Great article - we assume, though, that we're on this sliding scale between wealthy and destitute, with a third option of devastation (say, via nuclear war). The narrative in between, of which we're a part - dramatizing and experiencing and learning/evolving from - is full of winding twists and turns and not necessarily so black & white. Who's to say some new technology will render all of this a short bullet point in the full story of our generations presence through time. Kinda optimistic but sometimes a collective test of will can bring out some good results. Tides turn quickly and suddenly broken economies are fixed overnight with drastic changes (many examples through classical history especially Russia; industrial war complexes, austere measures of various kinds). The twists and turns may be ugly (say, war on drugs 90's or the middle east 30 years later) but they're done out of survival that all the dependent organisms thrive upon. In an indirect way and of course unintentional way, the average american profited/benefitted tremendously from the Great Wars as they did from the conflicts in the Middle East as they will from the Ukrainian, call it some kind of sick "industrial profit drive" that decides most domestic/foreign policy today. Like some immoral, incomprehensible Buckley's - tastes awful but it works. Fortunately, the optimist would conclude that the voice of true intelligence and moral aesthetic will prevail in some way and is already unified against the ugly sides of governance/media/culture. The beautiful and unpredictably dynamic nature of nature