The second concept is “design” vs. “nourishment,” which both seem aspects of advancement, the first more mind-jacking but trivial than the latter. We hunger for design the same way we lust after salt or sugar or fatty meats, because good design like complex protein at one point was hard to come by. However, just as our modern groceries and fast-food outlets provide way more food than we need, we are gorging ourselves on nuances of design — look, a new iPhone OS! — that provide little real substance. Our hunger has misdirected our focus, and the foundational support of real development — of clean water for the poor, of universal healthcare still lacking in a rich nation — are not funded with our attention. If anything, we push these more nourishing areas of progress aside because they don’t jack our minds, kick our endorphins, fill our personal hunger for independence, and we decry them as collectivism or socialism when really community is an important a value in society as liberty. Foundational support by nature is broad, and broad things require many hands to build and many people to lean on, and we’re uncomfortable with sharing either work or reward.

This second area seems a newer form of conflict. The first is part of history.