A Brief History of the Modern World

(Or, How the West Took Over)

by Jordan Bates

The ridiculous story of the bloody and violent process of

globalization and the empires that birthed our modern
world.
Last week, I published an essay called How it Feels to be a Young
American in 2014. It ended up being the most controversial and
heavily discussed piece that has ever appeared on this website. In
it, I attempted to articulate the complex and various ways in which
the sociocultural structures of the United States tend to do physical
(death, disease, imprisonment, etc.) and psychological (cyclic
feelings of inadequacy, guilt, anxiety, etc.) violence to the general
public.
The response to the essay was overwhelming and inspiring, and of
course plenty of people had criticisms and suggestions. Much of the
feedback was constructive and resulted in numerous additions to the
original essay, to the point where that piece should most definitely
be considered a collaborative effort (as if any self-expression could
ever be independent of the work/influence of other people).
Some of the feedback focused on the idea that many of the problems
I discussed were not isolated phenomena that only affect young
Americans (the demographic I ostensibly focused on), but are in fact
much larger issues affecting all Americans, as well as (arguably)
every person in the world. I was aware of this and had chosen to use
the suffering of young Americans as an entrance point into the
discussion because I am a young American and felt I had the most
agency to write about my own demographic. However, my hope in
writing was that it would be apparent that the issues I discussed
are inextricable from the global situation circa 2014 and that many

of them are common to most/all societies in our increasingly

interconnected world.
In this essay, I want to go into more detail about how/why it is the
case that the dysfunctions of America are inseparable from the
dysfunctions of global society. Ill first take a broader look at the
last 10,000 years of human history to illustrate how modern history
has been characterized by an exponential explosion of something
Ive called cultural interchange. Then, Ill try to explain the
process by which the problems of not only America, but of Western
culture generally, became the worlds problems in the past 500
years or so via colonialism/imperialism and the rise of global
capitalism. Lastly, Ill use my experience and study of Asia (I
taught, traveled, and studied there for 16 months) to consider the
various remnants of colonialism/imperialism that (in many ways)
define 21st-century Asia.
This is obviously an incredibly complicated and labyrinthine topic
about which countless books have been written, so it would be
foolish to think that I could really do justice to the situation in a
single essay. However, my hope is to be able to communicate the
main themes to help people arrive at a better understanding of the
present historical moment and global situation.

American Square by Soymonk, 2014.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

A Short History of Cultural Interchange

A major theme of the last 5,000-10,000 years of human history, is
cultural interchangei.e. the exchange of goods, ideas, and/or
cultural products between different cultures. Another is cultural
permeability, which can be thought of as a qualitative descriptor of
the ease with which cultural interchange can occur (if cultures are
very permeable, then goods, ideas, and/or cultural products are
exchanged quickly, smoothly, and probably in high volume). In a
recent essay on the presence of Japanese culture in my life, I wrote:
Culture has always been permeableso much so that to conceive of
cultures as distinct entities might be disastrously incorrect. Every
culture is indebted to previous iterations of itself and/or to
concurrent cultures for its form, and all cultures are
linked/influenced by conditions of the natural worldthe structures
of the human brain, biological limitations, climate, all other Earthly
phenomena, etc.from which they are inextricable.
So a key thing to understand is that no culture has ever been a totally
isolated set of beliefs and practices. Cultures have, however, varied
widely in terms of the extent to which are influenced by other
cultures. Arguably, about 5,000-10,000 years ago, with the rise of
modern agriculture, cultures began to clash and influence one
another more than at any point prior (due to population growth,
fixed locations, and revolutionary models of human social
organization).
Agriculture gave mankind the ability to stake out permanent
cities and allowed segments of populations to spend more time
involved in affairsastronomy, technology, organized religion,
etc.that were unrelated to the production or gathering of the basic
necessities of life. This led to many of the inventions and belief
systems that would gradually morph into the technologies and ways
of thinking that characterize the world we occupy today.
Permanent cities became centers of trade, manufacturing, and

