Are We Sure We Are Not the Bad Guys?
Every generation looks back in horror at some of the things previous generations did.
We look back and wonder how they could possibly have believed what they believed, permitted what they permitted, defended what they defended, and failed to see what now seems so obvious.
How could educated people have supported slavery? How could doctors have promoted cigarettes? How could governments have allowed lead to be pumped into the air through petrol? How could respectable professionals have endorsed eugenics? How could opiates have been celebrated as a miracle drug? How could whole societies have allowed industrial cruelty, medical barbarism, institutional abuse, environmental destruction and the organised mistreatment of children while still thinking of themselves as decent?
