Progress
What next
Used to need legions, now we are forever protected by the military-industrial. During early medieval times the knights did all the fighting. Since too many lost their lives, the ruling class decided to conscript peasants first, then after the Industrial Revolution the workers. Currently it’s inner-city kids, young Hispanics and farm boys from the Midwest and the South.
Plague used to wipe out half of mankind, now we have vaccines against everything, including shingles. Unfortunately mutations can’t be controlled, and resistance to antibiotics is also around the corner. In a way, we’re getting weaker. The shield has gotten larger but also thinner.
Poor harvest used to lead to widespread famine, now it’s another fortune made on the commodities market. The price of everything is dictated by supply-demand. Conversely the opportunity of influencing supply, i.e., “creating poor harvests” is tempting. Apparently it’s been done.
Work used to be backbreaking physical, now service sector and work from home. With two exceptions — the super-educated intelligentsia and highly skilled industrial labor — there is no identifying with work anymore.
Abacus used to be good enough, now we need supercomputers just to get by. If a calamity or sabotage disabled our high-tech and threw us back by twenty-thirty years, the world economy would come to a sudden halt.
Smart people are killing us off.
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A sketch of this article was published in Paragraph Planet on September 5, 2023.
