A Letter to the Future.

Whoever you are and whenever you are, I hope you see me as more than merely a product of my time.

A lot of folks in my time of 2021 like to say it's fallacious to use quotes or written works produced centuries ago to support one's contemporary points. One cannot, for example, use the voice of the Founding Fathers to bolster a present argument about free speech.

"The Founding Fathers are not timeless sages. They lived in a time where flintlock weapons and quill-and-ink pens were the standard. It's obviously ridiculous to apply anything they said to a modern world with nuclear weapons and global social media."

Or so the argument goes.

That may be the case for the Founding Fathers- though I'd argue that a lot of what they said was deliberately phrased to speak to timeless, human considerations.

But let me set the record straight right now for you, future person, in case I ended up becoming a noteworthy voice from the early twenty-first century (unlikely).

I quite deliberately intend for the things I say to be timeless. Though I may be responding to the immediate sociopolitical realities of my time, I hereby give you (person of the future) license to use my words to bolster whatever argument you are trying to make in your time. At least so long as your argument is grounded in that timeless and universal spirit of liberty that blossoms not only in my time, but in all times.

Doubtless in the centuries to come the spirit of liberty will face the ever-changing but ever-present threat of authoritarianism. The freedom-loving advocates will probably be outnumbered and outgunned as we always are by those of every ideological persuasion who seek to harness the power of the state to force their idea of a perfect world on everyone else.

But no matter what disguise authoritarianism wears in your time, don't hesitate to use anything I say in my time to help defeat it. Don't let your opponents say "Flex was just some guy responding to the realities of his specific time." Please inform them that THEY are the fallacious ones.

Though I am undeniably a man of my time in many ways, that doesn't mean I can't speak to yours, even if many of my contemporary beliefs seem repulsive to you.

As a man of 2021, for example, I had a delicious steak for supper last night. And I'm not even sorry about it. If you're reading this 200 years in the future, there's a chance that you'll see the sort of farming methods that enabled my supper as cruel and reprehensible. You might further question whether such an ethically flawed barbarian as myself should be quoted at all. "How can one who was wrong in so many ways be celebrated for the things he got right?"

Well, this is where you will have to differentiate between the universal Flex and the Flex who truly was a product of his time. In my age, eating steak rendered by our particular farming methods is commonplace. Yes, there are those who advocate for more humane reforms and a few who outright reject the consumption of animal life. As a person of the future, you probably know that I not only do very little to promote ethical animal-rights reform, but that I actively hunt for my own enjoyment and use a meat-based keto diet for my health.

Though I don't think you'll be reading this in a world where the vegans won, there's no question that I am currently rejecting arguments that will be considered very obviously correct by your time. Chances are I'm struggling to make heads or tails of certain considerations that you were raised to see as obvious truths.

But just because I'm a product of my time in many ways does not mean that my contribution is not timeless in other ways for the simple fact that some things are timeless while others are not.

Even if the world is completely vegan or otherwise reflects the triumph of principles I actively reject in my era, the battle between liberty and authority will doubtlessly still be ongoing.

Some things change. Other things, like the eternal conflict between man's impulses for freedom and safety, will never change.

Therefore, it's not historically fallacious for you to weaponize my words as they deliberately pertain to timeless and universal confrontations. Nor should you hesitate to use my voice in the event that history proves me wrong in some ways, even significant ways.

Again with the animal-rights example because I have a very strong conviction that I'm right and vegans are wrong, I'm an active hunter whereas you may be reading this in an age where such sport is considered highly reprehensible. But despite the fact that I'm a monster and a product of my time in some ways, it doesn't mean that I can't appeal to your greater sense of humanity in other ways.

Shoot, I'll even give you permission to apply my words beyond the scope of their universal intent. If you want to say something like:

"Though Flex was a meat-eater, the spirit of liberty that underlined his philosophy reveals a latent concern for the freedom of all forms of life. Therefore, I do not hesitate to use his voice to promote the cause of animal freedom, even if Flex himself wouldn't have done so."

Speaking to you from 2021, I find you and the cause you promote highly repulsive. No part of me thinks that animals deserve anything like human liberty and I truly see them as subservient creatures that serve no higher purpose than filling my belly.

But who knows? Maybe you're right. Perhaps a person's words can speak to something deeper then that person's intent.

Either way, I'm tired of people completely dismissing the idea of human timelessness in my age. It irritates me that the current popular interpretation of humanity is one that bottles up individuals by rejecting the universality of their voice.

So please don't do that to me. Please embrace my voice as an expression independent of the trappings of time and place. I hope you use my words to promote liberty in the never-ending battle against authoritarianism. But I'd rather be wildly misrepresented than written of as merely a product of my time.

That, to me, is the worst fate for any expressive, individual mind.