It is not uncommon to run across arguments which insist that if a particular society does not exist now, it is unlikely to exist in the future. I often find this situation with free markets. The argument goes something like this.

If free markets are such a good idea, why aren’t there any free market societies?

My first reaction is to point out a similar argument from a past modern man. It goes something like this.

If feudal systems are such a good idea, why aren’t there any feudal societies?

If democracy is such a good idea, why aren’t there any democratic societies?

If farming is such a good idea, why aren’t there any agricultural societies?

If separation of church and state is such a good idea, why aren’t there any societies which separate church and state?

Do you see the pattern? The argument seems credible if you lived at the time the argument was made and it seems fallacious to those who lived later. I think the general problem is one of ego. Many people live with the assumption that humans are at the height of human development. Despite the obvious changes around each of us, we can’t get much farther than we are now.

It’s ego. Some modern people see only the past and cannot see any improvement in the future. I wonder if the popularity of End of Days preachers and fiction is in part a response from this kind of ego.