The Smiths and I have been reading this book:
_Sapiens_, by Yuval Harari:
Note that Harari cites _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel>. I have begun this, and now I need to finish it, too. Diamond has a related video @ _National Geographic_ online, or somewhere; I have watched part of it on my Apple TV.
"Interesting times" indeed. A pox upon it! (Except that we have mostly cured the poxes--take _that_, anti-vaxxers!)
And:
Some time back I had a look at this book:
The Triumph of Human Empire:
Verne, Morris, and Stevenson at the End of the World
by Williams, Rosalind H.
I had to return it to the library as we were setting off on a cruise; it had looked like a good thing to read, so I should get it again.
But then there is this on the subject of "progress":
I believe I had previously encountered the idea that most of our ancestors had never noticed that there was such a trend (because for most of human existence there was none--or it was so gradual that no [illiterate] generation could notice it; this is an interesting discussion of that novelty.
Recent events in U.S. politics may make us realize that progress is not necessarily permanent; if we are to build the future upon the accomplishments (and the hard lessons) of the past, the next few years are likely to loom large in explaining the decades that may be required for our recuperation.
And this (for fun...and yet oddly to the point):
This is from a truly great 1936 movie based upon H.G. Wells' 1933 book _The Shape of Things to Come_ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come> <http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301391h.html>; I doubt that this speech actually comes from the book, however.
Youtube may have at least one copy of the movie online. It is well worth a couple of hours for a couple of reasons.
Anyway, I am seriously displeased about the prospect that I may be well over the hill when Trump departs--and that his legacy could persist for decades beyond that.
Mark_
20 November 2016