political power, eventually transforming into complex civilizations

(first in ancient Mesopotamia about 5,500 years ago) with written
language, recorded history, and elaborate religious beliefs.
Eventually civilizations gave rise to the first empires (2,000-3,000
years ago)states which made deliberate efforts to expand their
territory and sovereignty through forceful means. The rise of the
empire (or perhaps the earlier development of modern agriculture)
might represent the primordial soup that eventually resulted in what
we think of as globalization, or the increasingly total cultural
interchange of products, worldviews, ideas, technologies, pastimes,
and art-forms that characterizes the contemporary world. Since the
time of those first empires, cultural interchange and permeability
have arguably accelerated dramatically (and violently, as well see),
culminating in the boundary-obliterating technologies of the 20th
and 21st centuries that have turned the world into a giant
intercultural smoothie where the artifacts and iconography of foreign
cultures/economies surround most of us and where countless belief
systems and ways of life can be discovered by pressing a few
buttons. As I wrote elsewhere:
With the rise of international trade, radio, television, and ultimately
the Internettechnologies that can disseminate cultural products on
a global scalecultures are seemingly more permeable and
piecemeal than ever, to the point where being American or
Japanese or most any nationality means that one has grown up in
close proximity to cultural products of countries all over the world.
It seemed important to provide that longer historical context to try to
give some sense of the exponential upward-curve that we might
imagine
as
representing
the
rise
of
cultural
interchange/permeability in
human
history.
The
fucking
Internet(!)a place where all human cultures, people, knowledge,
and information can theoretically occupy the same space and
interact instantaneouslyis probably the ultimate manifestation of
this trend to date (though admittedly the vast majority of people in

the world dont yet have Internet access, even if one can learn about
them/their culture online).
All of this is to say that of course the dysfunctions of any
society/culture are no longer exclusively the problems of that
society/culture (if ever that has been the case). Everything on this
planet is far too interconnected and interdependent. But to
understand exactly how/why the dysfunctions of American
culture are profoundly related to the dysfunctions of the rest of the
world, we need to dig deeper. We need to understand how the
Western world (Europe and eventually the USA) forcibly and
fervently propagated its cultural systems and ideologies
worldwide over the past several hundred years, and how this fact has
caused irrevocable and inestimable changes in global society.
In a word, we need to understand colonialism. Although a few fine
and wonderful things arguably resulted from the history of
colonialism on this planet, its clear to many people examining the
global situation today that the rampant spread of Western models of
the nation-state, the modern city, the capitalist economy, modern
warfare, the justice system, education, and organized religion has
brought about not only global catastrophes (potential for nuclear
war, destruction of the natural environment, etc.) but also a web of
deeply oppressive structures that lead to discrimination, alienation,
violence,
economic
inequality,
dehumanization,
and
disempowerment in the general populace.

Colonialism: Shit is Fucked Up

Our story begins with the Age of Discoveryi.e. the period that
began in the 15th century in which many European explorers began
sailing the oceans, discovering land-masses (where other
people had lived for thousands of years and gotten along just fine),
and somehow seeing fit to claim ownership of them in the name of
various crusty monarchs. This was the beginning of a period of
colonialism and imperialism that is utterly indispensable to consider

if one wishes to have any understanding of the present global

situation and historical moment.
Basically, a bunch of Bible-beating Europeans thought that God had
divinely mandated their superiority (Yeah, God must be a racist!)
and right to take whatever land they desired, so they raced around
the world, set up camps in the midst of several-thousand-year-old
cultures, and had the audacity to impose their superior religion
and civilization onto the peoples they encountered (or they just
murdered them and stole their shit).
Over the next 400 years or so, these powers (Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Russia, [eventually the USA], etc.)
carved the world up into the distinct nation-states that we know
today and claimed dominion over them, with little to no regard for
the civilizations or peoples or tribes or clans or indigenous nations
that were already arranged/functioning (often in ways that were not
conducive to being divided into arbitrary nation-states) on every
continent (except Antarctica because shits frigid). As if that werent
enough, the slave trade (like, really, putting people in shackles and
forcing them to do your bidding . . . the fuck is wrong with you?)
also boomed during this periodto such an extent that, as the
political scientist David P. Forsythe wrote:
The fact remained that at the beginning of the nineteenth century an
estimated three-quarters of all people alive were trapped in bondage
against their will either in some form of slavery or serfdom.
Three-quarters of all people. It should be noted also that this
obscene conquest was inseparable from the rise of capitalism in the
16th century and an implicit assumption of capitalist ideology
i.e. that nation-states should accumulate unbounded stores of wealth
via trade, slavery, land ownership, any means necessary. I
encourage all of you to take one minute to watch this incredible .gifvisualization of the unfolding of territorial colonialism from 1492-

