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Originally Posted by eppythacher
These treads will also be important for future students and scholars to show how people thought in this time.
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Originally Posted by eppythacher
This is one of the things I don't understand about people or companies; that they are going against the tide of history.
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I hate to break this to you, but very few events are truly predictable in this fashion.
I also find it rather hilarious that you describe Amazon as though they were Luddites who resist changes. Amazon sparked and/or capitalized on numerous major changes in book retail (online sales, long tail, pushing ebooks, self-publishing). They are hardly dinosaurs of an earlier era.
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Originally Posted by eppythacher
How do you think history will judge the people that are anti gay, drug, and pro censorship?
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There is absolutely no way to know.
Practices that were tolerated, accepted or downright expected in Ancient Greece and Rome (homosexuality, pedophilia, death in sporting events) became outlawed, taboo and unacceptable in subsequent eras. A nation like Lebanon could swing from a relatively relaxed and liberal attitude towards social behaviors, to more restrictive social codes if the government swings towards a strict form of Islam.
Or, the Hispanic population -- which is heavily Catholic and not especially tolerant towards homosexuality iirc -- could continue to grow in the US, and may put the kibosh on some of these types of recent changes.
History is not teleological nor guaranteed to move in a particular direction.
Nor can we take unknown future attitudes as a viable guide for ethical behavior. Either you believe that gay marriage is acceptable, or you don't. There is no point cowering in fear over what judgment some unknown future observer will pass upon the present.