I hear what you’re saying but I think you defeat your own argument here with your cancer example. Is this moment any more significant than the one before it? You’re right that, of course it is not. But to say that things aren’t better (and still moving in that direction) is to ignore everything.
You say that a cure for cancer wouldn’t be that big a deal? I think that some people who have cancer might disagree. But you’re right in the way you’re looking at it: once it happens it’ll be forgotten and considered a “given” and we’ll quickly forget that it was a big deal. That doesn’t negate how big of a deal it actually would be. If you’re classifying a cure for cancer as “small” then I wonder what you’re hoping for.
As long as there is progress in the right direction (and the last 100 years on this planet have been explosive in the right direction compared to any time before; particularly with regards to human rights), then we’ll be fine. Will it always be a struggle? Of course. If it wasn’t then we wouldn’t get anywhere.
Really? That would suggest that things were much worse for the average human being in 1975 than they were in 1914. Do you honestly believe that? If not then you believe that even the “worst” part of human history was incredibly progressive and positive in its overall effects.
You missed the point. He (she?) didn’t say a cure for cancer would be a small thing for humanity. A cure for cancer would indeed be a very big thing for humanity. But not a big deal on the larger scale of the universe. That’s a scale of megaparsecs and billions of years, and humanity is just not all that from that perspective.
“Things” is too general. Things, in general, on average, on our little ball of rock, might, overall, be getting marginally better. But for every example of significant improvement in our lives (global marketplace, national outcry over passage of Prop 8, YouTube videos of funny cats) it’s easy to find examples of the opposite (widening gulf between rich and poor and cementing of new aristocracies, actual passage of Prop 8, YouTube videos of journalists being beheaded). I agree that the net movement is positive, but I would argue, forcefully, that it is incremental, marginal, and slow. And that’s even without getting into the cosmological point of view Anne pointed out.
I’m a cynic. I’m not “hoping” for anything. I allow myself to be surprised by, and enjoy, the positive changes when they occur, but I don’t believe they’re anything more than fleeting distractions from the large and intractable problems that we face, that we have always faced, that we will always face, because they are rooted in the very great flaws of human nature: shortsightedness, selfishness, self-absorption, tribalism. Sure, each step can be viewed as a success, I suppose, but keep things in perspective: it’s not much of an accomplishment to walk next door if you can see that the real journey is supposed to take you from Sacramento to Amsterdam.
While the Earth’s problems might be pretty small in a cosmic sense, as I happen to be living on the Earth, what happens here is pretty important to me. In the grand scheme of things, a house burning down is pretty insignificant. Unless it happens to be your house.
What concerns people is the very legitimate fear that somehow, societies problems will get worse in either their lifetime or the lifetime of their children. That as they get older, they will find their standard of living continually decreasing, they will be unable to find gainfull employment, that they will be plagued by crime, terrorism, pverty, war or oppressive governments and corporations. Or that things they once took for granted like clean drinking water, trees, food or cheap transportation might disappear.
On the other hand, for you cynics who think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, how bad off are you really? Are you living in abject poverty? Do you constantly have to deal with muggings and break-ins? Do you live in a war zone?
I’m not sure if it’s the same in the States, but here in the UK there is a widespread perception that crime is increasing and that generally society is becoming increasingly hostile and selfish.
When The Economist did a feature on this (sorry no cite right now), they found that these feelings were justified to an extent. They found that crime and other social problems can go through cycles, and that in Britain, the most recent high point was at the end of the 1950s; that is to say, things have been getting worse since then.
Therefore there’s a couple of generations who’ve grown up watching things get worse.
Having said all that, I find it difficult to imagine society getting any more compassionate any time soon.
Also, I agree with the general sentiment of this thread: that our standard of living is at an all-time high.
Oh, so you weren’t joking about the rest of the universe? If we’re including stuff that is happening outside of our Earth then I’m out of this debate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a science buff and love that stuff, but if we’re able to use examples outside of our solar system then I don’t think the discussion is particularly meaningful (with respect to the plight of people on earth).
I agree that it’s too slow, so we’re on the same page there. However I’m confused by how you can say that you are a cynic (below) and simultaneously admit that the the net movement is positive. If things are moving in the right direction, then logic dictates that we’re headed towards something better than where we’re at now.
I understand why people get upset at things like the passage of Prop 8 (it had me outraged and depressed), but once again it still doesn’t justify cynisism. Consider this: It was only 40 years ago when the term homophobia was only coined and when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of official mental disorders. It was less than 10 years ago that same-sex marriages were first legalized in *any *country and today this is the case in *several *countries (including mine). To say that we have not made enormous strides here in short time (though of course still too long) is just ignoring the facts. As I say, I understand why you are cynical, but it is based on the emotion of the moment and not on the facts of what has taken place and where we are clearly heading.
What concerns people when they hear about income disparity, massive layoffs, failing industries, the rise of countries like China, mass foreclosures and rising energy prices is that our standard of living might be at it’s all-time high. As in, it’s going to go downhill from here. And for a lot of people, their standard of living isn’t really that high in the first place.
While the trend has generally been upward, the idea of ending up like Michael Douglas in Falling Down - unemployable, obsolete, and alienated from society - is very scary.
History Channel has really been hitting the Nostradamus prophecies of DOOM! thingy a lot lately. There was another 2 hour show on it this weekend. I mostly just sat and laughed, especially when they started getting into the other modern prophets.
And to top it off last night there were 2 one hour shows on…The Bible Code! Which of course also referenced good ole Nostradamus as well (and repeatedly made the breathless claim that the odds of any of these predictions being on the same page in the bible was a zillion to one!).
They are on a roll lately, to be sure.
Naw…it only seems like that because events in our own time seem more real. Consider…during Nostradamus’ lifetime there was a rather nasty outbreak of the plague (plus several minor but equally nasty outbreaks of things like cholera), there were the usual endless wars raging across Europe, squabbles within the church, etc etc. It rather explains the apocalyptic language of some of his, um, predictions. The point being that things were MUCH more chaotic in his time than today. If you think about ANY period in human history it all seems rather chaotic and gloom and doom to the people actually living at that time. That’s because they are living it and don’t know how it will turn out…or looking back through rose colored glasses.
Because people are horrible at risk assessment and they tend to dwell on the bad things happening and disregard the good. Also, events seem more ‘real’ to people living through them than looked back at through the lens of history. 100 years from now most likely people will be thinking THEY are in the ‘end times’ and looking back at our time and wondering what all the fuss was about…while perhaps thinking we live in a golden age or something.
Also, people (collectively) are idiots.
Well, no idea if you are delusional or not. My advice though is…don’t fret.
I never said anything about relative conditions at those two dates. I merely said that the a lot of the worst things in human history took place between those two dates.