Back to Our Roots? or Progressives as Green Thumbs

I heard a sentiment recently that, to turn a phrase, stuck in my craw. I guess it’s one of those ideas that you sort of take for granted, often hearing it tossed about in preachy statements or political speeches (neither of which are often very profound). The sentiment is that we should be “getting back to our roots.” Now I’ve been known to drop the odd aphorism, and no doubt you’ve heard it used and even used it before. I’m just wondering what the hell it really means? What are our “roots” and do we really want to get back to them? Moreover do we really need to get back to them, as it seems we are often told?

I guess I’m being a little purposely obtuse, because I know that people mean it to say that things were better when they were simpler…when our focus (as a nation, as a people, as a culture, as whatever group you’re addressing) was narrowed and purposed! When people lived simply and had simple wants, needs and desires! Of course, I know that’s what people mean. But is that really what we’re after? Think hard on that. Do you really want to take what humanity has wrought over the centuries and chop the tree off at the stem? What else is “getting back to our roots.” It’s conservative code for the status quo.

So lets look at civilization’s roots. There is the lowly hominid, scraping a living from the world around him, hunting gathering, sweating, running, and dying. Perhaps living a little too, though surely not as we know it. Not with civilizations, legal protections, homes, monuments or schools. Or what about the United States’ roots? A fledgling nation, wrest from the arms of a clutching parent-nation though the violent act of revolution. A tiny group of men, wearied by war, scraping together the foundations of a nation on hopes and dreams. But was their hope really so pure and noble? Did they go home to servants, slaves, and wives all who had no voice in their future’s making? Didn’t this root reach upward to sprout leaves in the form of new laws, amendments, and ideas such as emancipation, and suffrage?  Should we ignore the fruits of hundreds or thousands of years of progress? More importantly, were those people sticking to their roots? Weren’t they taking their footing and using it to cultivate new ideas? Weren’t they rather progressive for their time?

Alright, I know….preachy. But think about the hollowness of the “back to our roots” sentiment. I don’t want to go back to the roots! To run with the plant analogy (near and dear to my heart), I want the branches and leaves and fruits! And some might say, “ah, but even with all those things, the roots must survive for the plant to live.” Well, sure. I can agree with that. But growth is growth. Lets not forget what the goal of laying down roots is. Let’s keep growing as a people, as a country, as a culture, as a society. I want new ideas to replace old and withered ones. I want new science and technology! I want new government and new legal protections. I want new paths and new thinking. And the old stuff, that is still healthy and green and bearing fruit…we can keep it. But the old withered stuff? We need to prune it, dammit! And maybe, if everything works right, that fruit will drop and leave seeds to germinate and lo, and behold, new roots!!