Listening to that section on the Roman crowds calling out punishments and feeling empowered because they have input into destroying someone, I kept thinking about twitter mobs. Other bits made me think of the way people tend to react to political differences, or the way some view our justice system.Finished the episode a little while ago. For me, it was the best episode he's put out since Blueprints. Definitely an angle on history I haven't thought hard enough about before. Also, I found the section on the lives of pre/early-modern executioners to be especially weird and fascinating. Although I think Dan could have maybe kept going and dug into the idea of humanity deriving enjoyment from inflicting suffering on others still being a cornerstone of our modern penal systems, that might be a subject for another episode/show.
I don't think we've changed much in wanting to see other people hurt and deriving satisfaction from it, or even in the excuses we use to justify that desire ("they're bad and deserve it" "deterrence!" etc). We've just changed in what's acceptable to do to people.
Some sort of progress, at least, even if our desires are the same as they always were.
Kind of a depressing episode. :P