lots of dimensions have changed. the gilded age emphasizes dimensions of inequality in wealth and its undermining of democracy and corruption of power. we are worse on those dimensions now, and that’s beginning to corrode some of the other improvements you point to. 1/

the arc of history did okay for a while, but it’s pointing in a dangerous direction. and i don’t think it will bend back toward any kind of justice or improvement of mass circumstance unless we address those core imbalances. /fin