Our obsession with hindsight leaves no tragedy unpreventable.
If you could just go back and just do a couple things differently, disaster averted - right? Whether it’s not botching a crucial coffee date with the earth angel who you let slip away, slowing down the Titanic as it breached that ice field or killing Baby Hitler back in 1889, we’ve nailed the fantasy of getting it right long before we ever knew what would go so wrong.
This ex post facto precursor for enlightenment is hardwired into the lyrics for I Wanna Go Back to Ohio State (we shout-sing this with friends and strangers on fall Saturdays, which is how you know it’s good science).