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> This is also why I am wary whenever people start boasting > about how much better we’re doing than back in the bad old > days. That precise statement seems
by rofo1 7y ago
> This is also why I am wary whenever people start boasting
> about how much better we’re doing than back in the bad old
> days. That precise statement seems to in fact be true. But
> people have a bad tendency to follow it up with “And so
> now most people have it pretty good”. I don’t think we
> have any idea how many people do or don’t have it pretty
good.
We do have it good. Would you rather be middle class today or a king in 18th century?
We have it amazingly good. The fact that we can't see this ("we" as in society) tells me that our appetites are impossible to satisfy.
At least 90% of all problems I've seen between people are unnecessary and result mostly of lack of compassion and selfishness.
There are problems that are truly unsolvable and tragic - where death or significant health issues are involved - but other than that, people create problems themselves either by being selfish or being the victim of someone else's selfishness.
What would it take to say "I am satisfied with what I have; with the friend near me; with the family near me; with the material possessions that I have; with the values that I own; and I don't need anything else" ?
Everything else being finite, why would our appetites be infinite?
I know some rich people - they are unbelievably unhappy people. You probably can't tell due to their lavish lifestyle, but if you are close to them - you'd know. And they have it all for god knows how many generations henceforth. Really amazing, once you think about it.
- D-Coder 7y ago> We do have it good. Would you rather be middle class today or a king in 18th century? > > We have it amazingly good. The fact that we can't see this ("we" as in society) tells me that our appetites are impossible to satisfy. I completely agree with your first point. I think your second point may be wrong; rather, people have very little knowledge of how things used to be, so every stubbed toe feels cosmic. (Remember your history class that mentioned the Hundred Years War? WTF does the name of that war tell you???)
- g_sch 7y agoI understand what you're driving at, but I think war is actually a pretty good example of something that's become significantly worse over time. It used to be fought on a small scale. The biggest battles had just a few thousand casualties. Today, war is total, nothing is off-limits, and global conflicts reach levels of destruction unimaginable in the 15th century. And a few nations possess enough firepower, in nuclear and conventional form, to essentially end human existence on earth if they choose.
- erichocean 7y ago> Would you rather be middle class today or a king in 18th century? King in the 18th century. As if happiness and a life-well-lived depends on what century you were born in, rather than the available opportunities…