“In a time that is sooner than we think, we will be [our descendants’] ancient past, their history. What will they write about us?”
This is the question posed by Ari Wallach in Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs, the author’s manifesto for advancing humanity.
While Wallach’s book may fall outside the typical reading list concerning global affairs, it offers invaluable lessons for navigating today’s complex geopolitical landscape. This article outlines Wallach’s core ideas with an aim of highlighting how they can be adopted by the international community as guiding principles to move towards a state of global peace and collaboration.
The problem.
Wallach makes the argument that the various challenges confronting society are a result of “short-termism.” A ramification of factors such as the biological predisposition to fight, flee or freeze in response to threat, human minds are hardwired to instinctively react to present-day moments without consideration of the ripple effects of their actions.
While Wallach clarifies that short-term thinking is not necessarily an unfavourable mindset, he explains it poses concern when it is embraced at “the expense of future generations.” Unfortunately, this long-term sacrifice is being actively demonstrated in today’s geopolitical climate. For example, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, education has been disrupted for over 5 million Ukrainian children, approximately 3.7 million inhabitants have been internally displaced, and an estimated 14.6 million require humanitarian aid. United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has addressed these horrors, expressing, “The long-term impact of this war in Ukraine will be felt for generations.”
The antidote.
Longpath. This is the remedy Wallach proposes to tackle the prevailing crisis of short-termism. Defined by the author as a mindset and way of being, longpath serves as an important reminder that “we are part of something bigger than ourselves.”
To articulate this abstract idea, Wallach details an instance where he was invited to explain to British decision-makers how they could satisfy citizens’ twenty-first century needs. He adjusted the main idea of his talk to meeting the needs of “British citizens in the twenty-second century.”
This consideration of the future is crucial in the context of international affairs. If society continues down its trajectory of violent armed conflicts and warnings of nuclear warfare—among other threats—the question arises how much longer humanity will prevail.
How, then, can the international community embrace longpath to navigate a world in flux? Wallach offers a roadmap for adopting this novel mindset, grounded in two key pillars: (1) transgenerational empathy, and (2) futures thinking and telos.
Pillar 1: Transgenerational empathy.
The first step of longpath requires a look backward, inward, and forward. Wallach refers to this notion as a “continual awareness of your place in a chain of being, wherein you reckon with your inherited history, find alignment in and with the present, and make adjustments to improve the future.”
A look to the past is important as it enables one to consider new perspectives, explore the underlying factors which drove the decisions of predecessors, and possibly understand and share their emotions. A look within allows one to examine their individual human experience with compassion and potential to fully realize the extent of their unique abilities. Lastly, a look to the future encourages one to consider their role in the greater context of society and leverage their insights to help chart a brighter path for those who will come after them.
For example, in the context of today’s geopolitical climate, Women of the Sun, a Palestinian organization, and Women Wage Peace, an Israeli organization, put politics aside to reintroduce peace back to the region. Guided by the principles of mutual respect, trust, and consideration of the needs of one another, the two groups have engaged in a renowned partnership to “bring the leaders of both sides back to the negotiation table in order to sign an agreement which would ensure freedom, peace and security to women and men on both sides and to our children and future generations.” An example of transgenerational empathy in practice, this collaboration exemplifies that shared understanding can exist even in the deepest of conflicts if the choice is made to put humanity above dominance.
Pillar 2: Futures thinking and telos.
The second pillar in longpath calls for an expanded capacity to think about the future, without limiting events of tomorrow to one predetermined narrative. The author offers readers a hopeful message that “we don’t need to follow an Official Future” and that various alternative futures are within the realm of possibility. Wallach prefaces, however, this requires intentionality, emphasizing that if we want humanity “to be around in ten thousand years, we need to get ourselves together and decide a) that we actually want to be here then, and b) what we want the world to look and feel like.”
To incorporate this idea in practice, the international community can take inspiration from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its establishment of the Dubai Future Academy. With a mission of “[e]quipping generations of leaders with the skills of the future,” this institute offers training on futures literacy, technologies and methodologies to help advance the UAE Strategy for the Future. By providing education on these fundamental skills, countries can help cultivate leaders who are better equipped to imagine a better tomorrow.
To what end, however, should we be actively working towards being good ancestors? This is the underlying question behind the concept of telos. Defined as the “why” behind decision-making, telos is the driving force that propels our actions.
For readers of his book, Wallach assumes their telos is to create a “better us” and this supposition can be extrapolated to the international community at large. Despite our differences across cultures, values, and belief systems, we are all still a part of the same species.
Embracing longpath.
This article aimed to expose readers to a new way of thinking about geopolitics by introducing them to the idea of a longpath mindset. Grounded in the pillars of transgenerational empathy, and futures thinking and telos, application of these abstract principles offers a pivotal roadmap for moving the dial from a state of tension towards peacemaking, from competition towards cooperation, and from instability towards security. Responsibility now turns to those who are courageous enough to challenge the status quo of international relations to embrace longpath and pave the way towards a future in which all of humanity can flourish.
Photo: “photo of outer space” (2015) by NASA via Unsplash.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NATO Association of Canada.
