This brief chapter is the final one in a collection focusing on the theoretical dimensions of historical consciousness and as such contextualizes the current social, political, and cultural interest in memory and historical consciousness. Providing context to the West’s interest in the past, John Torpey names socialism and nationalism as contributing to the collapse of the future, and argues that there is a need for the past to fill its place. He claims that because we live with perpetual “post” conditions, only looking backward can satisfy our need for a reference point beyond our immediate reality.