A defect in our social system

You may wonder whether there is moral advancement in history, but one thing is sure: many practical problems have been solved that once seemed insolvable; or existing solutions have been improved. Of course, I knew, but again I became aware of how times have changed, when I happened to read again Montaigne’s short essay “Of a defect in our government” (Essays Book I-35). In this essay Montaigne tells us that his father got the idea that every city should have an official that could give you all the information you needed. “For example: I want a chapman to buy my pearls; I want one that has pearls to sell; such a one wants company to go to Paris; such a one seeks a servant of such a quality; such a one a master; such a one such an artificer; some inquiring for one thing, some for another, every one according to what he wants. And doubtless, these mutual advertisements would be of no contemptible advantage to the public correspondence and intelligence: for there are evermore conditions that hunt after one another, and for want of knowing one another’s occasions leave men in very great necessity.” And indeed, when I grew up five centuries after Montaigne wrote these words, much had already been improved, and there were many people that could quickly give you the information you needed. But often you had yet to go to their offices or at least call them up. Moreover, the information was spread, so not concentrated in one person. However, since twenty-five years or so there is a simple solution for this information problem, a solution neither Montaigne nor his father would ever have dreamt of: The Internet. The nice thing about the internet is not only that you have a central point where you can get the information you need, as proposed by Montaigne’s father. But more, you have this “information office” at home and you can consult it any day and any time you like.
Also the two other defects Montaigne mentioned in this essay can simply be solved by the same technology. Montaigne mentions two scholars, one in Italy and one in Germany, who died of hunger, because no one helped them. But he adds: “I believe there are a thousand men who would have invited them into their families, with very advantageous conditions, or have relieved them where they were, had they known their wants.” Who wouldn’t be prepared to help such “rare and remarkable persons”, so Montaigne (and I think, also persons who are less “rare and remarkable”)? Also in such cases, without doubt, a call on Facebook or other social media website would certainly help to find a solution, for example by starting a crowd funding action.
The last problem mentioned by Montaigne actually tells us more about the man himself than about the problem, for Montaigne did know a solution but he simply didn’t use it. His father had engaged a secretary “to keep a journal, and in it to set down all the remarkable occurrences, and daily memorials of the history of his house”, like what happened in his castle, which works had been completed, who visited the castle, which travels Montaigne’s father and his family had made, which marriages had taken place in the castle, and so on. So this secretary kept a kind of diary of the family life and the castle. But apparently Montaigne was too lazy to do so and later he wrote “I did very foolishly in neglecting it.” But could he have used a computer, laptop or smartphone, wouldn’t the task haven’t been much simpler? Even more, many of your life events are automatically registered by the modern media and technology and doesn’t Facebook remind you again and again of what happened a year ago or who knows when?
Modern times, modern solutions. However, though in Montaigne’s days the problem was how to get the information you needed, now the problem is how to get rid of it. For it is not only so that you basically know everything about everything and everybody, but everybody also knows everything about you.