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Are our policies worse than their predecessors?
They are neither better nor worse. Overall, they are intelligent, and are mainly interested in the game of alliances.
What makes them seem worse comes from three things:
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We tend to embellish the past, therefore to represent the policies of the past as more serious and virtuous than they were. This is partly due to the fact that we look at all current policies, and we only see the tiny minority of those from previous generations that have had a significant effect on a historical scale.
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Current problems are more complex, because of our greater technological know-how. So the gap between a solution briefly studied by someone intelligent and a solution commensurate with the problem considered is greater today.
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During the 19th century, technology transformed us into demigods. Previously, some major problems such as famine came from weather hazards beyond our control, whereas now almost everything depends on our political choices. Our expectations are therefore legitimately higher.
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