> In 1859 Charles.Dickens@victoria.com wrote:
>
> > It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
>
> And then some time later, ckuecker@mcs.net (ChuckKuecker) wrote:
>
> > Having been around Europe and North America a bit, and this before the
> > Berlin Wall fell, I think the present American system is just about the
> best
> > there is today. Not by any means perfect, but preferable to almost any
> other
> > system I have personal knowledge of.
>
> I've also done a bit of traveling, including to China not long after the fall
> of the "Gang of Four", Nicaragua just at the end of the Sandanista period and
> Mexico over a few decades, as well as places with more attractive civil
> societies, such as England and Costa Rica (and even Canada) . . . and I have
> to echo Chuck's comment.
>
> There seem to be two elements to one's feelings about where we are on the
> continuum of progress: One is a study of history and the other is one's
> personal inclination to optimism or pessimism.
For some reason, this makes me think of something I read once...
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds;
The pessimist is afraid he may be right."
(Of course, pretty much everyone here, even the most optimistic, does
NOT think this is the best of all possible worlds -- just on the
right track to BECOME that.)
>
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