The Horse's Carriage

Historians recorded the year 2025 as the last year humans used to gather in large groups. Back in those old days, humans used to travel freely, for leisure or business. I know, this seems weird enough, why would you travel if you can do everything while you're at home, let alone the risk of illness and hardship humans used to go through? Let's take a journey back to that great and interesting human era. 

 Our ancestors considered physical contact as a normal thing, they were hand shaking, hugging, and in various parts of the world, Eskimo kissing. They used to gather in large groups, celebrating weddings, birthdays or just laying down to "sunbath" on beaches. Humans also used to organize large gatherings to meet, learn or exchange value, in what was known as the Events industry. To simplify the concept, this is synonym to our regular meetings today, however it was done while physically being present at the same location. The end of that era was sparked by a pandemic, which resulted in humans leaving behind their social habits and substituting them with -at the time- modern innovative means to socialize. Surprising many historians, the time it took to end that period was much less than the 50 years period it took to mark the end of the horse carriage business. 

 The horse carriage was the de facto means of transport for man for thousands of years. Humans were so dependent on horses in their lives that when a horse flu season hit, the economy was ground to a halt. Arguably, the horse carriage industry soared around the end of the 19th century. However, in the early 20th century that industry disappeared, going down from a whopping 13,800 companies in the late 19th century, to less than 90 in the dawn of the 20th century. The entire industry collapsed, and any traditionalist sticking to manufacturing and selling wagons, carriages, harnesses and saddlery were wiped out.  

 Traditionalists also tried once again, they were hanging on to their old-normal during the pandemic between 2020 - 2025, to a point that caused catastrophic and fatalities in many parts of the world. Businesses suffered, people went homeless, and economies collapsed. Those traditionalists were proven wrong. The world shifted to what we are living with now, our old normal. 

 Change has always been the only constant since the big bang, and Einstein, a brilliant scientist who lived during that era, was quoted saying "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results". When people were stuck in their own industries, trying to restore its heartbeat with high voltage electric pulses, using the most advanced defibrillators, they failed. People's habits change, and with it industries rise and industries get buried. Many people were not ready, and far from being resilient.  

 There will always be two friends, one who has a single year of experience repeated ten times, and the other who has ten years of experience. Guess who will be more resilient to change? 

 What historians and anthropologists found from researching that era, is that only people who were continuous learners, and humble were the ones able to thrive during tough times. That is the lesson we need to learn for the good of our species.