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What I find fascinating Is how people view the future as some sort of progressive utopia. But if you look at history actually that’s not true. The Roman Empire

What I find fascinating Is how people view the future as some sort of progressive utopia. But if you look at history actually that’s not true. The Roman Empire was more supportive of woman’s rights than 18th century America. It’s entirely plausible we could experience a regression of social norms, and that could last hundreds of thousands of years. History isn’t linear.

pessimizer 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history
thinkingemote 7y ago
It's also fascinating how people view the moment they are living in as the most important of all time. It's incredibly hard to argue against even with the tools of history on your side. We are psychological pre disposed at any point in time to consider that the present moment relative to that time is the utmost most important and urgent and also to view the past and future as less important. It's non stop urgency of the moment. Imagine a historian in the future writing about the decade we are living in now and just writing a line "nothing much to note". We would feel insulted and hurt just considering this.
- Faark 7y ago
  > most important of all time More realistically: The most important time yet. And this is kind of reasonable, since progress mostly seems to accelerate. People intuitively discount the future, since it's hard to imagine what will come. But I haven't seen many people actively discount the future.
  - thinkingemote 7y ago
    I think they do discount the future in comparison to today. Yes not actively but it's all an intuitive response to whatever they view as important.
disinclination 7y ago
You’re being too charitable. At many times and places, women’s rights have been realized more effectively than in _present day_ America. Folks who talk about any sort of arc to history have to be thinking of a fundamentally statistical reality. The lived experience of any specific human or tribe is going to be far too nuanced for that picture.

pessimizer 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history

thinkingemote 7y ago

It's also fascinating how people view the moment they are living in as the most important of all time. It's incredibly hard to argue against even with the tools of history on your side. We are psychological pre disposed at any point in time to consider that the present moment relative to that time is the utmost most important and urgent and also to view the past and future as less important. It's non stop urgency of the moment. Imagine a historian in the future writing about the decade we are living in now and just writing a line "nothing much to note". We would feel insulted and hurt just considering this.

Faark 7y ago
> most important of all time More realistically: The most important time yet. And this is kind of reasonable, since progress mostly seems to accelerate. People intuitively discount the future, since it's hard to imagine what will come. But I haven't seen many people actively discount the future.
- thinkingemote 7y ago
  I think they do discount the future in comparison to today. Yes not actively but it's all an intuitive response to whatever they view as important.

disinclination 7y ago

You’re being too charitable. At many times and places, women’s rights have been realized more effectively than in _present day_ America. Folks who talk about any sort of arc to history have to be thinking of a fundamentally statistical reality. The lived experience of any specific human or tribe is going to be far too nuanced for that picture.