Knowledge of the past is an antidote for discouragement with the present. When I stop and reflect, I realize that, on a day-to-day basis, the world was as threatening a place during the periods of history we consider great as they are now.
We remember Periclean Athens not for imperialism and slavery, but for Sophocles and Socrates. We remember Elizabethan England not for its cruel executions and religious persecutions, but for Shakespeare.
What about our own society will be remembered when Goldman Sachs and the “war on terror” are forgotten?
Maybe this.
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