Almost all of these could have been said 50 years ago with no or minor (e.g. change Trump to Nixon) change with pretty much the same emphasis. Even those that not (e.g. Pandemic), could be easily replaced with other things similar in nature in absolute outcome (famine in China, massive limitation of mobility (and other freedoms) in the Eastern Block etc.).
Even 100 years ago you could make similar cases for most things (except A.I., that is a newer concept, yet there could have been similar issues in those times for which people had the same hope for that I am not aware of).
Yet, here we are, better off than before. Was this the expected outcome?
I think it would have been way less popular to say “Western Civilization is declining on the scale of half a century”; I think they were clearly much better off than 1920. I think they could have told stories about moral decline, or viewed the West as not rising to the challenge of the cold war or so on, but they would have been comparing themselves to the last 20-30 years instead of the last 60-100 years.
Almost all of these could have been said 50 years ago with no or minor (e.g. change Trump to Nixon) change with pretty much the same emphasis. Even those that not (e.g. Pandemic), could be easily replaced with other things similar in nature in absolute outcome (famine in China, massive limitation of mobility (and other freedoms) in the Eastern Block etc.).
Even 100 years ago you could make similar cases for most things (except A.I., that is a newer concept, yet there could have been similar issues in those times for which people had the same hope for that I am not aware of).
Yet, here we are, better off than before. Was this the expected outcome?
I think it would have been way less popular to say “Western Civilization is declining on the scale of half a century”; I think they were clearly much better off than 1920. I think they could have told stories about moral decline, or viewed the West as not rising to the challenge of the cold war or so on, but they would have been comparing themselves to the last 20-30 years instead of the last 60-100 years.