeks or more without things we wanted or needed. It was common practice among farm neighbors in rural eastern South Dakota to tell others when we were planning to go to town, and ask if they needed us to pick anything up for them. All understood the reality of their circumstances. The winters were harsh and potentially deadly. Often people were trapped in their homes for days or weeks by closed roads from snow and ice storms. If you didn’t think ahead, you could easily freeze to death, or starve for lack of food, or die of minor injuries or ailments for lack of simple medical supplies. Being prepared wasn’t just the Boy Scout motto, it was survival.
When you depend upon farming for your income and for some of the foods that sustain your existence, you saved and protect seeds from previous harvests to plant in the spring. You grew and preserve some foods and stored them for your personal use during the following seasons. You raised livestock to sell and a few to eat, or to collect milk or eggs from, for your own use. You safely stored other supplies, like blankets, or guns and ammunition, fish hooks, poles and line, fuel, hardware, tools, buttons, needles and thread, all of these kinds of things were kept on hand to be available when needed. All of these preparations were taken because of necessity, but considered and acted upon via forethought, and refined and improved by the memories of experiences, some that ended badly for others, learning by their sometimes fatal mistakes.
Next we moved to the middle of the Mojave Desert about 12 miles from the nearest real town. The climate realities were different, but forethought was still critical. Food and water were critical. We didn’t have to worry about freezing to death or growing our own food, but fuel and reliable transportation were critical to getting food, clothes, and medical care. The same kinds of forethought, planning and preparedness behavior were critical again.
Since everything and everyone I knew constantly provided object lessons from daily life, I just assumed that resourceful, caring, serious people everywhere thought ahead, imagined accurately what resources they would need, planned and prepared in advance to meet their needs and desires. That way they didn’t find themselves dying of thirst and out of gasoline too many miles from survival.
I had heard tales of the terrible things that had befallen those who didn’t think ahead. I couldn’t imagine people who were so thoughtless. Then, as my life unfolded and I moved to larger towns and visited big cities, I discovered many people who had no reason to think ahead. Larger places with many more people and abundant supplies nearby whenever needed. As I learned of the still larger world, I found there were places where abundant food grew on trees, and meat could easily be collected year around when desired. Climates where temperatures were moderate all year and housing and clothing could easily be made when needed from readily abundant plants and animals.
These peoples didn’t need forethought at all. Few if any special provisions would benefit them. No one was starving, freezing to death in a couple hours, or dying of heat stroke in a single day. Emergencies were so rare that no preparations needed to be made for them. They were just endured and quickly over, if they ever occurred.
Government systems, social safety nets, and reliance on the largess and caring of the citizens of their communities, and government services have made forethought unnecessary for survival in all but the most remote harsh climates. Even comfort and convenience are available in all but the most remote places, if you have reliable transport and a few personal resources.
Schools don’t teach forethought or even rational thought for that matter, it has been decades since I’ve heard of an elementary or secondary school teaching logic or reasoning, not to mention the determining probability, understanding certainty, or evaluating various potential outcomes.
Creative thinking is assumed to be a talent, and no attempt is made to teach it. If survival, comfort and convenience were the only reason for imagination and forethought then teaching them would seem to be a waste. Of course, teaching it requires knowing of it and the reasons for it, which are widely unknown by today’s so called teachers. So there are few who understand the need, and fewer still who could explain it, and even fewer that can see the need to apply forethought to other life processes like; determining needs verses wants, cause and effect logic, rational decision making , effective argument, advanced preparation, efficiency, or understanding any of today’s complicated issues, and many other modern lessons that make life and human relationships easier, less painful, fulfilling, comfortable and productive, with minimum frustration, anxiety, and stress; basically the good life!
Most of today’s social, cultural, financial, and legal, health and lifestyle mistakes can be traced to ignorance, lack of rational forethought, inability to foresee the probable future using cause and effect deductions. If you do this; that will probably happen.
Only with imagination and forethought can one hope to understand the people and events that whirl about them, and the tragedies that seem to befall them without reason.
Whatever the dilemma, forethought is the beginning of solution.
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