Are You Optimistic/Pessimistic About the Future...


Deaths are far far lower than most of the past century.
Well considering we had two World Wars in the 20th that's hardly surprising but plenty time left in this Century to catch up and climate change kicks in. Certainly plenty conflicts in many regions. Almost as if it's all simmering....many of those that began in the 1990s are still ongoing.
 
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I totally agree that change from communal life to individual pods we live in has been massively detrimental.
I’d happily ban cars, televisions, the internet, air travel and a few other things beside. However, anyone can interact with the world how they wish. I take public transport most of the time, I meet up regularly with friends, I watch very little telly, my only social media outlet is this place. I don’t use chain restaurants or shops if I can avoid it. However, I watch live football and use Amazon.
The world has enough for anyone to live a brilliant life. If people choose not to then that is for them.

That was going well until I got to the last sentence. I have to disagree with you on that one.

I do think though there is money to be made/being made out of all this chaos and madness, with no incentive for our masters to rectify the things that mean that certain people end up in the shit and not enjoying life. You though seem in control of your life, and I'm pleased for you. To a certain degree, I am myself, not wanting a lot is a virtue in life today, and I think people should aspire to that rather than want everything they can get their hands on and be controlled by materialism. I love my football, walking, and allotment. Some of the happiest and most content people I've known hardly spent a penny never wanted for anything yet had very little in terms of possessions and were a lot happier than those people on the merry-go-round chasing the dream.
 
That was going well until I got to the last sentence. I have to disagree with you on that one.

I do think though there is money to be made/being made out of all this chaos and madness, with no incentive for our masters to rectify the things that mean that certain people end up in the shit and not enjoying life. You though seem in control of your life, and I'm pleased for you. To a certain degree, I am myself, not wanting a lot is a virtue in life today, and I think people should aspire to that rather than want everything they can get their hands on and be controlled by materialism. I love my football, walking, and allotment. Some of the happiest and most content people I've known hardly spent a penny never wanted for anything yet had very little in terms of possessions and were a lot happier than those people on the merry-go-round chasing the dream.
Which is why if people don't change then whatever technology achieves in the next 200 years will mean nothing.
 
Rewilding might be a tad more problematic than we think. I understand, from the bits of documentaries I managed to watch before they became too depressing, that much of the impact of carbon release has reached a point that is exponential and very likely irreversible.

The ‘melting’ of permafrost beneath the tundra is what I’m talking about . As the permafrost melts it releases huge amounts of trapped carbon. The carbon released from millions of years of permafrost adds to the layer already in the atmosphere. Which in turn, continues to impact on the permafrost.

They didn’t know this was happening until Great swathes of previously barren tundra developed lakes and marshland that bubbled. Guess what he bubbles were.

Incidentally it’s also releasing millions of years of microbes and bacteria that are harmful to human health. But that won’t prevent rewilding. Just maybe kill us all.

Have a nice day.

Oh yeah I didn't mean life as we know it. Dinosaur time then what's next is more what I'm thinking but the planet had been through worse than this
 
The world has enough for anyone to live a brilliant life. If people choose not to then that is for them.
I agree and Disagree with the above, the world does have enough for everyone, but its not the majority of peoples choice is it, the gap between the haves and have nots is the biggest its ever been, maybe if the wealth in the world was redistributed it would solve a lot of issues.

But the fact is under the current system we have "winners" and "Losers" and its not in the elite 1% interests to make the game fairer.

No one on the planet should starve, full stop, we have more than enough to feed everyone, but money dictates who has access to resources.
 
Well considering we had two World Wars in the 20th that's hardly surprising but plenty time left in this Century to catch up and climate change kicks in. Certainly plenty conflicts in many regions. Almost as if it's all simmering....many of those that began in the 1990s are still ongoing.
Historically, the world is far less violent than it was. Perception and reality are not in line imho.
I agree and Disagree with the above, the world does have enough for everyone, but its not the majority of peoples choice is it, the gap between the haves and have nots is the biggest its ever been, maybe if the wealth in the world was redistributed it would solve a lot of issues.

But the fact is under the current system we have "winners" and "Losers" and its not in the elite 1% interests to make the game fairer.

No one on the planet should starve, full stop, we have more than enough to feed everyone, but money dictates who has access to resources.
Most of the people on the planet are far far better off than their grandparents
 
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Historically, the world is far less violent than it was. Perception and reality are not in line imho.

