Is the world better off than it was 100 years ago? I know some countries definitely are. But what about the world as a whole?
Infinitely.
Yes: people are living far longer, women have the right to vote in most countries, blacks no longer suffer de facto legal oppression in most of the United States, far more information is available at our fingertips on the Internet, medicine can cure and treat countless diseases and disorders before which people will were helpless a century ago.
Now there are some better aspects of the 1913 world (at least for the West): less cultural degeneracy, superior fashion (especially for males), orthodox Christianity being far stronger (although only in the West, the reverse is true in the rest of the world), and a stronger spirit of faith in progress and science.
Do you want to dress that way, in summer, before the advent of air conditioning?
I would say so. The internet, for one thing. And video games!
Better now? I would say so. Imagine the SDMB in 1913. We’d all be telegraph operators, communicating in Morse code.
2013 would win, hands down. We have a way better army.
Heck, I’ll take 2013 over 2003.
Really? Are you in any way familiar with the expression “The Great Binge?”
Hells to the no. Suits are still around, and we have other choices too. So we have even broader fashion today, and also more fabric choices, and generally cheaper too. In what way is 1913’s fashion superior? Clip-on collars?
Naah, that’s not “better”…
Definitely better in 2013.
This may come as something of a shock, but just five years earlier, 1907, infant mortality figures were such that fully 25% of all children did not make it to their teens - at least in the industrialised cities in the UK.
Even so, this was actually a significant improvement on public health just 70 or so years earlier, I have figures that suggest that mortality in those cities was absolutely startling. According to a Royal Commission report by Edwin Chadwick, the life expectancy of labouring workers was just 19 years, and for Gentry it was 44 years - and those figures were very heavily dragged down by abysmal infant mortality.
I do not have the exact figures for 1913, but it is not likely they will be any better than 1907, since the greatest improvements in public health were heavily influenced by the provision of clean public water supplies, and it was not until after WW1 that the required large scale investment was made in water storage, filtration, distribution and effluent treatment.
Plans and schemes for public health investment were in place prior to WW1(and had been mooted as early as the late 1870’s) however most of these were delayed due to that war.
There are also social conditions to compare, such as universal suffrage, social mobility, education, working conditions, imperialism and colonialism and international accountability.
You might give yourself a wry smile, but the fact is that military adventurism is absolutely miniscule in 2013 compared to 1913.
Couple of references for you that give you an idea of the situation in 1840 through to near the present day.
“The Sanitary conditions of the Labouring Classes” Edwin Chadwick
“Hidden beneath our feet - The story of sewerage in Leeds”
David Sellers.
This is not a good thing and this is my opinion as a Christian. The RCC is just now beginning to discuss (never mind actually addressing) the acceptance of homosexuals, the role of women in the church, and the issue of celibacy for priests. It sure as heck wasn’t any better an environment 100 years ago and the more fundamental sects of Christianity aren’t exactly leading the charge either.
Keep in mind that antibiotics hadn’t even been developed yet in 1913. It was entirely possible for routine surgery to lead to gangrene and amputation or death.
Unlike in 1913, we’re not a year away from a world war.
Right?
Overall, vastly better off. Few people ever stop to think that how much of the world’s population lived in squalor one hundred years ago. There are, of course, still hundreds of millions of people trapped in third-world slums, but percentage wise the portion of the world’s population that could fairly be described as ‘middle class’ is much larger. Moreover, life has gotten better even for the poor. The average Brazilian has access to running water and electricity now; not so much in 1913. The typical Chinese person has adequate food now; not necessarily a century ago.
There are, of course, some trends that are negative: the rise of radical Islam in the Middle East with resulting censorship and oppression of women, the ‘War on Drugs’ that punishes millions of mostly innocent people, etc… But we shouldn’t let the existence of some problems blind us to the good that has occurred.
I actually think that this is a sign of something rather different. For centuries women had been oppressed but didn’t even know this was happening to them, they assumed it was normal.
With the far greater spread of westernised culture, this has presented a challenge that Islam simply cannot cope with, the accessibility of information has made this private oppression far less viable, Islam is struggling to cope, radical Islam is merely a reaction to the modern collision of cultures but its one that Islam will have to deal with, and that will mean a type of reformation.
The information age cannot be but back in the box and forgotten about.
We have seen this long ago with the rise of non-conformist Christianity, where Catholicism has slowly had to drag itself out of the 14thC, Islam has yet to do the same.
+1
As I tell Euro friends who think the U.S. is one vast religious sea…people get the most vocal when in decline. Relgion is in decline in the U.S. you are just hearing the reaction of people to it.
Hats.
OK, if there is a world war a year from now, we know exactly who to blame!!
I agree that by almost every measure we are better off now than we were back then. But there are a few areas in which we are worse off.
- larger population and less untouched natural land.
- Although in many ways pollution is better now than it was before the environmental movement, our increased industrial capacity has made us capable of affecting the natural world in ways that were not possible in 1913 (massive Oil spills and Global warming).
3)The existence of nuclear weapons has in many way made the world more peaceful, but their existence allows for the possibility of an Armageddon undreamed of in 1913.
It has me in it now, so it’s gotta be “Yup.”