2008 to better understand just how much of the world was seized
and forcibly re-imagined during this several-hundred-year period.
And, sure, it should be noted that many of these
colonialist/imperialist powers built a lot of shit in the countries they
occupied to try to establish the same sort of infrastructure with the
same sort of architecture that they were used to, and some of the
stuff they built was probably useful (much of it is still in use today).
But we simply cannot underestimate how dehumanizing,
frightening, belittling, and traumatizing this process was for the
people worldwide who were enslaved and/or told, implicitly or
explicitly, that their way of doing things was wrong, outmoded,
inferior, backwards, or barbaric.
I mean, fuck, just imagine that for a minute. This tumultuous period
was the beginning of momentous changes in virtually every corner
of the globe, and how could it not have been? As I alluded to,
innumerable
peoples
were
forced
or
coerced
into
partially/fully integrating Western models of the nation-state, the
modern city, the capitalist economy, modern warfare, the justice
system, education, and organized religion. Each of these items
are fundamental ideological institutions that have an unspeakable
impact on the organization of a society and the day-to-day lives of
its people.
We ought to be careful to note that its not as if the colonialist period
created mirror-images of European countries in far-off places all
over the world. European models/colonists intermingled with
thousands of years of cultural history to create new, hybrid-like
nation-states with totally distinct cultures. But, basically, if you want
to talk about how/why the sociocultural dysfunctions of the United
States tend to be found in many other places worldwide, look no
further than the colonialist/imperialist history in which
European models of societal organization were instituted on the
American continents and in many/most societies worldwide.

Thats really how everything started, as far as the state of the

modern world is concerned. Even the countries that largely evaded
colonial rule have been all but forced to embrace the idea of the
nation-state, the practices of modern warfare, a somewhat-capitalist
economy, and the model of education that is best-suited for
producing workers in a capitalist economy (more on that in a
minute).
So what Im really saying is thatmake no mistakethe world you
exist in today would simply not exist if a bunch of starry-eyed white
people on ships hadnt sailed the seas to manifest destiny and
claim the riches that they thought their sky-daddy had promised
them (Yeah! I bet God doesnt care if we put these people in
shackles!).

The Asia That Globalization Created

So far weve learned that what we think of as globalization (using
my terminology, we might define this term as: unparalleled levels of
global-cultural interchange/permeability) arguably had its
early stirrings with the first empires 2,000-3,000 years ago and then
experienced a massive upsurge during the period of colonialism and
imperialism from the 15th to 20th centuries. The rise of mass media
in the 20th century obliterated spatiotemporal limitations on
communication, massively bolstering the potential for nearinstantaneous cultural interchange and unprecedented levels of
cultural permeability. And the remnants of this at-times horrifically
violent, exponential trend toward cultural interchange/permeability
can be plainly seen all around youthey are the conditions of the
modern world.
In an attempt to further elucidate this situation and help you to
understand the ways in which American/Western sociocultural
problems are shared by or affect every country on the planet, Im
going to make a few scattered remarks related to my experiences
traveling/teaching in Asia and studying Asian (more specifically,

Southeast Asian and East Asian) cultures. Ill try to articulate a few
examples of the obvious remnants of the process of globalization
and how those remnants result in many of the same problems that I
highlighted in my essay on America. We would do well to
remember that 4.3 billion people, or about 60% of the global
population, lives in Asia, and that, therefore, Asia is arguably the
best continent to study if one wishes to understand the situation of
the humans of the world today.
The most obvious (and arguably most deeply influential) remnants
of the process of globalization in Asia are the contemporary nationstate, the modern city, the capitalist economy, the practices of
modern warfare, and the ubiquity of modern technology. These
items constitute so much of the fundamental fabric of any society
that the landscape they produce is unmistakable. You know it all too
well, Im surethe skyscrapers, the traffic, the advertisements, the
crowded subways, etc.
This is why, upon arriving last year in South Korea, a land 10,000
miles from home, I had the uncanny sensation of being reminded of
the United States by much of what I saw and felt. That sense of
simulation, artificiality, speed, futility, and coldness that
characterizes any modern city was palpable in the Korean
metropolises (and eventually the cities in 10 other Asian
countries) in which I found myself. The signaling competitions
(Ill buy this to show you that Im cool, successful, wealthy,
etc.) that seem somehow inherent in individual-centric capitalism
were apparent in the expensive fashion and luxury automobiles
owned by most all Korean people.
The education system I taught within in South Korea (like the
education systems in many other Asian countries) bears remarkable
similarities to the US education system. It is characterized by hypercompetitiveness, teachers that are construed as almighty pitchers of
knowledge, a one-size-fits-all approach, an almost exclusive focus
on memorization, an absence of activities that promote creativity, an

