David S. Mazel, on John Steele Gordon:

It’s been said before and it merits repeating: The pace of technology is tremendous. It should give us all a wonderful feeling about the future and how much our lives have changed as well as how much our children’s lives will change and, of course, who can say how our grandchildren’s lives will be lived.

As other fine people have noted, it’s not just technology that has progressed so much but health care as well. I might add that our nation has come far socially with the integration and assimilation of a multitude of peoples on our shores.

As we ponder the current problems of the world on this blog, it is refreshing to look at the immediate past and realize how far we have come. To look back only a few short years and see such progress allows us to look forward and realize that our predictions, while worthwhile for discussions and planning, can never take account of unseen technological changes that, for the most part, will improve our lives.

This doesn’t solve our problems, but it does allow us to give perspective to our sometimes gloomy predictions and to see that what we often worry about does not come to pass.

John, thanks for the lovely reminder.