You hear people talk about posterity all the time. What they’re gonna leave behind for posterity, how posterity will see them, etc. etc. How come you never hear anyone talk about anteriority? What are they, chopped liver?
Question
by bill | Jan 5, 2008 | Whatever Else | 4 comments
I get your point – not enough people live for the here and now.
However I can’t help pointing out that it would be hard to leave something to anteriority :-p
Actually, that’s your point—my point was just to make a quick, clever-sounding comment. I like your point better. And saying you can’t leave something to anteriority—well that’s just old-fashioned linear thinking, isn’t it?
This thread is getting a little too smart for it’s (sic) own good. So I hope you don’t mind if I feel compelled to say: doodie.
-Cecil
This post looks like, in your goal to post daily, you have run out of things to write about just 5 days into 2008. However, taking your question more seriously than you probably intended, and speaking myself for “anteriority,” we’re pretty much history. “Posterity,” on the other hand, is the future & can go any way. But—and this is a big but—the whole concept of “posterity” pre-supposes that individual posterities are born into this world.
So hats off to Kyle & Becky in Gettysburg, PA! They’re doing posterity, not just writing about it.