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Opinion Essay
The Structure of the Internet Should Change
How can looking at the history of the internet aid its current structural form?
A use of history that is typically conservative and without utility is when the past is held up to the present as what, instead, should be. For, what is currently, is seen as worthy of dispensing, and what was becomes viewed as a proper alternative.
As with any such uses of history, its application is just as much of a mixed bag as the perception of its effects. Furthermore, it projects an erroneous view of history –that there is an end goal to it, whose preliminary steps have been fulfilled, are being fulfilled, or are being thwarted from completion.
We tacitly project such ideals onto history in our moral thinking. There are genuine reasons to act in alignment with contemporary moral norms, but most people who act so do not know what those reasons are.
It is in virtue of such people and their consequent behaviors that the above-mentioned conservative view of history becomes compelling to many –for disingenuous behavioral patterns are transparent as being disingenuous, so when prevalent enough, widespread disenchantment becomes all but inevitable.