The Arc Of Human History

I'm positive there are some sociologists and students of history that could put a finer point on this than I can but of late I've been struck by how much the history of so many civilizations have followed the same path. I'm not talking about the rise and decline of Rome and the British Empire and what that means for the U.S.

Let me give two examples of what I'm talking about.

The Kyoto Protocol and the attempt to limit greenhouse gases. Industrialized countries in the West (Europe, U.S., Japan, etc) built their strong economies on the back of consuming many natural resources including, but not limited to, coal, petroleum, and wood. Now we have strong economies that can, on some level, start to move beyond that but we've consumed so much of the world's finite resources. We've learned that there needs to be another way but those coming along behind us (Brazil, India, China, and much of the Third World) want/need to consume the same resources to "catch up."

Women in Sports. There was a story on NPR this morning about Julie Foudy holding a soccer camp for young women and teaching them the benefits and lessons of sport competition. We mostly take that for granted in the U.S. but two attendees to her class were from Afghanistan and Morocco. When interviewed both young women said how it was just inconceivable in their countries that women should or could play sports. It wasn't all that long ago that it was the same way in the U.S. Those two women might be pioneering the changes for their own countries.