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The world has always been too complex too understand. Even before human society became complex, the natural world around us was already immensely complex. Add
by Geminidog 6y ago
The world has always been too complex too understand.
Even before human society became complex, the natural world around us was already immensely complex.
Additionally human society was already too complex too understand from before we were born. This title implies he was waiting for the complexity to happen. "Finally."
Things may appear more complex because of the internet and social media. Really what's happening is there's a lot more information that's accessible to us and a lot of it is useless.
One thing people don't realize is they think society is falling into chaos with the pandemic trump and all the garbage they report on the media.
What they don't realize that there has never been a time in history where the world is more at peace then there is now. We are extraordinarily lucky to live in these times, source:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/12/the-world-is-not-falling-apart-the-trend-lines-reveal-an-increasingly-peaceful-period-in-history.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/12/the-world-is-not...
But humans like drama so to get more views people have to dramatize everything. Really nothing is happening. Trump or Biden being president is more likely to change what you see on the news over an actual change to your way of life.
- NoOneNew 6y agoYay, someone else that's sober. I dont understand the constant need to radicalize every problem as we technically are "fixing" things. Less war, less natural cause deaths other than old age, less world wide poverty, the world is getting better on a whole. Still plenty of serious problems. No one should discount that. But I had to stop watching the general news the past few months because it seemed like we were living during the black death, world war 1 and 2, and the American civil war (I'm in the US) all at the same time. We're not. Things aren't perfect, but holy shit things were far worse roughly 100 years ago. Theres a point where every radical on any political spectrum needs to get hit with a belt in the ass and told to stand in the corner, same goes for the general media. We all need to take a deep breath, be grateful that things aren't as bad as during our grandparents time, quit thinking the world will end tomorrow, and calmly fix things together. But hey, that's all crazy talk and doesn't produce ad clicks for google, facebook and twitter.
- RGamma 6y agoWell, it's all in the heads... There's rich interaction between how the world is, how one perceives it and how you act on the beliefs you acquire. And I agree, the technical data concerning (physical) violence, disease and wealth look good. But that's not all there is to life, is it?
- NoOneNew 6y agoNo, of course it's not all of life. But it's base factors. Kind of like basic survival situations. You need shelter, water and food. If you dont have that, you're chances of long term survival and/or happiness are close to zero. If you're under constant threat of physical harm, liable to get gravely sick and poor as a church mouse, your not going to have a good time either. It's easier to have a strong family, good friends and fulfilling hobbies and interests when the base 3 are at least stable, slightly leaning towards good. And of course I'm speaking generally, there are always exceptions, but to pretend exceptions are the norm isn't healthy either.
- heavyset_go 6y ago> world war 1 and 2, and the American civil war More Americans have died from COVID in the last 9 months than the Americans who died in WWI, and we've surpassed the American South's Civil War deaths, and are approaching how many died fighting for the North, too.
- Geminidog 6y agoYou have to frame the number in percentage of population. More people died because there are more people period. Also you need to make your timeline bigger. Extend the timeline to Past the dark ages.
- heavyset_go 6y agoThe population has only increased by 15% since September 11, 2001, and yet in the last 9 months we've had 91 times more American deaths from COVID than we did on 9/11. Every 2 to 3 days, we have another 9/11's worth of COVID deaths.
- i_haz_rabies 6y agoThis argument that the world is more peaceful than ever is true... but it's true for a really bad reason. It's true because we have nukes. Full stop. The reality is that we're staring down the barrel of not one, not two, not three, but potentially dozens of existential threats. The aforementioned nukes, climate change, environmental collapse, bioweapons, topsoil erosion... it's not an illusion created by the media. We're really not in good shape.
- jcranmer 6y ago> This argument that the world is more peaceful than ever is true... but it's true for a really bad reason. It's true because we have nukes. Full stop. Not really? Nukes only come into play with great power wars, and there's not really any fewer great power wars in the past century than the century before that. Post Napoleonic Wars, the only great power wars (in chronological order) are the Crimean War, Austro-Prussian War, Franco-Prussian War, World War I, Russian Revolution/Russian Civil War, and World War II, with the three 20th century wars all being far longer and more violent than the 19th century wars. What has dropped down considerably is the lesser wars, be they localized conflicts such as the Ecuador-Peruvian War of 1941, civil wars such as the Spanish Civil War or American Civil War, wars between great powers and lesser powers such as the Russo-Japanese War, colonial wars such as the Boer War or the Indian Wars, revolutions such as the Revolutions of 1848. Of these, the only conflict that may have been avoided by nukes is an India/Pakistan conflict--note that Israel's acquisition of nuclear weapons hasn't forestalled further conflicts with Arab countries (notably the Israel-Lebanon in my lifetime).
- glasss 6y agoNo one is saying we don't have some serious problems. But it is the truth that this is objectively the best time to be alive as a human being.
- NoOneNew 6y agoA majority of people dont do bad deeds because they're "good hearted". They dont murder or steal because they're afraid of the consequences. Theres plenty of folks you want to punch in the face. Maybe once, twice or until they stop breathing. You lie to yourself that you dont do it because you're a good person. No, you're afraid they'll punch back, or their friends will intervene or assault charges. Or even better, you're too weak to cause consequential harm. Yes nukes stopped a lot of potential wars. Good. If the mere existence is all that's needed to stop like half the wars that ever could be... and? Obviously I dont want them used. But wars happen and theres nothing anyone can do about that. Its human nature to be a bunch of cunts. And there have always been a bunch of existential problems on the horizon. A decent reading of history shows that people have been fearful of whatever the latest fad of problems. The only real difference, in the last 100 years we are not at the complete and total mercy of nature. Only partially. It's only fairly recent that a drought here and there, blizzard, tornado, hurricane or volcano doesn't have epically large consequences in death toll. Those numbers are far less than they used to be.