When you think of how history is revealed we know certain things to be facts at certain periods of time which turn out not to be so factual as time marches on.
Big Brother is on the march. A plan to subject all children to mental health screening is underway and the pharmaceuticals are gearing up for bigger sales of psychotropic drugs.
The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed seeming to be dragged rather than to march to the intended goal. Something of this sort must I think always happen in public democratic assemblies.
Whether things turn out for the better depends on what we do. We ought not spend our time masterminding the future but recognize our marching orders: to do the best we can for history and the planet.
Up against the corporate government voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.
If we can't begin to agree on fundamentals such as the elimination of the most abusive forms of child labor then we really are not ready to march forward into the future.
The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation the expansion of women's rights or now gay rights I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.
My optimism is not based primarily on the successful march of democracy in recent times but rather is based on the experience of having lived in a fear society and studied the mechanics of tyranny that sustain such a society.
I woke up full of hate and fear the day before the most recent peace march in San Francisco. This was disappointing: I'd hoped to wake up feeling somewhere between Virginia Woolf and Wavy Gravy.
The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear - and they should be afraid because freedom is on the march.