No one designed the current world order.

As much as some men try to shape it, history is the textbook definition of a chaotic system. It's foolish to think that anyone can control it, and efforts to do so produce unintended consequences.

Mere men cannot design history.

Ordinary people, however, write history every day. The actions of founders, politicians, and water quality inspectors ripple through our lives.

If no one designed the world, how did we end up here?

We are the product of systems: gentle nudges that push us one direction or another. Our society has built systems that encourage technological innovation, economic inequality, and state violence at home and abroad.

When we have a "bad year" like 2020 (or 2019, 2018, 2017, ...) it's not because we're unlucky. Instead, our systems consistently push us towards these outcomes.

Individual actors don't make similar decisions because of grand collaboration. Rather, the systems around them encourage the same interests and biases.

Changing the players won't change the game. To change the future, we need to change the systems.