I’m a bit ambivalent about optimism on the historical scale. History does have examples of things getting worse, it’s hard to pinpoint the cases where it got wo

I’m a bit ambivalent about optimism on the historical scale. History does have examples of things getting worse, it’s hard to pinpoint the cases where it got worse for the majority of earth’s population at once, since different regions sometimes prosper at the time others decline, but there are things like the Bronze Age collapse which are widespread enough to be likely candidates. That particular scenario of civilization collapse I think is unlikely, however it does create the question of whether history always gets better over the long term. And the long term scales of history are long, long enough to make it impossible to tell a definite trend from a possible one if you are looking for meaning behind history. But I am a religious man and I have hope things will stay on the uptrend in some way. I think a CB lot of faith in history is ultimately a matter of faith, one with arguments behind it but I don’t think those arguments are bulletproof