Most of the people on the planet are far far better off than their grandparents
So less bad is what your saying?

Like smoking a filtered cigarette is less bad than than smoking a non filtered one.

But if we are looking at the whole world and using a % of people, I think you maybe are wrong, farmers in many areas can no longer reseed their own crops, larges areas of rural peoples forced from the land where they were happy to massive cities, to work in factories servicing the west. Illness in some countries off the scale compared to the past, just look at how unhappy most the population is in the world now.

Its just not as black and white as your making out, watched many programs which shows in the less developed countries at least, the point they aren't better off than their grandparents and are quite angry at how life is turning out for them, thanks in part to the west and big business.
 
So less bad is what your saying?

Like smoking a filtered cigarette is less bad than than smoking a non filtered one.

But if we are looking at the whole world and using a % of people, I think you maybe are wrong, farmers in many areas can no longer reseed their own crops, larges areas of rural peoples forced from the land where they were happy to massive cities, to work in factories servicing the west. Illness in some countries off the scale compared to the past, just look at how unhappy most the population is in the world now.

Its just not as black and white as your making out, watched many programs which shows in the less developed countries at least, the point they aren't better off than their grandparents and are quite angry at how life is turning out for them, thanks in part to the west and big business.
I said in my opening post the world has been trashed but the basics of life have fundamentally changed for the vast majority of the world.
In the things that matter infant mortality, fertility control, basic education, primary health care most countries have improved dramatically. In some there is now a burgeoning middle class.
It is a modern miracle that no one seems to be aware of.
 
its how I feel most days atm, I sometimes feel guilty for having kids as what a mess we are leaving behind for them.

being "mobile" has damaged our social fabric so much, I didn't have a fun for so long, but banking and other issues means you have to conform. We will evolve to have bent necks and different fingers, all I see now is people with their faces stuck in there phones, even when crossing the bloody road, half the time dont even look up.

My vice is my computer, spend too much time reading online and enjoying this forum, dont have a TV and dont miss it, would drop my phone again if not for the stupid Doctors and Bank too, we as the human race imo need to slow down and maybe take a look around us at what's going on.
The expression "Caught up in something" seems to reside in my stomach, forever churning over...I'm sure you know what I mean. Living where I do gives me distance from the madness, but isolation is not living either.
 
I said in my opening post the world has been trashed but the basics of life have fundamentally changed for the vast majority of the world.
In the things that matter infant mortality, fertility control, basic education, primary health care most countries have improved dramatically. In some there is now a burgeoning middle class.
It is a modern miracle that no one seems to be aware of.
and thats the paradox, we can say we are both better and worse off, is the fundamental change for the better?

In some areas we are better off but in others much worse off.

For example India, child deaths are down, but the population is now in a grip of massive problems with modern illnesses and the gap between have and have nots is much wider, even with a middle class.
India has an estimated 77 million people (1 in 11 Indians) formally diagnosed with diabetes, which makes it the second most affected in the world, after China.


Is the middle classes really better off though?

My mam and dad could live on 1 persons wage, leaving my mam to bring us up, how many families now can afford that? We have moved towards a debt way of living also, that means we work to just service debt in many cases, convinced we need more and the only way to get it is more debt.

interest topic if its is damn right depressing.
 
and thats the paradox, we can say we are both better and worse off, is the fundamental change for the better?

In some areas we are better off but in others much worse off.

For example India, child deaths are down, but the population is now in a grip of massive problems with modern illnesses and the gap between have and have nots is much wider, even with a middle class.
India has an estimated 77 million people (1 in 11 Indians) formally diagnosed with diabetes, which makes it the second most affected in the world, after China.


Is the middle classes really better off though?

My mam and dad could live on 1 persons wage, leaving my mam to bring us up, how many families now can afford that? We have moved towards a debt way of living also, that means we work to just service debt in many cases, convinced we need more and the only way to get it is more debt.

interest topic if its is damn right depressing.
You've summed up "existing" perfectly :(
 
and thats the paradox, we can say we are both better and worse off, is the fundamental change for the better?

In some areas we are better off but in others much worse off.

For example India, child deaths are down, but the population is now in a grip of massive problems with modern illnesses and the gap between have and have nots is much wider, even with a middle class.
India has an estimated 77 million people (1 in 11 Indians) formally diagnosed with diabetes, which makes it the second most affected in the world, after China.


Is the middle classes really better off though?

