4 ms·

> Clearly, a world where thousands of tragedies happen every single day is awful. Here I will take the heartless position and say that it is not clear to me th

> Clearly, a world where thousands of tragedies happen every single day is awful. Here I will take the heartless position and say that it is not clear to me that this statement is true. I certainly agree that it's a tragedy for the people involved. But if 4.4% of children dying before age 15 means that the world is an awful place, at what point would that stop being true? 2.2%? 1E-10%? I don't think the world is an awful place, I think it's a good place, getting better in some ways, with a long way to go in many others.

floodle 3y ago
I agree, the statement is just poorly written. A qualifier like "awful" is only ever in relation to something else. Statement 3 (the world can be much better) is essentially a better formulation. 4.4% is awful in relation to 0.47%, which is possible.
mistermann 3y ago
Consider how the western world reacted when the harsh version of Mother Nature visited their lands temporarily during COVID...a few percentages sure seemed to be a big deal then. Luckily now that things are back to normal and people are thinking "rationally", we can once again see that it is not.
- xboxnolifes 3y ago
  This was not a universally held position, so I don't see how it helps as a parallel in this case.
  - mistermann 3y ago
    In video games and sports, perfection of gameplay is often the difference between winning and losing, perhaps the same is true of the real world.
- kombookcha 3y ago
  This doesn't just apply to covid - the reality is that a lot of global human suffering is being generated to prop up firstworld lifestyles, and the beneficiaries of that status quo have both material and psychological reasons for closing their eyes to it. People have a much easier time with telling themselves "sometimes suffering just happens and can't be helped" when the suffering is inflicted on strangers who are far away. The party can continue when you convince yourself there is no child in the cobalt mine, only cool new smartphone features.

floodle 3y ago

I agree, the statement is just poorly written. A qualifier like "awful" is only ever in relation to something else. Statement 3 (the world can be much better) is essentially a better formulation. 4.4% is awful in relation to 0.47%, which is possible.

mistermann 3y ago

Consider how the western world reacted when the harsh version of Mother Nature visited their lands temporarily during COVID...a few percentages sure seemed to be a big deal then. Luckily now that things are back to normal and people are thinking "rationally", we can once again see that it is not.

xboxnolifes 3y ago
This was not a universally held position, so I don't see how it helps as a parallel in this case.
- mistermann 3y ago
  In video games and sports, perfection of gameplay is often the difference between winning and losing, perhaps the same is true of the real world.
kombookcha 3y ago
This doesn't just apply to covid - the reality is that a lot of global human suffering is being generated to prop up firstworld lifestyles, and the beneficiaries of that status quo have both material and psychological reasons for closing their eyes to it. People have a much easier time with telling themselves "sometimes suffering just happens and can't be helped" when the suffering is inflicted on strangers who are far away. The party can continue when you convince yourself there is no child in the cobalt mine, only cool new smartphone features.