Thinking about things in units of time that extend further than a day, a week, or even a few years.

But even then -- it's the nature of humanity -- we seem to hit a wall at about a century and a half.

"I knew someone who knew someone who was... a former slave."

Can't go much further past than that. We're mayflies.

"If we the living don’t work non-violently to bring that better world about, my buddies and millions of other veterans from all over the world who likewise thought they were fighting for the good and the right, will have died in vain. We must realize that people are complicated and nobody wears all white or all black hats, the hats are gray. Nobody is all good or all evil; nobody is better than anybody else merely by reason of what country he or she is born in. To engage in the effort to bring about that better world so my buddies will not have died in vain, what we call: Abolish War – The Last Campaign, I joined Veterans for Peace. I will not abandon my buddies again."

A whole lot there, in a little bit of space, isn't it?

"The love of liberty is the love of others;
the love of power is the love of ourselves." -- William Hazlitt

...or as Jimi Hendrix rephrased it (pretty much the same idea) --

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."

(Explains that "last refuge of a scoundrel" quote, too.)