The world is getting better, right?

[razz]

The media and doomsdayers are filling the spaces around us with gloom and impending drama of great negativity but occasionally the media does have a rep who says, "Wait a minute, let's think about what we are saying, hearing, repeating and believing".


What a refreshing perspective but the gloomers and doomers will have a hard time reading this.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/07/18/f-vp-schlesinger-wonderful-world.html

[catherine]

Great article shining light on the "glass half full." It's true that it's easy to lose perspective. DH for instance waxes nostalgic about the 50s all the time, but I remind him that BOTH his mother AND mine became single moms with young children, and the best they could get was minimum wage work and/or remarrying for financial security. His mother found a career she LOVED--when she was 65! (retail workers union administrator)--worked at it until her 70s and lamented that she felt she had a "wasted life" because she never felt she had that chance for a career when she was younger.

Hopefully those days are over. And even though the Zimmerman trial has been in the spotlight, I do believe we have made great strides with regard to racial equality in my lifetime.

Thanks for sharing.

PS: I have to admit that I also liked that the writer says that "The greatest danger to the march forward, though, is that it could be brought to a halt by a devastation of the environment that, as some predict, could spell the end of humanity." A little doom there, but I feel people really need to be reminded of that. When I was a kid in Catholic school, a nun said that a saint predicted that the world would end by fire. Back then it was the dawn of the nuclear age, so I thought nuclear war. But now, decades later, I'm thinking maybe we'll just smolder under the weight of greenhouse gasses and then there will be a spark and then we all burn up.

There's my cheery thought for the day!

[leslieann]

Delighted to see your post, razz, as my DH just sent me a link to the article. It is helpful to have an alternate perspective at least SOME of the time. And I, too, noticed his comment at the end...in case we might have forgotten....

[Yossarian]

I'm thinking maybe we'll just smolder under the weight of greenhouse gasses and then there will be a spark and then we all burn up.


More likely we all get frozen out but hey, the Sun will burn out eventually and then we are screwed either way.

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/clip_image002_thumb2.jpg?w=437&h=218

[JoshCohen]

Great article shining led lights (http://www.niceledlights.com) on the "glass half full." It's true that it's easy to lose perspective. DH for instance waxes nostalgic about the 50s all the time, but I remind him that BOTH his mother AND mine became single moms with young children, and the best they could get was minimum wage work and/or remarrying for financial security. His mother found a career she LOVED--when she was 65! (retail workers union administrator)--worked at it until her 70s and lamented that she felt she had a "wasted life" because she never felt she had that chance for a career when she was younger.

Hopefully those days are over. And even though the Zimmerman trial has been in the spotlight, I do believe we have made great strides with regard to racial equality in my lifetime.

Thanks for sharing.

PS: I have to admit that I also liked that the writer says that "The greatest danger to the march forward, though, is that it could be brought to a halt by a devastation of the environment that, as some predict, could spell the end of humanity." A little doom there, but I feel people really need to be reminded of that. When I was a kid in Catholic school, a nun said that a saint predicted that the world would end by fire. Back then it was the dawn of the nuclear age, so I thought nuclear war. But now, decades later, I'm thinking maybe we'll just smolder under the weight of greenhouse gasses and then there will be a spark and then we all burn up.

There's my cheery thought for the day!
It is nice article but I think world is getting worst place to live.. There is very less time for ourselves and which is most important to lead better life..

[redfox]

Like each of our individual lives, I see our world lurching forward, with backwards steps too. Civil rights have improved immensly. For example, though the drama & intensity of the dialogues about race, gender, class, religion, & sexual orientation can seem negative, there has been incredible progress on all fronts in the last 50 years.

[SteveinMN]

Like each of our individual lives, I see our world lurching forward, with backwards steps too. Civil rights have improved immensly. For example, though the drama & intensity of the dialogues about race, gender, class, religion, & sexual orientation can seem negative, there has been incredible progress on all fronts in the last 50 years.
At least in North America.

[redfox]

At least in North America.

Yes, and Europe as well. Things are hard in many parts of Eastern Europe, Latin America & Africa, though activists are raising the hard questions, and the civil rights movements of the 21st century, including marriage & gender equality and anti-racist work by people of all colors are moving apace, and globally.

[SteveinMN]

Oh, there definitely is improvement in many, many places. But all it takes is a trip outside North America -- especially to some of the faster-growing countries -- to realize just how much these causes have advanced here in the last couple of generations.

[Rogar]

I think the world is getting better, but really do not think the glass is either half full or half empty. Both versions are a glimpse of reality. I am reading a book right now that includes the first civilized contact with a remote tribe in New Guinea in the early forties. In all of the photos the natives have these huge innocent smiles in spite of probably a short life span, no education as we know it, and few modern conveniences. Contrast this to perhaps the epitome of civilization and culture. The faces of the busy sidewalks of New York City. So it sort of depends on the gauge used to measure "better". I have been a fan of Great Briton's "Happiness Index" or something like it. In my opinion, that is one of the great gauges of better.

The glass is half full with a longer life span, but on the news today the study highlighted showed that we tend to be unhealthy in old age with a compromised quality of life due to obesity, lack of excersize, depression, and alcohol use. The glass is also half empty. In the book, The Blues Zones, various global locations are featured where the people not only have a long life, but tend to be healthy and have a great sense of community. But when traditional western values and habits are introduced, life spans and quality of life decline. We tend to judge better by western values, not blue zone values.

Last century the world wars took millions of lives. This century it maybe replaced with something else. Maybe it will be climate change. Maybe a global pandemic. Maybe starvation or lack of drinking water. With a population reaching 9 billion by mid-century and no signs of it dropping below exponential growth, something is likely to give. That is my addendum to the rosy picture.

I think that just maybe we are living in sort of a golden era, but shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back too hard.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The world better? The world is a big place. But yea environmental crisis could effect the whole world - catastrophically - and many say it will. Does anyone ask if whatever better there is is actually you know *sustainable*? What isn't sustainable is a blip not a trend and maybe a very short blip. Meanwhile I don't think the part of the world I live in is getting better. But the world is a big place.

Anti-racism work - as if that's some kind of end state/goal to be reached that can stay reached, rather than a state of constant flux - definitely this is declining some places (the rise of the golden dawn).