For most of human history most people have had very little freedom to think, express, write, create, and criticize as they see fit. From the dawn of civilization in Sumeria and Egypt more than 5,000 years ago anyone publicly criticising or contradicting officially sanctioned religious or cultural beliefs would face dire consequences. Orthodoxy was enforced through fear of punishment, and transgressors were cruelly dealt with.
In the Renaissance this began to change, as Greek and Roman knowledge and philosophy began to percolate into Europe via the Moors who had occupied Spain since the 9th centurx. The Renaissanbe was followed eventually in the 18th century by the Enlightenment, during which increasingly free thinking and philosophical inquiry combined with great creative and artistic ferment began to turn the tide against the deeply entrenched dominance of the Catholic Church over the lives of most of EuropeÆs citizens. The American and French Revolutions also signalled that the medieval world dominated by royalty, the aristocracy, and the Church was giving way to new ideas, such as the French RevolutionÆs ideals of freedom, equality, and universal brotherhood.
At the same time the rise of science began to transform the Western world with a number of significant new inventions. First the steam engine, and then steam-powered trains revolutionized transportation, opening up new vistas for those who could afford to use them. By the end of the 19th century these new technologies had been joined by other inventions such as the electric light, the telegraph, the telephone, the internal combustion engine, the automobile, photography, film, and a whole panoply of new industrial techniques that offered the average person far greater choice in consumer products than in the past when everything was made by hand. But the price of all this apparent progress was the gradual break-up of the traditional farming economy with the consequent...