overwhelming emphasis on results, the next milestone, etc.and I

think this is hardly coincidental.
This factory-like, pitcher-cup model of education is designed to
prepare students for the demands of working within a capitalist
economy and a do-as-I-say, take-your-role-and-listen-up corporate
work cultureyes, the very same capitalist economy and corporate
work culture that would not be in existence in South Korea if it
werent for the rise of capitalism and the corporation in the West and
the eventual imposition of these models, by Western
imperialists, onto Asian countries.
Capitalist economies and the societal arrangements that tend to
result from them are in place in virtually every Asian country. In all
11 of the Asian countries Ive visited and even in the so-called
communist countries of China, Vietnam, and Laos, there are huge
companies, massive income inequality, ubiquitous advertisements,
and consumerist cultures. North Korea might have a systempeople
receive government rations for many things and advertisements do
not existthat seems vaguely to aim for the real ideals of
communism (i.e. no social classes, no money, no state), but it still
has large companies, consumer goods, and an inherently stratified
society (societal stratification did not originate exclusively in the
West, of course), so it too has in many ways inherited the norms of
Western capitalist societies and is simply masquerading as
something communist. This is not to say that I am an advocate of
communismIm simply pointing out that capitalism has become a
preeminent model of economic/social organization worldwide and
that this state of affairs has consequences, some of them shitty.
One arguably shitty consequence of a capitalist economy is a culture
of competition (definitely operative in the Asian countries I visited
[though capitalism should not be considered the only cause]). The
petty competition that is so prevalent in American culture is in many
ways inherent in the capitalist systemcapitalism is based on
competition and accepts as a fundamental premise that some people

will become winners and some losers. Institutionalized

discrimination is also a nearly unavoidable consequence of
capitalism, as the rich are given preferential treatment by the law,
the education systems, and other institutions due to their ability to
pull some strings, as we say, and because money talks
(meanwhile, poor people are trapped in a cycle of poverty).
One can also see how violence and theft are inevitable by-products
of a system that results in such a stark contrast of living conditions
in the same area. Ive seen luxurious penthouses next to shanties
throughout Asiaa more striking manifestation of the situation in
the states in which rich suburbs exist a few miles from deteriorating
ghettoes. I dont condone unnecessary violence or crime, but is it
any wonder that people resort to desperate measures when theyre
nearly starving and their neighbors are clearly basking in a surplus?
Further remnants: as a white person in Asia, one often gets the sense
of an undue fascination or respect or resentment or even
subservience directed toward oneself by the local people with whom
one interacts. This is likely the result of A) a lingering set of
complex feelings about the historical white colonizers who claimed
superiority for centuries and changed everything, B) a set of
complex feelings about the rich white tourists who constantly show
up nowadays with absurd amounts of money and high-end
possessions, and C) a set of complex feelings about the global
popular culture that is utterly dominated by the presence of white
celebrity faces (subtly reinforcing a much older sense of white
people in higher positions).
These complex feelings often seem to involve feelings of inferiority
or inadequacy, which is all sorts of troubling and sad and shitty. And
its natural to assume that similar feelings exist in other places in the
world where white imperialists manifested destiny and where
white-world tourism/media permeates today. Based on literature by
people of color that Ive read, this is definitely the case in the states
among what remains of the decimated Native American populations

that once called the territory home and among most all people of
color who have been historically enslaved, marginalized, oppressed,
and discriminated against (and still are today in many ways).
And I should say more about the innumerable ex-patriots, tourists,
and immigrants in the modern worldan obvious result of
globalization. Recognize that the job I had in South Korea (English
teacher) would certainly not exist without the worlds colonialist
history. Its astonishing, throughout Asia, how many people speak
English and how heavily governments emphasize English-learning
in school curriculums. This is of course a result of the fact that
English is, more or less, the language of international business, the
language in which most of the worlds written information can be
reliably found, and the lingua franca (common-ground language) of
world citizens whose native language is not English.
This is not a coincidence, quite clearly. There are hundreds of
millions more native speakers of Mandarin (14.4%) than English
(5.43%) worldwide, yet English is the dominant tongue because it
was spread by the vast British empire of yesteryear and reinforced as
an international precedent by both world wars. Post-WWII, English
was seen as a prestigious language because of the great material
wealth of the United States and Britain. So, if you are a native
speaker of English, you likely dont realize that a history of
linguistic imperialism and a couple of favorable war outcomes
resulted in a world in which you possess an enormous advantage in
the global marketplace. I could not have taught in my program in
South Korea if I was not a native speaker of English.
For this reason and others, consider that the mere presence of people
like myself (Western workers, tourists, etc.) in Asia is both a
remnant and an extension of the colonialist history. The US State
Department estimated in 2011 that 864,000 Americans were living
in the Asia-Pacific region. Thats a pretty heavy saturation of
ongoing direct Western influence (and doesnt even account for
the massive number of Europeans and Australians that are also

