We don't actually have to pick one or the other here. We can recognise both. We can understand that the present is connected to the past and also not the same as it.
Everything happening now is new in that it is not the same as what has happened before. Everything happening now is old in that it is similar to what has happened before.
When I was young & optimistic about my capabilities, I was super into nonlinear math & physics/chaos study. I really wish I'd had the tenacity to pursue it. So much about the world makes so much more sense when you don't try to force it into a fucking linear story.
I feel like making the connection between the impossibility of objective certainty in physics to psychology and my brain was key for both my recovery and my radicalisation.
