There’s an idea among rulers of the past that their control was necessary and even better for the population than something closer to democracy.

It goes hand-in-hand with using religion as a tool to keep people ignorant and discourage them from learning about the world.

Now that it’s pretty clear which side won and we’re living in the aftermath, do you think it’s an improvement?

Part of me believes that we’re progressing way faster than we’re evolving and nobody is able to keep up with how fast things are changing around them. It seems like the forbidden fruit of knowledge is giving us problems instead of only solving them.

  • jj4211@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    14 days ago

    He mentions creating more problems than we’ve solved, which like you I disagree, but on the other hand he asked if the world was, presumably on average, “happier”.

    I think that could be a tougher call. On the one hand, the average life experience is by any rational consideration better now, but as communication has advanced now everyone gets to know about the most miserable news that they would have previously been completely oblivious to.

    So while atrocities always were happening, 50 miles away people would have no idea. Now any such event on the other side of the world has instant awareness.

    So we get exposed to harsh realities constantly and if we have any shred of empathy we get burdened with that. Those realities may be smaller compared to the population than before, but their emotional impact is far broader.