living in Asia). I imagine that these occupants tend to have a more

cosmopolitan and open view of the world than the average American
institution and the underlying values of American culture, but I cant
be sure.
Ive certainly seen some fellow Americans behaving rather foolishly
in Asia. Ive also seen many Americans (myself included, I hope)
behaving totally respectfully, thereby contributing to mutual cultural
understanding and a healing of past wounds (ideally). Still, there are
countless aspects of the modern tourism industry throughout Asia
that have clearly arisen for no other reason than to appease rich
white travelers from the states and elsewhere, and the resulting
dynamic/state of affairs involving tourists and locals is in many
ways deeply troubling (Ill be taking a closer look at this situation in
subsequent essays on Beacon).
Theres also the matter of millions of Asians immigrating to or
studying abroad in the states and other Western countries, absorbing
many of the cultural norms, and returning to Asia where they
doubtlessly contribute to further internalization of various
Americanized/Westernized attitudes in the general populace. This
dynamic is, of course, not one-way: America has taken a fair share
of influence from Asian cultures as wellthe American
countercultural movements and spiritual renaissance of the 1960s
are in many ways traceable to the proliferation of the ideas of
Buddhism and other Eastern schools of thought during that time
period (personally, I see this as an example of a positive result of
cultural interchange; and as I said earlier, presumably there have
also been positive results of Western cultures impacting the East).
Once again, the key words are interchange and permeability.
Consider that most everywhere Ive traveled in Asia (even very
rural, nearly untouched places), Ive found American pop music
(seriously, a grocery store in the Philippines was blasting Eminem).
Ive also found kids/people wearing American sports jerseys or hats.
Ive found working class people who say Obama and smile. Ive

found American fast food restaurants and advertisements for

American products. Everywhere. One can imagine how
American norms (like labeling and judging other people, being
extremely competitive, etc.) are, to some extent, codified into
American pop-cultural products and shipped all over the world to be
internalized by the youth of other countries.
Consider also that every taxi driver in the Philippines (where 93% of
people are Catholic/Christian) seems to have a crucifix hanging
from their rearview mirror, and that multiple elderly Korean men
have tried to talk to me about Jesus (one of them went on to suggest
that a Korean virgin would be very good for [me]). As has been
mentioned previously, Judeo-Christian religions were the primary
ideologiesIts Gods will!used by European imperialists to
justify the
atrocities
they
committed.
These
religions
were propagated heavily throughout much of Asia during the
colonialist period under the guise of enlightenment and spreading
the good word, so many Asian people have inherited those really
fun, helpful sets of beliefs that tell them theyre inherently sinful
scoundrels who need to work their asses off to please God but
are likely going to incinerate for eternity in Hades anyway.
The absurd demonization and dehumanization of recreational drug
users (certainly recreational drugs are potentially quite destructive in
the case of some substances but likewise utterly benign and even
therapeutic in the case of the responsible use of cannabis or certain
psychedelic drugs) throughout Asiapeople literally get years of
jail time for possession charges (victimless crimes) or the death
penalty for trafficking in many Southeast Asian nations (e.g.
Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.)is also in many ways a result of the
colonial period and the Judeo-Christian intolerance of recreational
drugs in the West (though the British were certainly distraught in the
19th century when the Chinese told them to stop selling them
opium). Many of the policies surrounding drugs were instituted
during the colonial period, and the distinctly anti-drug attitude that

