Individuals, generations, and societies develop ideas and need to test them out for themselves. Over the second half of the twentieth century, in the shadow of

Individuals, generations, and societies develop ideas and need to test them out for themselves. Over the second half of the twentieth century, in the shadow of a society that waged two world wars, annihilated cities with fire bombings and nuclear weapons, and staged a globally existential Cold War between "good" and "evil", the "peace and love" hypothesis felt really enticing: maybe we could all just be nice to each other and make sure everybody had what they needed and everything would be better. Gen X and Millenial kids learned it from our parents, got support from hippie and urban boomers in institutionalizing it through politics, science, and medicine and embedded that idea deeply in the children that came behind us. Now, we're working through the experiment. We'll see how it goes. It's not a sure thing.