In the first half of the century, physics radically changed our understanding of physical reality and what we can do with it. The second half of the century belonged to biologists, who may be changing what we can be. As the century closes in a triumphalist mood, it may seem churlish to wonder whether such contentment is quite the right reaction to a century in which there was so much tragedy and murder to be triumphed over. Still, health, wealth, freedom and respect have been expanded more rapidly and distributed more broadly than could have been anticipated, or even imagined, in 1899. Socialism is now as barren an ideology as fascism.
People seem more comfortable with compassion, looking down.
In November 1911, Arthur Balfour, an aristocratic philosopher-politician emblematic of that era, abruptly resigned as leader of Britain's Conservative Party. Today's triumphalism should be leavened by such a sense of how long the long run is, and of the impermanence of things, especially triumphs.