permeates much of Asia was further reinforced by the Single

Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, an international treaty that
undoubtedly reflected the United States and larger Western worlds
War on Drugs agenda at the time. Research and rehabilitation?
Nah, just lock em all in cages.
It should now be fairly easy to understand how/why many of the
deeply embedded American sociocultural problems that I addressed
in my essay on being a young American are, in the 21st century,
prevalent in Asia (and the rest of the world). The mechanisms of the
societies in Asian countries are terribly complex, so we should be
careful not to presume that were dealing with identical situations, or
that universal solutions to these issues exist. I merely wish to point
out that much of what I discussed in my last essay can be
observed in Asia too (and presumably most of the world)the
coldness, the artificiality, the sense of futility, the hurtful
competitiveness, the quiet desperation, the seemingly purposeless
labor, the alienation, the judgment, the taboos, the feelings of shame
and/or guilt and/or inadequacyand that there are obvious, welldocumented historical reasons why this is the case.
Though there is certainly a fair share of conviviality and positive
energy (the human race always seems to find those somewhere) as
well, these unfortunate conditions seem to be almost inherent in the
model of mass society that arose in the West and was eventually
exported most everywhere else. The specific iterations of the issues
might differ, but the very conditions that give rise to them would not
exist if it werent for the global propagation of Western modes of
life and understanding. Even the rare people in the world who have
largely evaded these models (certain indigenous peoples) are
nonetheless affected and endangered due to the global-cataclysmic
potential of hypothetical nuclear war and/or continued
environmental decimation. A quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.
seems germane, so Ill just leave this here:

What Im saying to you this morning is communism forgets that

life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social. And the
kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism
nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis. It is found
in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I
say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see
that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation,
and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple
evils that are interrelated.

In Sum
So there you have ita totally-incomplete-but-hopefullyilluminating story of how the sociocultural machinery of America
(or, originally, Europe) was reproduced across the world in the past
few hundred years (in accordance with a larger trend toward cultural
interchange) and wrought/wreaks physical and psychological havoc
on Americans and the people of most other countries. Let me stress
yet again that this essay is scattered and insufficient, as I promised it
would be. The topic is simply too huge, but hopefully this piece has
accomplished its aim of broadly sketching the origins of our global
situation and can be a launching-off point for further study.
Furthermore, this essay has sort of consisted of me defecating all
over Western (and, subsequently, global) culture, but I want to make
it clear that every culture has committed demonic, hideous acts, and
that every culture has ostensibly positive and negative attributes.
The West didnt invent the dark side of human natureit was just
one in a long line of cultures that have dominated or destroyed other
human beings, and its certainly not the case that the rest of the
world has been saintly or angelic for the past 500 years. Its also
worth considering that globalization (though a violent process) and
global capitalism (though environmentally destructive and
dependent on inequality) have arguably produced a number of
desirable outcomesmodern medicine, access to the worlds

knowledge, space travel, material prosperity, communication with

no spatiotemporal constraints, etc.for many people of the world.
Furthermore, its worth reflecting on the idea that globalization was
likely inevitable (after a critical mass of technological innovation)
and that a certain amount of violence/injustice was likewise an
inevitable result of such momentous global changes. Neither of these
last two points suggest to me that we cant yet improve our systems
and learn from the missteps of those that created the present
situation.
Whatever the case, we cannot change the past, and I dont think we
should hold grudges against individuals living today for what their
ancestors did decades or centuries ago. We should, however,
remember the bloody history that birthed the modern world and
strive to not repeat the mistakes of our forefathers. Unfortunately, I
think Aldous Huxley said it best when he wrote:
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the
most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
So one moral of this story is that we ought to be
vigilant and aware of the global situation (and of the dark side of
our own nature), lest we turn a blind eye to contemporary
manifestations of the same greed, racism, and superstition that drove
my ancestors to enslave and dehumanize most of the world. We
ought to feel a sense of responsibility to atone for the failures of our
predecessors by being generous, conscientious, kind humanitarians.
Another moral of this story is that a healthy amount of cynicism
about human nature is probably an indispensable defense
mechanism in this worldbecause people suck, and they will
disappoint you, Im sorry.
A final moral of this story might be that the circumstances of any
society or of the entire world are never and can never be ideal.
Many/most people in the contemporary world eventually come to
see problems with the culture, society, and/or belief system into

which they were indoctrinated. We can and must (unless selfdestruction sounds cool) try to change our sociocultural structures to
make them more human-friendly, compassionate, sustainable, and
liberating for the people and animals of the world. But they will
never be perfect.
So in the final analysis, each person alive today is faced with an
ultimatum: give up on life (commit suicide or fall into selfdestruction), or find a way, via whatever possible means, to cope
with ones cultural baggage and be content in spite of the ways in
which one was abandoned, marginalized, and/or screwed. It seems
that most all of us have, in some way, been done a disservice by the
structures of this outrageous world into which weve been born. We
can curse those structures and see them as reasons to hate ourselves
and everything else, or we can do our best to see through the set of
preconceived values and assumptions into which we were
indoctrinated to perceive something (arguably) magnificent lurking
beneath it allthe opportunity to experience and love and form
communities and express ourselves and discover our own way of
thinking and being in this sprawling, marvelous cosmos.