Letters from 1719 reveal familiar worries of London life
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
I personally believe this phenomenon is the cause of a great many of the current problems we have today. Excessive greed and hoarding is a fear response. Rabid political polarization either to try to fix the problems we face or ignore them and protect our mental health. There is a large shortage of faith in the future, and there's a lot of realization that technological advancements of the past have created some of the overwhelming problems we face today.
Distraction and nostalgia are the best selling items in the modern world. Depression and suicide are the highest they've ever been. The social fabric is unwinding, and communities are dying, and an article like this comes along that makes me wonder just how it would feel to struggle and strive in a world in which the future had so much potential.
Who knows though? Maybe this feeling is something that was pervasive in these times.
Just a nitpick. I don't believe that political polarization is today any worse than it was in the past, and if anything it may be less and diminishing overall. Bear in mind that for much of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, people (not talking about militaries here but regular civilians) in even the most developed countries of these times would regularly beat each other to death en masse over political issues that today might seem absurd as causes for such violence. Yes, people in many parts of the world still do this, but it seems to be diminishing and certainly has done so in the most developed nations.
Pervious to the 18th to 20th centuries, the polarization was even more deadly, except that innate human tribalism was hinged around religious differences more than purely ideological/political ones of a secular nature.
Even the idea of "misinformation" being a a record modern problem is absurd. I invite anyone today to read the grossly biased, rabidly yellow journalism of any time before the late 20th century to see just how blatantly manipulation of popular beliefs was practiced by almost all media sources then available, for one motive or another.