I think there is danger in idealizing the past. Yes, there are many problems in our modern setting that were not prevalent, if being there at all.

I often think of how often the West, especially academic circles, glamorizes Greek culture as being somehow progressive. But here's a fun (horrifying tidbit) piece of information. When it came to women, they were so ill regarded that it became common place to place a new born baby girl outside in the cold, left to die. The practice eventually led to a drastic decrease in female population. Another common practice in specifically Spartan culture was to have women dance naked on top of dinner tables, in group settings, to encourage them to remain in shape. Also, if a man decided he wanted to "mate" with a woman, she had no choice but do so, if the man was considered to be of high breeding quality. I found this in a book by Susan Wise Bauer, a professor of history at William & Mary. It's interesting when you think of how the foundation of Western thought is based around this culture. And these are but a few of the travesties.

When it comes to Native American culture, yes, in some tribes, people were cared for, but, again, it depends on which area you are talking about. Slavery was a common practice, as the trading of humans were spoils whether from war or a local dispute.

When it comes to "othering" it's very easy to find problems within our own culture, while placing another on a pedestal, after hearing a few positives hear and there about how the said culture supposedly acted. With this in mind, the "other" becomes glamorized, which is just as wrong as oppressing the "other" simply because they are different.

I think the true issue is that humanity has always been selfish. When you read social theory, this is how a society survives, by placing themselves over everyone else. When you read evolutionary theory, the same thing applies. Economic as well. It's always about the "ego". Therefore the question becomes, how does one suppress the ego?

In your post you mentioned consideration, and I agree. The world will operate as it always has. Yet we, as individual humans, can choose to impact those few around us, by selflessly placing ourselves, our ego, aside, and loving them. One must think locally. We can change the environment we inhabit, and hopefully there will be some offshoot. But this in itself becomes another problem, for if we are loving someone in order to do something we feel right, we are only doing so still based upon our own ego. Religious traditions, such as within Pure Land Buddhism (especially regarding Shinran), and Christianity, both address this issue, in that if we help the little old lady across the street, are we doing so because we love her, or because it makes us feel good since we are helping someone. This is my beef with so many people's ideas of karma. What goes around comes around is still innately selfish and self defeating. Regardless, I'm getting off track.

When we glorify the past, we forget about the present. It shouldn't be about returning to the past, or even changing the future, but about what we do in the here and now.

A good friend of mine once said, "Humanity believes they are so intelligent, when in reality all we do is fix the occasional problem we created to begin with, and then get excited about it when it could've been avoided in the first place."