Quote Originally Posted by Bruno View Post

People seem to romanticize pirates as well, but piracy itself was brutal and ruthless. Same for the chivalrous knights who would commit the greatest atrocities in the name of the Lord, as for the era of Sherlock Holmes ... that was not too bad if you were one of the idle rich and not one of the factory workers who died at 35 or one of the serfs who did back breaking labor from dawn till dusk.

People romanticize things, and while it is true that we may have lost some things, in the end this is better than what we had then.
+1 to that. People tend to forget the brutality of the past. I especially find it amusing (well, at least in a sardonic sense) when people wax nostalgic about the pre-civil rights era in the US. "Times were simpler back then" when lynching was not uncommon, teen aged girls died from botched illegal abortions, people could have their careers ended for being gay or for simply being accused of being a communist, and he police and even the national guard were used to break up labor unions.