In your opinion, in general, is the world today better than when you were a child, worse than when you were a child, or about the same.
I’m talking over all status of the planet and its inhabitants. I’m adding an age range in here just because I’m curious.
StG
I’m 40 and I’m going to go with “world keeps on turning”.
When I was a child, people worried about crime, drugs, gangs, out of control youth, the economy, income equality, war, terrorism, immigration and social change.
Nowadays, people worry about different crime, drugs, gangs, out of control youth, the economy, income equality, nuclear war, terrorism, immigration and social change.
In general, the world is worse now than it was: pollution, less resources, more population, less food, etc. etc. etc.
However, on an individual basis, in most places (and especially for me personally) living in this shitsack world is better… if only slightly. Better food for cheaper, with variety far beyond what was normally available back then. Medicine is better, mostly; we’re even close to curing cancer, and AIDS isn’t the bogeyman it once was. I see people every day tooling around in motorized wheelchairs that would otherwise be confined to hospitals or their homes, and that’s a good thing. And technology, don’t even get me started. When I was young, "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was far-fetched futuristic sci-fi impossibility. Today, it’s not uncommon to see ten year old children with cellphones that do everything it did, and lots more besides.
Of course, the bad is getting worse, too… marijuana’s all but legal, but meth, crack, ‘bath salts’ and even worse drugs are available: Krokodil for one. Gangs are worse, wars are worse and more frequent, and the spectre of nuclear war has come back to haunt us once more.
So, overall, things are worse but for the individual they’re a little bit better. Kinda. Mostly. Somewhat. I guess. Maybe.
I’ve been unable to find a good link but Stephen Pinker does a good job of showing that in many respects the world is more peaceful, more prosperous, more eglatarian and with greater respect for human rights than ever before.
Its a very, very, long way from where we should want it to be but things really are improving all the time.
Personally I’m generally optimistic for the future, horrible things are still going to happen and there will be local or wider reversals but things will continue to improve.
I agree with this, but those improvements are really anthropocentric. Back in '83, when I was a little boy first learning about biology, an immense number of other species and entire ecosystems (the Arctic, tropical rainforests, Boreal old growth forests etc.) had it way better than now. Of course, all the development that led to their demise was well on its way even then, we just didn’t care.
Technology is great – I love living in the future! But there is the whole increasing proliferation of nuclear weapons, advances in biological warfare, and then there’s the whole “climate change may wipe out mankind by 2100” vibe. But there is much more tolerance of others than there was when I was a wee lad.
I’m 26 and I think the world has radically changed for the better since I was a young child. Gay rights alone have come miles and seem to be on an inevitable trend upwards (in most of the developed world), when before I was 13 it wasn’t nearly so obvious things would be going this way.
Not to mention the advances in medicine, science, and technology.
Much worse. All of the good things like medical and technology advances are more than offset by the burgeoning world population. The pressure put on food and water sources, the environment, and on natural resources is not sustainable at this rate. And yet, birth control is a dirty word in many circles, and actively discouraged by religious sects. It’s been predicted that future wars will be fought over water rights, and I see no reason to think otherwise. I won’t see it, but my great grandchildren just may.
There was no option for me! I voted “Age 31-35 - The world is a far better place than when I was a child” even though I’m 41.
Is there any objective measure by which we are worse off now than 30 years ago? I can’t think of any.
All you who talk about the increasing population, I have good news for you: We have reached Peak Child! The number of children in the world has stopped growing.
All the serious problems we foresee are easily solvable with the resources we have. All we need is to organize ourselves just a little bit better, and to give the nay-sayers a huge kick in the behind. Those who are convinced the world is getting worse often won’t lift a finger to make it better.
Our enemy is our own potentially self-fulfilling prophecies of doom.
Really tough question StG.
I said slightly better. I think overall, people are opening their eyes ore to what’s going on around them. People seem more willing to help. I know animal rights have gotten way better. Diseases that were a death sentance 40 years ago now have a brighter outlook.
The world ain’t perfect, but I think it’s moving in the right direction over-all.
Neat poll, clever idea.
My only concern is that what defines “better” and “worse” is obviously not universal.
Someone who is 89 would say the world is better today because they have an indoor toilet, but it may be worse because there’s …etc.
