The world IS getting better...

[leslieann]

Razz's post made me think of this video which I saw for the first time this week. I've not been on the boards much this summer, so someone else may have already posted this, but I thought it was certainly worth the time. It made my day, actually, even though ten minutes on You Tube feels a little long.

Here it is: Kids React to the bi-racial family in the cheerios commercial. now I know that the kids are selected and that the video is edited for maximum effect but it still works...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifdBFp5pnw

[redfox]

I love this!

[SvenV]

Yes I think too that the world is getting better.....

[puglogic]

I believe the world may be getting better AND worse -- but that is not something I say with sadness. With the better, there are more ways to share that "better way" than ever before, and more ways to find kindred spirits who share our values.

The same could be true of badness, but although there are a lot of terrible things out there, I personally think they are no worse than those of our previous history (thinking of comparisons like a mass shooting versus the rape and pillage of an entire medieval town) Yes, we can kill more/faster with WMDs, but it could be said that our propensity for violent solutions to challenges isn't quite what it might have been back then. No proof, of course.

Also, we have more ways to change the scope of our efforts so that, even if we can't Save the World, there are more and more paths to Saving Ourselves. I have given up on trying to change the planet, but am finding trillions of ways to help my community and my loved ones.

[befree]

awww......sweet video. gives me hope for the future of our country.....there's no way this type of innocent attitude toward a bi-racial family could have been present in our country even 25 years ago.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I don't think that either thinking one can single-handedly save/change the planet OR giving up on the planet/world have any strong appeal. Occasionally an individual is in a position to change the world, but most of the time thinking one will do so entirely by themselves strikes me as almost psychotic in it's level of detachment from reality. I guess what has appeal is doing what one can. What one can ... I leave as a (lifetime) philosophical exercise to the reader ;)

[leslieann]

Good point, ANM. I waffle between the feeling of futility of one person's effort and the desire to, say, recycle, or use less, or whatever my thoughts are on at the moment. Kindness seems to me to be important but I don't expect it to be world-changing. Maybe just MY world.