which can be read many ways. First: wow, whatever is being measured is falling quickly! Next: wow, it was really high not long ago, though... and what was it? Golly: large if falling numbers of Americans still think that "God has granted America a special role in human history"! My failed google.doc prompt was an attempt to get at the same issue in a not explicitly religion-related way.
But - depending on precisely such things as whether you think the United States is "God's own country" - you can also read the graph as a call to arms. Those declining lines need to be pushed upward again, and can be if American schools (and universities) teach patriotism rather than nihilism, "traditional values" rather than relativism... (At this point I may have said some intemperate things about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' multi-pronged attacks on public education.)
But maybe I'm not being fair to the students, or myself. Their responses to the question equivocated in ways of which I approve. There is no way to account for all of the parts of our history, wrote one, and therefore, there is no way to clearly, objectively choose what is the most important/main direction and purpose. Another wrote that they feel like all history is important. it’s about understanding and learning the history that creates its direction/purpose. There are times and places that are important to people because of their personal connections/fascinations.
Many noted wrily that people crave the idea of one big purpose - may even be lost without one. Wrote one student, It is comforting to imagine ourselves as the focal point of the universe, and just for a second hope that maybe we do have some sort of agency. Otherwise I find it very overwhelming that we may be here for no reason at all. But many others found comfort in more modest meanings. The direction and purpose for human history doesn't necessarily have to be collective objective rather than personal, another opined; I think that by addressing it as a collective task it leads to forms of oppression and manipulation.
There were a few answers to the question as posed - our purpose here is very basic, make relationships, be kind, help others as often as you can or to try and make life better for the next generation or to continually create a “Beloved Community” or, on the other hand perhaps the main purpose of human beings as a species is evolution in all aspects, indeed I have a friend that thinks humans were put here by the universe to try and figure itself out. Others saw the question itself as problematic, as History is written and remembered by the winner. Some observed that We only focus on modern history, since so much was erased as it was discovered by the West; in fact, argued another, I think the direction thing is a tool used to justify colonialism in the name of “the chosen people.” Another worried: can purpose and direction be separated from capitalist work-ethic thinking? How can we ground ourselves in a different type of purpose?