My mam and dad could live on 1 persons wage, leaving my mam to bring us up, how many families now can afford that? We have moved towards a debt way of living also, that means we work to just service debt in many cases, convinced we need more and the only way to get it is more debt.

interest topic if its is damn right depressing.
On the better scale it is the cat that women aren't having, on average, 7 kids and having 4 or 5 of them dying, that most kids are getting primary education, basic healthcare, basic shelter, some elctricity and sanitation.

Type 2 diabetes is an illness most people can avoid. It is an illness of wealth for most people.

I agree that the way the world is ordered is far from ideal, my Mam never worked and we were all clothed and fed on one wage. However, even that was brought about by a societal change that was part of the emancipation for women.

My point is that most people are fundamentally better off in terms of shelter, comfort, health, death etc.

The rest of the problems are problems from poor choices.
 
On the better scale it is the cat that women aren't having, on average, 7 kids and having 4 or 5 of them dying, that most kids are getting primary education, basic healthcare, basic shelter, some elctricity and sanitation.

Type 2 diabetes is an illness most people can avoid. It is an illness of wealth for most people.

I agree that the way the world is ordered is far from ideal, my Mam never worked and we were all clothed and fed on one wage. However, even that was brought about by a societal change that was part of the emancipation for women.

My point is that most people are fundamentally better off in terms of shelter, comfort, health, death etc.

The rest of the problems are problems from poor choices.

Most is such a loose term, shite deadly foods is not us moving forward, you say the diabetes is a illness of wealth, I whole heartly disagree, we have this illness exploding due to poverty, it was Nixon's attempt to feed the poor that has led us here, cheap sugars added to everything to "get the calories in", its how we keep food cheap for the poor. Again another food that was invented to feed the poor, noodles, has also caused issues.

mass factory farmed food for big business isnt good for the population, moving whole communities to cities chasing the man made item that is "money" isnt good either.

It is true Child deaths ( under 15 ) is much better, in fact its so black and white, I think it was around 50% of people died before 15, a scary figure, but thats going back quite some distance to those dark days, but then in the same breath our quality of life at middle to old age is nose diving since the industrial revolution, it seems if we made it to 15 the chances to live a full healthily life into our 70's was very high, now we are seeing people ill from 30 onwards. The fact we have children now getting liver disease due to high sugar consumption, I think we are a ticking time bomb, I dont blame these poor people, they dont have a choice.

So I guess it is perception really, I just feel we have to be very careful saying "things are better now" when its not that simple, looking at the problems around the world and how climate is causing such issues, it could just be an illusion that we are better off.
 
Is there any solid evidence for that or is it simply based on perception?
Has Global Violence Declined? A Look at the Data

I read a fascinating book by Hans Rosling called Factfullness. I'd thoroughly recommend it. I think you will view the world differently.
Well that would make them an obvious and easy target for the twats out there unless you can abolish crime instantly.
You are going down a peculiar rabbit hole with this. I don't think cars can be uninvented.
Most is such a loose term, shite deadly foods is not us moving forward, you say the diabetes is a illness of wealth, I whole heartly disagree, we have this illness exploding due to poverty, it was Nixon's attempt to feed the poor that has led us here, cheap sugars added to everything to "get the calories in", its how we keep food cheap for the poor. Again another food that was invented to feed the poor, noodles, has also caused issues.

mass factory farmed food for big business isnt good for the population, moving whole communities to cities chasing the man made item that is "money" isnt good either.

It is true Child deaths ( under 15 ) is much better, in fact its so black and white, I think it was around 50% of people died before 15, a scary figure, but thats going back quite some distance to those dark days, but then in the same breath our quality of life at middle to old age is nose diving since the industrial revolution, it seems if we made it to 15 the chances to live a full healthily life into our 70's was very high, now we are seeing people ill from 30 onwards. The fact we have children now getting liver disease due to high sugar consumption, I think we are a ticking time bomb, I dont blame these poor people, they dont have a choice.

So I guess it is perception really, I just feel we have to be very careful saying "things are better now" when its not that simple, looking at the problems around the world and how climate is causing such issues, it could just be an illusion that we are better off.
I agree that all the stuff you mentioned are issues but I do disagree that illnesses of the developed world are self inflicted. Either through choice (crap food is nice) or ignorance of nutrition.

Everyone has a choice between healthy food or shite. The problem is that shite tastes lovely.
 
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