With enough expensive lubricant or even the cheap stuff, I will eventually believe anything you say.
I pretty much agree with you if one takes a snap-shot and describes away what they see, but it's those slow, long-term trends that I see pushing and moulding. Once upon a time you could kick some poor countries ass and they would have to retreat and cop it, now they migrate.
You could smash North Korea, now they got the means to make a global power take stock.
There has never been a time like this, sure we have been evolving socially for 200,000 years, three steps forward, two steps back, but there was always space. Today we are completely bound together economically, a universal language is beginning to form, foreign students study all over the world, there is interdependence like never before.
We are the same people we have been for tens-of-thousands of years but we are born now into new and changing forms of complexity. The world has been denatured somewhat and the social capital from yesteryear wont work forever. Survival alone will force us into change.
We are integrating at a staggering rate, even if it doesn't feel like it at times. All this is happening with social capital that can longer do the job. Our political systems, our religions, our economics, our laws are not up to the task and yet this integration is relentless and eventually the system will fail or we can seek new solutions.
I tend to think we are capable of finding solutions to age old problems because now we have to. We are fast running out of options.
It will always be a world of human foibles but it will iron out the horrendous injustices and inequalities, along with the anti-intellectual influence of fundamental religion because there is no other choice but extinction.
