| > ...very few things we touch are truly better... I think the concept of anthropocene [0] is a useful one to put in perspective (in millions of years perspective) how out-of-place human activity is. We are in the midst of an epoch in which Earth is experiencing vast changes due to Human activity, whole eco-systems are being crushed into mass exctinction. We continue to operate as if we are somehow detached from Nature. You mention rituals and culture but to me it seems that the cronyism and corporate hunger of the extremely wealthy has an overbearing weight on this destruction, more than the average individual, mostly due to having the power to shape governments and policy. My intuition is that the extremely wealthy continue to pursue wealth as a dopamine hit (it is not out of need at that level of wealth) regardless of ethical consequences. Perhaps, at some point in a more enlightned future, we will treat the Jeff Bezos of the world, as mental health patients in the sociopathic spectrum. Rather than people that have power due to wealth, they will be seen as sociopathic patients in need of help to dissociate wealth from self-worth. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene |
For example, I do not think that "the wealthy" could make slavery fashionable in a medium, lets say two generations time frame.
This is because we have, at least in most places, accepted on a cultural and moral level that slavery is deeply wrong.
I do realize that you can argue with eg. cases in Bangladesh or children in African cobalt mining, but to bring back slavery in Europe or the US would take a massive cultural shift over generations.