&gt; Looking back, as a history buff, I think the problem is that each generation felt that it was a special snowflake, so the rules didn&#x27;t apply to them.<p>There was one notable exception, though, that is the French during the Revolution. I&#x27;m now reading an excellent book by Mona Ozouf (it&#x27;s in French: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gallimard.fr&#x2F;Catalogue&#x2F;GALLIMARD&#x2F;Quarto&#x2F;De-Revolution-en-Republique" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gallimard.fr&#x2F;Catalogue&#x2F;GALLIMARD&#x2F;Quarto&#x2F;De-Revolu...</a>, the author is a notable historian of the French Revolution and its aftermath in the &quot;long&quot; 19th century: the 3rd Republic) where in one of the essays she says that one of the defining aspects of the French nation and its people was the fact that the people who made the Revolution actually believed in the universality of their beliefs, hence the &quot;Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen&quot; of 1793 (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_Citizen_of_1793" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_M...</a>), which was supposed to be universal and apply to all humans.<p>For some time the French did actually believe that they were superior to other nations because of their universalist approach in bettering the human condition. It all went downhill from there, obviously, as time marched on.