History is Important (Lessons from the Future and Star Wars)

I saw the Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith tonight. Good movie with great special effects, but suffered from the “second part of a trilogy” syndrome. You know how its going to end, and that makes the watching just a touch tedious. Or so I thought.

Sitting next to me was a young teenager (probably 14 or so) and his mate, who obviously wasn’t a Star Wars fan, since he had to keep having the story line and characters explained to him (in seriously loud stage whisper volume!).

The funniest moment for me was when Anakin Skywalker vows allegiance to the Dark Side. Not a funny movie moment, but the young guy next to me let out a genuine gasp of surprise, saying “Sh!t, I didn’t see that coming”. Of course, this means he’s watching the Star Wars movies in sequence (starting at 1 – which seems a good place to start). He clearly hasn’t seen Episodes 4 through 6, that were the rage of my youth.

I distinctly remember as a young child giving up playing “cowboys and indians” or “cops and robbers”, and playing “dark side / light side” with hands clasped meaningful behind our heads and growling “vooommm” as we engaged our light sabres. Of course, my young friend will soon have the joy of going down to his local video store, renting out the digitally remastered remaining three episodes of Star Wars and watching how young Luke and Leah grow up as rebels opposed to the Empire.

He will have a chance to laugh at the seemingly “obvious” plot twist when Luke and Leah discover they’re twins, and yawn his way through my own “My gosh, that’s a surprise moment” when the immortal words, “Luke, I am your father” are grated out by Darth Vader.

Only in a postmodern world does the beginning come before the end before the beginning before the end.

Or does it?

History doesn’t just repeat itself. It is a cycle – like a spiral that winds its way through space-time, continually bringing analogies, patterns, and models into play. If we see these patterns, we can learn from them, and discover that we are a lot better at managing the “predictable surprises” of the future. We can do the same by looking at some of the mega-trends coming from the future. If we spot these trends early, and see how they impact tomorrow’s adults (today’s young people), we can predict how they change society and its values.

Its this sort of thing that energises the TomorrowToday.biz network. I just never thought I’d understand it better while watching a 14 year old watch Star Wars III. But then again, maybe I did…

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