The whole thing, though, is backward—for being at the center of the pre-Copernican universe had always been seen as a bad thing, not a good thing. Ever since the ancient Greeks—earlier, even—it had been the heavens that were considered to be perfect, and unspoiled, and aspirational. In other words, the further out one went from Earth, the more wonderful everything became. The center, by contrast, was where one found all the horrible stuff.
