What motivated these doughty pioneers to embark on such an arduous weeks-long seafaring journey? The Puritans, having laid the foundation for the most powerful and prosperous empire in human history, were undoubtedly noteworthy. But their gallant indomitability was not without historical precedent. Human history is awash with zealots ready to risk it all for utopia.
What explains this human impulse? Is it simply the evolutionary dictates of survival and reproduction? No. If these were humanity’s sole motivators, we’d all just play it safe and stay put, never venturing beyond the comfortable confines of our provincial cocoons.
Something else must be at work here. Something far more profound than mundane biological imperatives. As trifling as it might sound, what’s really driving all this is the belief that the future matters. Contrary to the prevailing zeitgeist of cynicism, people have always sought meaning in the promise of better tomorrow. The notion that people today can meaningfully change the course of history is the root of all eschatology, both secular and theistic. And this conviction is no delusion. Even in the absence of divinity, any armchair philosopher can construct a persuasive argument that life is endowed with inherent purpose.
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