I was reading this excellent overview of this history of slavery and segregation in American and one of the many things that stood out for me was the banality and normalization and rationalization of evil. To wit:
"The consequences of 250 years of enslavement, of war upon black families and black people, were profound. Like homeownership today, slave ownership was aspirational, attracting not just those who owned slaves but those who wished to. Much as homeowners today might discuss the addition of a patio or the painting of a living room, slaveholders traded tips on the best methods for breeding workers, exacting labor, and doling out punishment. Just as a homeowner today might subscribe to a magazine like This Old House, slaveholders had journals such as De Bow’s Review, which recommended the best practices for wringing profits from slaves. By the dawn of the Civil War, the enslavement of black America was thought to be so foundational to the country that those who sought to end it were branded heretics worthy of death. Imagine what would happen if a president today came out in favor of taking all American homes from their owners: the reaction might well be violent."
Since it is highly unlikely that we have finished human moral development in 2014, I asked myself and others what might look ridiculous / evil / "how could they do that?" in 100 years. By definition, some things on this list might make us uncomfortable precisely because we have normalized and rationalized them. I am putting both my responses and any responses I get on Twitter. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with any particular proposal, the point is to stimulate thinking.
- Global childhood malnutrition / basic health (vaccines, etc)
- War
- Women's rights
- Religious rights
- Factory farming / animal rights
- Drug 'war'
- Prisons (not being naive, but putting people in a time-out box at great $ expense seems pretty low-tech for the Singularity future of 2114)
- Driving and driving deaths (massive annual slaughter of people will look absurd in 30-40 years)
- Climate change
- Central Banking
- Slaughtering animals for foods
- Death penalty
- Whale killing
- Forced marriages
- Class
- Racism
- Famine
- Failures of International Law
- Abuse of antibiotics
- Drunk driving
- Non-electronic voting
- Gerrymandering
- Filibustering
- Four year mandates
- Gun rights
- Water misuse
- Patents on genetic seeds
- Mandatory and restrictive dress codes
- Genital mutiliation
- Fiat currency
- Individual car ownership
- Owning things in general (things - cars, homes, etc - will be rented)
- NSA dragnetting
- Death (we won't wipe out death for sure (shit happens) but we should strive for it. My bet is v. optimistic)
- Mental illness as we know it will probably be a thing of the past, either 'cured' or made 'functional' with assistive tools
- Top-down organizational structures / "bosses"
- Educational model of sitting in a classroom for 18 years with 20 randomly selected people
- Captive killer whales
- Displays of wealth, lavish hedonism while others lack basic needs like water
- Attempts to suppress monetary freedom
- Corporate sponsorship of politics
- Gladiator style sporting events
- Processed foods in affluent countries
- Drone warfare
- Much milder, much less blind patriotism as folks form even more cross-cutting communities digitally that humanize the "other"
- People being famous for having a reality tv show; fame in general
- Cross-national, cross-regional differences in per-capita GDP
- Current prisons. Online, always on monitoring will substitute it
- 3 hr+ baseball games having ever the status of America's national pastime :)
- Eating junk food / eating inorganic
- Smoking (good example of one in progress of being changed)
- LA - real public transportation to reduce pollution
- Size of defense budget / inefficiency of current defense contractor / government nexus
- Many things moved online (education, banking/fin svcs/counseling/ more 'remote' work)