I would say that for every 2 steps forward, there is a step back. When you study history, you find that we are gradually progressing, but every once in a while there is a setback for mankind.

For example, 250 years ago, every country in the world had a monarchy. Democracy had been written about for centuries, but it was seen as a pipe dream and those who were in favor of it were seen as idealists who were not living in reality. Today most of the countries in the world have a democracy or republic of some kind. There are very few monarchies still around.

And 100 years ago, racism was wide spread and most people in the world were racist. Yes, there were people who preached that one day there would be no racism, but they were seen as idealists who had visions of a utopia, and that we will never get rid of racism. But fast forward to today, and I think you will agree that not only is racism no longer considered acceptable by the mainstream, but most young people today are not racist -- probably the first generation where this situation exists.

Those are just 2 examples of major issues that mankind has tackled and come to grips with over the course of centuries. And yes, there have been setbacks. WWII was surely a setback for both of the above issues. But one could also argue that the response of mankind to WWII was to give an ever bigger effort to tackle these issues, and thus much progress was made in the period after the war. More democracies were born between 1945 and 1970 than in any other 25 year period in world history, and more was done to fight racism during that period than in any other period in world history.

If we learn anything from hisitory, what we learn is that new progressive ideas are first flatly rejected by the mainstream and those in favor of them are seen as extremists or radicals. Then when such ideas start to gain momentum in the general population, the mainstream resists them and fights against them with every available method. Then finally, the mainstream gives in and accepts the idea and works to force the progressive idea on any holdouts in the general population. Eventually the holdouts are few and far between, and they themselves are seen by everyone else as extremists.

This has been the patern of almost every major new progressive idea, whether we are talking about the idea of equality for all races, equality for women, democracy, labor laws, human rights, or new scientific ideas such as the earth being round and revolving around the sun. Much of what you today consider to be radical, will probably one day be considered mainstream.

And what does this have to do with the subject of this thread? Global Warming is following this exact trend. We have now reached the point where most of the mainstream is accepting, while some is still resisting the idea. In a few more years, this will no longer even be disputed, except by some extremists. We have even seen the Bush Administration cross the pond in the last couple of years.

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