Running Backwards Into the Future

The anthropology blog Savage Minds has a recent post on the spatial metaphors we use to refer to time, for instance if we visualise the past as being behind us and the future as being in front of us, or vice versa. This was inspired by a feature in the New York Times of an article in the journal Cognitive Science, which claimed that speakers of the Aymara language are the only people who conceive of the past as being in front of them and the future as being behind them. Anthropologists being sensitive to such sweeping statements about human cultural practices ("the only people..."), the Savage Minds writer pointed out further examples of such perspectives on time among some Pacific peoples, and quoted Walter Benjamin on the Angel of History, whose 'face is turned towards the past.'

But is it so alien to, presumably, readers of the New York Times, to conceive of the past as being in front of you? Why do we find it so natural to think about the future as being ahead of us? I think it's because of the metaphors we often use for the notion of progress: moving forward into the future, climbing up and ahead; indeed the word 'progress' means to move in front (as opposed to 'regress'), and one more often than not sees the future being depicted as something better than the past and better than the present. Apocalyptic prophecies, one must remember, are rare and cautionary pronouncements against the prevailing tide of unwarranted optimism. So equating the future with improvement (and thus a forward movement) is not necessarily valid, but is so common in our modern culture that we conflate the two notions.

Logically speaking, it makes more sense to think of the past as being in front of you (before you, so to speak.) The past, after all, contains the only events that we can know of (aside from the present, but the present is a fugitive thing.) We can only 'see' the past, but we cannot see into the future because it hasn't happened yet. Being humans, with our eyes in front of our head and a forward-pointing field of view, we can only see the things in front of us, but are blissfully unaware of what's going on behind our heads (thus the nefariousness and fearsome quality of being backstabbed). Therefore, wouldn't it make sense for us to be facing towards the past, which we can see, and have our backs towards the future, which we cannot see? Granted, it is odd, given the notion of moving towards the future, to be thus facing the wrong way and hurtling bum-first into the unknown, but it is more realistic than fooling oneself into believing that one can see the future and going face-first but blind into the mist of what is yet to be. At least when we face backwards, we can still see the past (rather than nothing at all), and so learn from the mistakes of the past. Perhaps that is why 'history tends to repeat itself,' and our errors cycle themselves again and again, because we aren't used to facing the past, and thus have not the benefit of retrospection. So go, all ye merry folk, out into the world, and try going bum-first, though it might seem counterintuitive. You might find it better to have a good view of the rear!