God, History, Nature, the Future: such abstract concepts open upon infinite horizons. They can only be grasped when they are cut down to a manageable size—for example, in a narrative framed by someone who undertakes to represent them. As many people are anxious about these matters, such representatives are in high demand, and wield great influence in selecting what to include in their narratives: “The Lord created Man to be the custodian of His creation,” “women are innately intuitive,” “the history of civilization is the history of the class struggle.” So it is that for God we have priests, for History historians, for Nature scientists, for Revolution theorists—though every human being possesses in his or her own experience alone enough raw material to draw at least some valid conclusions about any of these vast, vague subjects.
