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Gotten dumber? We're they smarter when they thought recessions would never happen again and led to the great recession? Or the fucktards supporting Reagan? Or trashing on Vietnam vets as they returned? Or fighting against Civil rights? Or McCarthyism?
I could keep going back. We've always had stupid and evil.
Yeah, "people used to be better" has been a popular sentiment since Socrates, at least.
It occurs to me that generally speaking, the majority of people are good and don't try to accumulate power beyond their needs, while bad people are few but accumulate as much power as possible across multiple generations. Perhaps the half-life of a given empire or civilization is just how long it takes the few to accumulate enough power to fuck everything and cause a reset.
What do you mean? Almost everyone wants more, and will gladly take it if they have an opportunity. That's why lotteries exist, right?
Big history is full of open questions, but there's counterexamples. Short-lived republics are a dime a dozen, while Egypt lasted for thousands of years. There are known cases where inequality actually increases with the end of an empire, like how Roman Britain with it's public bathhouses directly gives way to dark ages Britain with feudal lords and manors. In some cases, a disenfranchised group getting a bit of power is destabilising.