According to the book of Genesis, the first humans lived in an earthly
paradise. But man's natural state was no Eden. Instead, it consisted of grinding
poverty punctuated by horrific violence, terminated with an early death. Yet despite
the progress since our caveman days, many think there's something inherently
alienating or unfair or just plain wrong about the present. People long for a
return to tribal solidarity, where we were all in it together. Our inner
primitive cries out, "There must be a better way!" But there isn't. Look around!
You're at the end of history! It's time to rethink human progress.
Here's a thought experiment: Imagine an alien is assigned the task of observing the
progress of humanity for the first 250,000 years of our existence, but it
can only visit once every 10,000 years. On the first visit, it would see semi-hairless,
upright, nomadic apes foraging and fighting for food. On the next visit,
it would see the same thing, and again and again, 23 times over 230,000 years.
But on the 24th visit, the alien would see that we stopped foraging, and started
farming. However, in some ways, humans were actually worse off: Our diet got worse,
and tedious, back-breaking labor filled our days .So still, life was poor, nasty,
brutish, and short. But on the twenty-fifth visit, the alien's ship would
probably be spotted by NORAD! So how did we get to the world of today?
Well, it's a long story, but part of it is that after thousands of generations of trial
and error, we discovered some best practices. But we also discovered or
stumbled into what I call The Miracle, which was a revolution in our
understanding of ourselves. For the first time, the individual was sovereign.
Innovation was honored. Our rights came from God, not from government. This
revolution in attitude transformed the human condition. It unleashed this
explosion of wealth. With more time, more money in our pockets, and a culture that
rewarded innovation and invention, people's lies were no longer poor, nasty,
brutish, and short. Food improved, diet improved, health improved.
Access to electricity went up. Literacy skyrocketed, as did life
expectancy, population above extreme poverty, food supply, vaccination rates,
GDP, you name it. Just about every measurable aspect of the quality of life
has flourished from The Miracle. Consider just one story from our recent past.
In 1924, the son of President Calvin Coolidge got a blister on his foot while
playing tennis on the White House lawn. It got infected, and within a week he
died! And that was the president's son! We've come a long way since then. Today,
drugs as commonplace as penicillin can wipe away infections that once killed
Calvin Coolidge, Jr. But what about the problems that still plague us today?
Can't things improve? Sure, of course they can! We can get richer, we can solve many
of these public policy problems that plague us, but we can't improve upon The
Miracle's core assumptions. For virtually all our history, humans lived in small
groups. Politics, religion, and economics were all personal and tribal, defined by
the group. Humans have a strong coalition instinct that helps us forge alliances
based on loyalty and reciprocity. Every anti-capitalist political ideology
believes that society should be like a family, a tribe, a small community where
everyone knows each other and works together. Identity politics is just a
subset of this worldview. It says, "My tribe deserves more than your tribe."
The Miracle of the modern world requires us to hold our tribalism in check. Think
of it this way: Capitalism isn't natural. Democracy isn't natural. Human rights
aren't natural! The only things that give these institutions and ideas lasting
power is our commitment to them. Nothing prevents us from walking away except our
own refusal to do so. Without effort, civilization dies, because that is what
civilization is: effort. That task isn't over, the work isn't done, and it never
will be! And anyone who wants to "improve" upon the principles that made the
miracle possible isn't actually interested in progress. Calvin Coolidge
never got to see the technological marvels that we have today, but he
understood that the principles that made the miracle possible were timeless. "If
anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in
which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time
when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people."
Thanks for watching. If you want to learn more about my argument in my book,
"Suicide of the West", visit JonahGoldberg.com. Also, let us know what other topics
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