The direction has not been to stop but to accelerate change. The Market has become a global power — that is an unprecedented transformation. The “great history” has been an infamous history of oppression — domestic and foreign — and one ethnic and nationalist conflict after another. Advances of a democratic nature — so threatening to the market — are finite compared to the ecological and social ravages so evident since the Industrial Revolution.
“I see him there on a night like this but cool, the moon blowing through black streets. He sups and walks back to his room. The radio is on the floor. Its luminous green dial blares softly. He sits down at the table; people in exile write so many letters. Now Ovid is weeping. Each night about this time he puts on sadness like a garment and goes on writing. In his spare time he is teaching himself the local language (Getic) in order to compose in it an epic poem no one will ever read.”
Anne Carson | “Short Talk on Ovid”