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This article reminds me of a documentary I watched recently about the Maya. I’m paraphrasing, but the guy said all civilizations were richest before their fina

• csallen 7y ago
  Didn't the Roman empire fall centuries after its peak? Also, the US (and many other nations) have been growing and improving for hundreds of years at this point. So by your logic, at almost any point in the past you could have said, "We're doing better than we've ever done, therefore this is the end." There seems to be some strange human predisposition toward predicting that doom and gloom are just around the corner -- a prediction that is almost always wrong.
  • hackeraccount 7y ago
    You're on the Titanic and someone shouts "Iceberg Dead Ahead!" Everyone gets to turning the wheel. What do you think of the people who say, "Is that really an Iceberg?" Or "What the opportunity cost of swerving the ship suddenly vs. the risk of hitting - please also take into account what the damages and risk of sinking might be if we don't move and hit it?" I'll tell you what everyone thinks of those people. "You guys are nuts! Just turn the damn ship and we'll figure out if it was a sensible move later!" That's fine on the one hand. Everyone loves a good argument. The biggest problem I have with all of it is that a lot of people on both sides see nothing wrong with being particularly nasty about it. "You want us to hit the iceberg!" "You know there's really no iceberg!" "You're being disingenuous!" "You're a liar." "I may be telling a lie but it's only to save the ship from hitting an iceberg."