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Will Our Children Have a Linear View of History?
The generations going through childhood and adolescence right now might be smarter than we are.
I grew up with a linear, very Christian view of the history of human civilization. I think most people of my generation did.
We viewed the past generations as more fallible than we were, and we viewed ourselves as smarter. We thought of progress as a never-ending line, and we thought the world was always changing for the better.
Many of us still do. Just look at how techno-utopians — such as CEOs of social media companies — talk about their platforms. It sounds a lot like late-19th century positivists spoke.
Because of this belief in progress, we’ve largely thought that large-scale wars, especially among great powers, were in the past. Political theorists have spoken about complex interdependence and how democratic nations don’t go to war with each other.
And we thought that was enough because after the Cold War, democracy seemed like an unstoppable force.
But the nasty truth is, we’ve seen how institutions deteriorate, even in countries that were pioneers in the adoption of representative democracy as a form of government.
