Most people are familiar with the sound of a baby crying, and they think that's the worst sound a baby makes. It isn't. A normal baby's cry sounds absolutely nothing like a baby screaming in agony, which is a fact I discovered the first (and last) time I saw a video of a circumcision.
Today we look back and can't imagine how people of centuries ago saw things like slavery and religious oppression as normal. Sometimes I wonder if we are equally blind to our own failings, and whether to the people of two or three hundred years hence we won't be known as the people who wrestled with racism or late-stage capitalism, but only "that civilization who mutilated a third of their infants".
Today we look back and can't imagine how people of centuries ago saw things like slavery and religious oppression as normal. Sometimes I wonder if we are equally blind to our own failings, and whether to the people of two or three hundred years hence we won't be known as the people who wrestled with racism or late-stage capitalism, but only "that civilization who mutilated a third of their infants".