-— So many of our ills can be traced back to the rise of human ingenuity and how it accelerated during and after the industrial revolution. -—
The average lifespan has doubled with industrialization. Focusing on the ills associated with the world’s first industrial revolution is like focusing on the ills associated with inoculations.
And farm work in the 1880s was no picnic either.
The discussion of the root cause of today’s ills can take you quite a way back in time. I posit that that mechanization and technology are the source of a lot of upheaval — led to unions and communism, mass media (mind control and propaganda), birth control (sexual “liberation”). And this has ultimately led to the pussification of society as Hawkins discusses.
Of course there are huge benefits and we all enjoy long life spans, good health, unbounded luxury, abundant food, and freedom. Who would want it any other way? Most of mankind’s history is of want, bondage, war, and misery.