Harvey Mansfield: prediction

Transcript context

…Say, when it comes to technology, Machiavelli understood gunpowder, but the idea that our lives could be so safe—nuclear weapons, modern effective birth control, modern media—don’t all those things mean that modernity is, in fact, quite irreversible? Not so much those things, but the first thing you mentioned, gunpowder, gunpowder means the defense of the state. That’s especially what’s involved, and it seems that technology must continue. It can’t really be stopped or reversed because one country always needs to protect itself against another country. It’s that need for national defense that I think especially drives technology. Whether or not other new developments come is good, but it’s not necessary. It’s not something that you must have. Once somebody has gunpowder, then others must have it. That applies, of course, to all the modern military technology. Did Strauss think modernity was reversible?…

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