June 5 Meetup: Are we the apex of human civilization?

Details

-- superior in wisdom and righteousness to all previous generations?

Of course we are, right?

Well . . . maybe before reaching that conclusion we might want to consider that quite a few previous generations considered themselves to be the ultimate in human wisdom and righteousness, but now we judge many of them very harshly for their actions and beliefs.

We might also want to consider how future generations will look at us. Will we be judged by standards we can’t even conceive of now?

In this meetup we’ll take a look at the psychological roots of “presentism” and “chronological snobbery” and consider whether we ourselves may be trapped in that kind of thinking without even knowing it. We’ll also think about the dangers of holding those perspectives. We will then try to develop some ideas for helping us avoid that trap.

There is no need to read anything beforehand, but if you're really interested you may want to check out some of the following:

Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Philip E. Tetlock, Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan
George Friedman, Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe
Robert Kagan, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World
Jonathan Gottschall, The Story Paradox
https://www.npr.org/2017/03/24/521360544/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations
https://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/retrospectives.pdf
https://www.cato.org/commentary/united-states-once-sterilized-tens-thousands-heres-how-supreme-court-allowed-it