Perhaps the phrase Kamala Harris uses (‘What can be, unburdened by what has been’) isn’t a quote from Karl Marx. It does require a little examination though. For in an historical context the past and present are a continuum. what has existed in the past often exists in the present; such as national boundaries in some cases. It might be useful if warring with Russia over Ukraine to ignore the burden of history of Russian ownership of Ukraine for centuries if one is a Democrat obviously. The past is not so easy to dismiss.
Everything that exist in social reality-physical infrastructure for example, immediately becomes part of the past as the present moves on. Yet buildings built yesterday or last century remain part of the present-even with the persistence of memory in a few after they are demolished. Plans implemented in the past were designed with the future in mind sometimes requiring decades to mature.
And there is the matter of special and general relativity and parameters for a finite speed of light- 186,282 miles per second. Given the expansion of space-time and the vast distance scales of the Universe photons flying about and reaching Earth nearly entirely originated from the past to impact human senses as the present; that is the past is what arrives in to be the present appearance of starlight- and even sunshine.
I tend to regard the Universe as being simultaneously monistic and pluralistic. It originated and in a deep sense continues to be made of one phenomenal thing- even if that is energy in motion and of an inexplicable ultimate form. What was, is, substantially speaking, yet the forms have changed. If everything is spirit and an emanation that upsurges into being within protocols of form and change that apparent pluralism exists on the surface of the monism that is the foundation of phenomenality.
Why should those present be burdened by public debt or bad decisions of the past such as entering into war via the Zelinsky government over Ukraine with Russia? It’s convenient for politicians to ignore the past-sometimes even their own political record. The past is not a burden. Public debt of 33 trillion dollars from bad political choices by party leaders is a’burden’, as are the failure to conserve the ecosphere’s nine critical areas for human livability on Earth with six already surpassed and a seventh edging closer. One cannot simply declare oneself to be unburdened by the past when it exists in the resent.
What is possible is to maximize efficient use of present resources and opportunities; politicians rarely accomplish that.
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