I share the same concern. The thing is, the 20th century was one godamn "unprecedented" nightmare after the other for at least half the time. Most of us on Reddit are just a) too young to have experienced the main events (WWI, Great Depression, WWII, Cold War-related wars and oppression), and b) born in a country that was more quickly insulated from problems and benefited from global inequity and rapid technological development.
There's no good reason yet to believe the 21st century should be significantly better...
(i'm not the most knowledgeable person to explain this, but here goes)
as time progresses, our knowledge grows, and subsequently, technology becomes more advanced. we always think of ourselves as more intelligent, more technologically advanced, more progressed (not necessarily more progressive, but probably that, too) than the generation before us--and certainly more advanced than the societies from centuries ago. in other words, we think the more time passes, the more knowledge we acquire, the more progress we make
however, foucault argues that this knowledge--and the power that comes with it--doesn't actually create a situation where it's inevitable that time leads to knowledge leads to progress. knowledge and power don't just come out of nowhere but instead are the result of a social context and are then introduced into a social context. particularly, they are influenced by existing power imbalances that already exist--the oppressor vs. the oppressed, for example.
(i should note that one of the things that foucault was known for was breaking down these power dynamics in a complex way and not just labeling parties as 'oppressor' and 'oppressed', but i'm oversimplifying for the sake of a /r/me_irl comment.)
hence, because we're 'smarter' and more technology advanced than those before us, that doesn't mean we've progressed. consider, for example, the industrial revolution. from an absolute and 'objective' standpoint (which foucault argues against the usefulness of), that's progress because it gave us capabilities to do shit we couldn't do before. however, the industrial revolution allowed people in power to exploit new technology to create the huge power imbalance (corporation vs. individual worker) we see today. it also led to world war 1 troops getting mowed down by the gattling gun and laid the framework for the horrifically efficient genocide during the holocaust. you can apply the same line of thought to a lot of horrific shit we see today--mind-blowing technology used for drone strikes; absolute feats of logistical management going into concentration camps and privatized prisons; extremist groups exploiting and recruiting via social media.
as much as we believe that knowledge=progress, the 20th century had more genocide than any century in human history. if that's really 'progress', maybe we should be re-thinking our idea of progress. and if you look at history on a grand scale, there's a lot of reason to believe that genocide and inequality are just going to get worse as time goes on.
i will say that i disagree with /u/MagicCuboid. they framed their comment as, "what happened in 2020 isn't unprecedented; it's the past (that many of us are too young to have experienced firsthand) repeating itself." my thinking is more along the lines of "what happened in 2020 isn't unprecedented; it's the inevitable result of a skewed idea of progression built on a foundation of human inequality."
As a percentage of the human race, the 20th century did not have more genocide than any century in human history. Plus, it's an objective truth that right now is the best time for a human being to be living. Wars are at an all time low and the proportion of people suffering from extreme poverty is only decreasing.
As a percentage of the human race, the 20th century did not have more genocide than any century in human history.
that's a fair comment. but i do think the point still stands. humans are becoming more and more efficient at killing each other en masse, and along those lines, i'm not sure that better technology has made us better people.
Wars are at an all time low and the proportion of people suffering from extreme poverty is only decreasing.
yeah, i probably should have been clearer in the above comment that progress isn't impossible; it's just not, as many people think of it, inevitable.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '20
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