Imagining Hardins tragedy is a tragedy in itself. It would imply that throughout all of human history, the only way civilization has advanced at all is by being pulled along, kicking and screaming, by great men.

What an absolute bleak view of existence, of people, our neighbors and their compacity, capabilities and faculties. I can only assume that Hardin was so caught up in his tragedy he failed to realize how self aggrandizing it is. That it’s more a display of his contempt of people than his realizing a deeper understanding. Like a flashing neon sign that says:

Main character syndrome ↙️ 🙋

I think ultimately Hardin, and those that share his perspective, suffer from a form a Last-Thursday-ism, where they just can’t be convinced the universe didn’t form completely and exactly like this last Thursday, because it’s almost as if they put effort never taking the past into account, and assuredly if there IS a past, that they are more advance and smarter than anyone of “them” that “supposedly” existed. The fact that humans 250,000years ago were just as intelligent, just as clever, just as complicated - that they were just adapted to their environment (as are we all), is impossible for them to grasp. I’m sure attempting would cause them to stroke out. We are all cavemen. We just build our own caves out of tree bones, baked earth, or ground up and reconstituted rock.Modern contemporary humanity just has access to more knowledge, but we aren’t any more innately equipped for it. We aren’t any better at processing and memorizing it, or even responsibly attenuating and distributing it. With time, sure, we have maybe gotten better at describing it, but even there, perhaps most obviously there, we are far from complete. Language is still evolving, and accurate language to describe an enormity of what we experience does not yet exist.