Future generations reciprocate stewardship with respect or harm us by renarrating

Evidence

Despite time’s unidirectional arrow, it is not the case that “there is no mechanism by which [future generations] can transfer resources to us,” or, conversely, cause us harm. The temporal relation between generations is characterized by asymmetry and by a tyranny of the present, but there is at least one desideratum that future generations can offer in exchange for our conscientious stewardship of their interests: their respect. Likewise, future generations also can harm us by renarrating our history and by altering the meaning of our identity in line with their assessment of how well or how poorly we did by them. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 381

Categorization

• QUESTION: The excerpt trails off mid-sentence into a dangling thought left to chapter 2 — worth chasing how future generations can concretely harm the present through re-narration.
• XREF: connects to: Roosevelt framed conservation as duty to unborn generations outweighing present gain — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 388; What we preserve today may not be valued by our descendants — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 46

Broader Connections

• What we preserve today may not be valued by our descendants #qualifies (0.90) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 46