4 ms·

45+ years is “not so long ago”?

• A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
  I do not want to sound difficult and I suppose in today's world it feels like eternity, but 45+ years is barely a full generation's lifetime. But lets forget that for a minute, because I don't want to make about attention spans ( or lack thereof ). A lot of the things that are happening now are not new. Sure, actors have changed, events have new facade and technology adds an interesting spin to it, but at its core, none of it is new to people who are aware of human history. Separately, I will add that there are developments where 40 years is genuinely not long. As an example allow me to trot out the change of being gay being classified as a mental disorder in 80s to today's predominant understanding as a fully functioning member of society. That is a stunning evolution of societal mores in a short amount of time. I suppose I understand that people would like to see instant change, but at certain scales, 45 years is 'not so long ago'. From societal memory point of view, it isn't. Only fool forgets that government can take their property. I will illustrate that further with a geological example. By those timescales, humans just showed up yesterday.