In 1,000 years, creeds are born and die.
Empires arise and crumble.
The rich and powerful show a chronic tendency to wretched excess. Not just the usual variety, either, like that seen today in a sumptuous summer place in the Hamptons or the outlandish goods sold in a Neiman Marcus catalog. Against the great overconsumers of the millennium, even the late Malcolm Forbes, who flew 600 people to Morocco for his 70th birthday, seems like a relative piker. With cases like that at the start of the millennium, there is little in the way of progress in this history. Provided they are up to the challenge.