I mean, no they didn’t. Most people today weren’t alive to see what World War II was like. It was literally an entire shift in many nations where kids were being sent to die daily as cannon fodder and people were being genocided by the millions.

Can you imagine what it was like to be alive during the expansion of the Roman Empire, or the Mongolian Empire? Having your nation disappear as soldiers murdered everyone in power and raped and pillaged countries left and right?

Or the collapse of those superpowers? The collapse of the Roman Empire was earth shattering, economies failed at incredible speed, and people just starved as there was little way to buy or sell goods or services as things stabilized.

We’re just now far more hyper aware of the changes in the world because we get them as constant updates on our screens. But that means we should be more prepared to counter historical mistakes. Instead we are repeating them, and those in power are playing dollhouse with the world, again.

Only this time the effects are more permanent, because they not only affect the rise and fall of social systems and power, but also the literal ecological balance of the planet, which before now has never been dictated by human action like it is today.