The world is slightly better as people are opening their eyes and becoming more aware...and the first example you give is ‘animal rights?’
People who think animals have ‘rights’ pretty much sum up how the world is worse than ever before.
And here I thought the argument was still theism vs humanism.
51-70, slightly better. But the potential for the world to be much worse is greater.
I’d say the world’s much better. When I was born in 1980, half of Europe was under Soviet communist rule. A wall bisected Berlin. Based on the reports I’ve been reading about what Britain was like when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, parts of Western Europe were a mess, too. Argentina and other South American countries were under military rule. Apartheid was alive and well in South Africa. China was still coming out of the Maoist nightmare.
All of that has changed for the better. In the US, rights for women and racial minorities had already been won in 1980, but acceptance and integration have advanced greatly in the subsequent decades. Gay rights has advanced by light years. The computer revolution has mostly improved life for everyone.
All in all it seems to me that the world is mostly much better for people now than it was in 1980. Some things got worse. The AIDS crisis was mostly in the future when I was born. Aspects of the culture may have worsened. But looking at the big picture I think things have improved.
New problems have certainly cropped up in this modern age of ours and there are a couple of disturbing new trends that will need to be dealt with. But by and large we’re living in much better times now and things are generally trending upward. I’m 59.
Population – growth is slowing markedly; once we get through the boomer crunch demographics will smooth out and this rock may even start to be less crowded.
Environment – for the most part we’ve recognized the damage mankind can inflict on the planet and are taking positive steps to correct the issues. We may even be on the verge of some technological breakthroughs that may work outright miracles (hint, we need to stop burning fossil fuels for energy).
Speaking of technology, researchers are learning all kinds of new stuff every day and I don’t mean just cool new apps for finding your friends at clubs, I mean in the important fields of medicine, energy and technology.
And, finally, while people still may have their annoying foibles, people have generally never been more progressive in their views. Don’t let message board hysteria (not necessarily found here) sway you into thinking that we can’t manage our differences better than ever before.
/endrant
I’m 45, and voted for “nothing ever changes”. Which isn’t technically correct, but taken as a whole I think is pretty accurate. There are things that are better than when I was a child (no more threat of Global Thermonuclear War); there are things that are worse (threat of terrorist nuclear attack).
It all evens out in the end.
That’s an encouraging lecture. But explain to me how the Oglala Aquifer is going to be replenished. It’s being depleted at a rate that far exceeds the replenishment rate. It’s the largest water source for much of the midwest and soutwest US. Both areas have been in a sustained drought for a few years now, and the forecast for 2013 is more of the same. It’s easy to say simplistic things like “all we need is to organize ourselves just a little bit better”, and quite another to get anybody to either listen or to take positive action.
I’d also like to know how anybody is going to convince Russia that they need to take action on Lake Karachay (arguably the most polluted place on the planet) or Lake Baikal. The Aral Sea is actually disappearing, and viable crops along with it. But gosh, let’s just go kick them in the pants and they’ll take care of it in a jiffy.
I voted “51-70, the world never changes”
It was the closest I could get to "the world isn’t worse than the old days, and there is no such thing as ‘the good old days’ "
There are some things that are better. I have a father still because of advanced medical technology. Thank God, literally, for coronary bypass surgery.
And, as my dear grandmother told me when I was in high school, she didn’t believe in The Good Old Days either. She said she thought life was easier with refrigerators, air conditioners, indoor bathrooms, indoor running water, electric lights, and washing machines.
That was supposed to be “Age 31-50”, just like all the others in that group.
I don’t even think most of that is true. There are more people obviously, but food seems to be less of a problem. Pollution is less of a problem.
Food is less of a problem where, exactly? Ohio?
Here are some photos of Beijing for you to ponder. That crap in the air doesn’t just stay there; it gets picked up by prevailing winds and ends up everywhere else. Deforestation continues in South America; it has declined in recent years, but the damage has been done. The lost of that much green affects world climate.
The reduction in birth rate noted by a poster above is somewhat irrelevant. The world still has 7 billion people who, at a birth rate of two children per woman, are replacing themselves unabated. With food and water already disappearing without replenishment, this means sustained resource depletion for the foreseeable future.