As a person who strongly identifies with the post-enlightenment ideals of individuality, liberty (original definition) and rights, and agrees with the strategy

As a person who strongly identifies with the post-enlightenment ideals of individuality, liberty (original definition) and rights, and agrees with the strategy of empiricism as a means to understand and bend the world, I can't help but bite on this. Perhaps I hung out with an abnormal crowd, but it seems that 90% of Kanth's ideas (at least as described by this article) are what typical Freshmen undergraduates consider as they begin to first reflect on their liberal education. That is, these ideas are not new. And, that's not to disparage the economist. Instead, it's meant to point at something perhaps more unstable about Human society: that no one has the time or resources to read and understand all thoughts (and criticisms) that came before them. We're a very limited species. And, this unfortunately causes the 'history repeats itself' loops. I think Kanth's reaction is a normal one, though. Enlightenment doesn't 'feel right' at first. It's something that must be learned, understood, and accepted. And, unless one is raised within a family and culture that already embraces it, it's not obvious. If it was obvious and easy, Humans would have stumbled on it many thousands of years ago. But, to throw it away just because it doesn't immediately make sense seems foolish and maybe even arrogant. Rationalism is a tool, just like written words. But, just because it may take years to learn to write, should we abandon writing, as well? People have hungered for the primitive life for hundreds of years. And, it's a natural desire because our biology isn't completely adapted to this world. And, as progress continues to accelerate, we feel strange within it. I'm certainly unsettled by it sometimes, too. I sometimes feel like I'm being pushed toward a dark horizon. (And, this feeling is so common that it's been recorded in many, many works of literature, at least since the Greeks) But, when I hunger for the primitive, I quickly remind myself of all that I have that would not have been possible, otherwise. What if these 'western' ideas had been abandoned 100 years ago or even 50 years ago? I certainly wouldn't like to live in that world. I'm happy to have medicines to cure me, be able to travel quickly across the globe, be able to talk to friends and family at any time of day, to have limitless knowledge readily available, and to even have fresh strawberries across the street (in the middle of winter)! What I worry about the most is that these ideals are fading, people are reacting rather than appreciating, and that the forces are strong enough to put us into a dark age. I don't know exact numbers, but I'm guessing that only 10-15% of the world are keeping Human progress alive, and that it's slowly being erased.