“History for humans used to be pretty rough. Poverty and violence were common for a long time. As the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes said, life was harsh and short for most of our ancestors. But things changed around 1700. It was like a miracle. Let’s go back and see how people lived before. Humans were wanderers, like nomadic apes. They hunted and gathered for food. Then, about 15,000 years ago, farming started. That was a big deal, though not the miracle yet. It led to the first real human communities.

The real miracle happened later, around the late 1600s. Humans changed the way they lived again. Numbers about money tell us a lot. Before the 1700s, most folks lived on about a dollar a day. But after that, their money shot up. Global money for each person started growing a lot after years of staying the same. Not just money, but ideas changed too. In the late 1600s, new thoughts came up in the West about how societies and governments should work.

For instance, look at the Glorious Revolution in 1688. William of Orange took over England from King James II. But instead of just taking power for himself, he made big changes. The Bill of Rights was one – it made sure the king couldn’t do everything and gave more power to the parliament. It was one of the first times when the people’s representatives had a real say in how things were done. If we want to keep this miracle going, we need to understand and use these ideas.”