I happened to randomly come across the surviving fragments of a most obscure book providing advice and tips for female emigrants to Canada in the late 19th century, and I was struck by the immensely practical advice that it contained. Among the more humorous comments were a couple that I found to be particularly funny, one comment about the fact that idle sensualists cannot expect to succeed anywhere because they lack the tools to do so, and the other about the need of Canadian immigrants to learn how to cook bread, a skill that even in the 1800’s was being lost to city-dwelling and town-dwelling women who depended (as many of us do today) on bakeries.

How much of what is thought to be a national characteristic is really a function of environment? That which is required to survive in a particular situation can be elevated to a moral value in the eyes of a society. This is especially true if the situation is one that lasts for a long time. Enduring and harsh environmental conditions (whether that environment is physical or social) can lead to the development of certain traits that endure long after those conditions are successfully dealt with. Those traits that may at some point be necessary, or even useful, can cease to be useful in different circumstances. For example, an over-reliance on the self can lead one to reject or fail to appreciate the resources that can be drawn upon in a cohesive community. Even apart from the self-selection that goes into an immigrant population, by which the bravest and most daring tend to be the ones who most easily leave the comforts of home for the uncertain prospects of life abroad, an environment that requires a fair amount of internal strength will develop those that it does not break.

Yet even as the frontier existence can easily lead to the development of a certain pragmatic harshness and the continuance of suboptimal behaviors, so too can the absence of a frontier cause problems as well. Cliohistorians have long noted the patterns that life on sharp frontiers in a state of hostile conflict with worldview enemies leads to a certain edge induced cohesion that tends to force people to unite in ways that lead to success through the growth of empires [1]. Yet the victory that results from that unity often results in the pushing of those frontiers in such a way that leads to a decline in that unity through a variety of means. Some of these means include a corruption and luxury on the part of successful elites, as well as the division of haves and have nots from a state of rough egalitarianism, leading to conflicts over the relationship of freedom and equality. Something of this can be seen in the contemporary United States (contemporary in this case meaning for the last century), where there is often a false dilemma seen between the increase of a corrupt and incompetent government on one side and the harsh conditions of a privileged and cosseted elite lording it over a larger and exploited class of less privileged individuals who are governed through strategies of divide and conquer. This is a false dilemma because other options exist, namely a moral use of power that seeks to serve rather than dominate others, leading to a reduction in social inequalities without the development of a bloated and incompetent bureaucracy. This is not to say that moral reform is likely, but rather that it is possible and highly desirable given the alternatives.

To some extent, regardless of where we live and what kind of lives we live, we all exist on some kind of frontier. Each of us lives in the present, and the future is a mysterious frontier for all of us that exists just beyond what we can grasp, even if we can visualize it. The past, on the other hand, is also a frontier that is always beyond our grasp but in such a way that it is done and cannot be changed, even if it can be understood and be the source of encouragement and wisdom. Internally, we all dwell on the frontiers of our hopes and fears, the longings and pulls that lead us in different directions, and we all have to relate with the boundary lines between being true to ourselves (or being committed to improvement) and the pressures of social conformity with the outside world around us. We do not need to despair that we do not have the same sort of opportunities for glory and freedom as previous generations did; we have more than enough opportunities for both if we will only recognize them and take them.

In stark contrast, we can often see the challenges we have to face as overwhelming. Part of this problem is that the frontiers of physical existence are easy to recognize and appreciate. The frontiers of sin and grace and of hope and fear that lie inside of us are far more dark and mysterious. The fact that our survival often appears to depend on our development of moral restraint in the face of risks, and that those who wish to rule us often seek to motivate us based on our fears causes life to be lived in an atmosphere of great tension and worry. Existence has always been like this—it is easier for people to wish to control based on fear rather than to encourage the development of capabilities and strengths that cannot easily be controlled and that can lead those who wish to rule to be seen as unnecessary. The want to be needed is one that we all have to struggle against, because it can lead us to sabotage the capabilities of others so that we will feel that they need us. As is the case with those female emigrants seeking to develop what was necessary to cope with the difficulty of frontier life in Canada [2], we need to develop ourselves within and place a premium of practicality even as we seek to build bridges through good communication with others who are in the same situation that we are in. Even when our battles and frontiers are internal rather than environmental, we do not struggle alone in the wilderness that we face. That ought to encourage us somehow.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/edge-induced-cohesion-in-the-arabian-peninusula/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/lines-drawn-in-the-sand-the-process-of-edge-induced-cohesion/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/periphery-and-core/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/politics-and-the-tyranny-of-geography/

[2] Catherine Parr Strickland Traill, The Female Emigrant’s Guide, And Hints On Canadian Housekeeping. (Toronto, MacLear and Company, 1854).