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Most life effort is just running to stay in the same place. The big problems only rarely go away entirely. Most just get updated and reshaped a bit. Every generation lives and dies, mostly being exhausted just holding the same challenges at bay till next generation takes over.
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In a very Thornton Wilder mood. Sometimes I wonder if Homo sapiens will ever get collective ego depletion and just give up one fine day.
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It’s a good thing most people are not interested in history except as a Big Story. If you actually dived into the detailed fragmentary views we have of the lives of subhistorical figures you’d be super depressed by how little changes, and how slowly.
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That’s typically a newcomer’s depression. Study enough history and you’ll accept this view, and instead come to see contemporary progress stories as myths.
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It's not about studying enough I think. It's about going pro as an academic historian to the exclusion of non-historian viewpoints. Though I've studied plenty of both pop and pro history, I'm enough of a techie that I consider the "progress = myth" view as merely a counter myth
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you see the same effect in going pro as an engineer as opposed to just being a cheerleader of the tech sector from the sidelines. The idea of progress becomes real and hands-on in a visceral way as opposed to a strained whig-ideological chant.
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