 This issue—whether, and to what extent, alienation can be overcome in modern societies—is sometimes conflated with the issue of whether, and to what extent, alienation is a historically universal phenomena. To see that these are distinct questions, imagine that alienation only emerges in economically developed societies, that it is a necessary feature of economically developed societies, and that economically developed societies never revert voluntarily to economically undeveloped ones. These are not implausible claims, but together they seem to entail that, although only a subset of historical societies are scarred by alienation, if you happen to live in an economically developed society, then—involuntary Armageddon apart—alienation will remain the fate of you and your successors.