There used to be a rule of thumb that the more things that the average person need not worry about, the better the civilization in which that individual lived,

There used to be a rule of thumb that the more things that the average person need not worry about, the better the civilization in which that individual lived, and vice versa. This was translated in the typical mind to mean, "The fewer things that I must worry about, the better I can understand the few things that really matter for me." That era has ended because now, whenever one decides not to worry about X (for just about any X), one has given oneself a reason to worry if that decision is sound, given that conventional wisdom now accepts that fate has obviously aligned itself with the forces of disruptive change. Whoever controls disruptive change controls the universe; whoever understands disruptive change does so only momentarily.