A golden age doesn’t mean a time of universal harmony or a time of unlimited joy or an absence of tragedy. We are humans, and tragedy, suffering, and rage are inescapable. A golden age is an age that in spite of all the pains that are normal and possible nevertheless creates something extraordinary. We think of Athens or the Renaissance as a golden age. Each was suffused with the human condition, from slavery to poverty to war, intrigue, and murder. But these things are common to all times. What we remember about the golden ages in history is not what was common to all times but what was
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