On Cause and Effect and The Big Assumption

Ryan Avent exemplifies precisely what I was referring to in my recent post.

As I get older, I find there are two competing forces that define how one experiences contemporary events. On the one hand, the reservoir of previous experience upon which I can draw for context and perspective is steadily increasing. I can observe that I have or have not seen things like this before, and further, I can recall how other individuals and groups responded to previous events...This pool of experience provides, on the whole, a moderating effect...The difference, in what I know and what I’m able to know, between me then and me now, is incredibly vast.