The bad old days, or are we sicker now?

Great Debates
1

I was looking at this great photograph I have of Marilyn Monroe that hangs over my television. She appears to be nude, having breakfast in bed. Looking ravishing. I got to thinking about what a screwed up life she had and how she ended up. And how Judy Garland ended up. And then I got to thinking about what their lives were like…and more things occurred to me, one after the other until I arrived at this conclusion:

Overall, Columbines, Eminem and internet pedophiles notwithstanding, we have a much healthier society today than we did 30-50-80-100 years ago. We have not cured human weakness, cruelty or madness, but by shining a light on it, applying compassion instead of fear, * not * turning a blind eye, we have a better, healthier, less fucked up society. And where the fuckups do occur, they are caught and treated much quicker, generally. At the very least, we don’t sweep these things under the rug.

Think of all the following and where we are today with them as opposed to where we were in 1945, for instance.

Alcoholism
drug addiction
manic depression
schizophrenia
violent child abuse
incest
child rape
wife battering

So, next time you are feeling really cynical and disgusted about the dreadful state of the world…just remember the bad old days.

(In GD because somehow, I just feel like someone ain’t gonna see it the same way. If I’m wrong, I apologize for cluttering up GD)

stoid

2

Then again, how prominent was AIDS back in the 1950s?

You win some, you lose some… there’re some aspects of health that have made leaps and bounds that would make Superman jealous, but other aspects have stumped doctors and scientists since time immemorial. Heck, just look at the common effin’ cold.

My own personal theory is that the big-time, population-obliterating diseases (influenza, smallpox, etc.), which at one time were regarded as more horrifying than Lucifer himself, have been reduced to existing in tiny test tubes in secret labs under the California desert (well, in America, anyway). With the exception of a couple of incurable diseases (AIDS, Cancer, etc.) which hardly have the transfer rate of something that can be caught just by standing near someone, we don’t really have many scary diseases running rampant. Although Ebola caused a lot of worry, and may still, although mention of it has died down.

(Note: I almost continued typing for three or four more paragraphs, but I started rambling, so I left it at this.)