Evidence of Regression

The one detail that stayed with me from this article is how the owners of the old castle it refers to were able to tell that hard times had once fallen on its inhabitants in the distant past because they could see the point in the walls where the stonework became much less professional and well-made.

Out of all the different ways we could talk about how society can go backwards as well as forwards, it's quite a little thing, but somehow I feel like that sort of concrete example really makes the point more memorable than anything else might.

And while the article doesn't specifically call it out, there's another point that comes to mind - along with the loss of knowledge about how the successes of a previous era were created often comes the loss of knowledge about why we fought for them in the first place. Many of the things we regard as integral to modern society only became that way because there were people that advocated for them. It's a point we'd do well to remember as we criticize that same advocacy today.