I’m not sure why you claim that narrative as default, maybe we could try to look at some stats on how many people hold that world view in the general population. I’m aware of plenty that hold the opposite; directionally, kind of: noble savage/romantic medievalist/conservative/good old days/nostalgic/cynical. Let’s pick noble savagism vs current-day Steven Pinkerism. There are plenty of people who would full-throatedly try to crown one or the other as supreme. I’m more epistemically reserved, without having spent too much looking into it yet—which is to say, you, the general you, feel free to take this as an invitation to make your case—though be advised, I might read your answer with my goggles of motivated-reasoning-suspicion donned given the forum we are here steeped.
I—and I think all—must grant that this conversation cannot be had value-neutral. So I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the answer is multi-context dependent, and X% of people might truly prefer one and Y another.
I’m not sure why you claim that narrative as default, maybe we could try to look at some stats on how many people hold that world view in the general population. I’m aware of plenty that hold the opposite; directionally, kind of: noble savage/romantic medievalist/conservative/good old days/nostalgic/cynical. Let’s pick noble savagism vs current-day Steven Pinkerism. There are plenty of people who would full-throatedly try to crown one or the other as supreme. I’m more epistemically reserved, without having spent too much looking into it yet—which is to say, you, the general you, feel free to take this as an invitation to make your case—though be advised, I might read your answer with my goggles of motivated-reasoning-suspicion donned given the forum we are here steeped.
I—and I think all—must grant that this conversation cannot be had value-neutral. So I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the answer is multi-context dependent, and X% of people might truly prefer one and Y another.