> Imagine you're living through the events described in the essay. You know exactly where things are heading and that the situation is dire.
While your question is interesting, isn't this exactly the problem? People didn't know where things were headed.
> How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might.
We know things can go off the rails but we can't know when that process is occurring. We can only look back and decide that it has already occurred. If we manage to stay on the rails, we'll tell ourselves that we were never close to the edge.
While your question is interesting, isn't this exactly the problem? People didn't know where things were headed.
> How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might.
We know things can go off the rails but we can't know when that process is occurring. We can only look back and decide that it has already occurred. If we manage to stay on the rails, we'll tell ourselves that we were never close to the edge.