Camping reminds me how filthy the early settlers - of Australia, of the United States, of anywhere - must have been. No soap, fresh water hard to store, clean clothes a luxury. How we came to value cleanliness must be a story that closely intertwines technology and habit: soap makes cleanliness possible, which drives the demand for soap.
Perhaps in some ways it parallels the expansion of empathy, which has now reached mammals, provided we’re not planning to eat them. We read revolting accounts of the Roman holiday, with defenceless human beings torn apart by animals, and wonder how they could find it amusing. In the future - when we’ve learned to make meat without animals, say - our descendants will be just as baffled by us. So perhaps the Roman and medieval sensibility was changed by political developments? You have to believe slaves have no feelings to treat them so; when they are freed you’re confronted with the realisation that they haven’t grown feelings overnight. Had always had them, in fact. And where does that leave one's conscience?
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