Is the world getting worse?

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I know that there has always been struggle, pain and suffering in the world but it seems like things are getting worse or are as bad as they have ever been. People seem to be more self-centered and greedy than ever before. Mental health issues seem to be on the rise. It is a lot harder to find a job. Those who do work barely make enough money to support all their needs. You have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to get by. Technology seems to be taking over everything. Many companies are building robots and getting rid human workers. It seems that corporations have become more greedy and don't give a damn about the workers. Crime seems to be high around the world. People are becoming more violent. We are becoming so absorbed into our smart phones and technology. We have over 7 billion people on the planet and it keeps growing, especially in less developed countries. I really don't see a whole lot of good in this world. Whenever you turn on the news it is usually bad news. How did things get so bad? Everything just seems to be getting more complicated and people are more selfish. I am an antinatalist and this is part of the reason why I don't want children. I don't like the direction that this world is heading and I think a lot of people in western and more developed countries feel this way.

Answers to this question will vary with the belief system of the person answering, and within that variable also by how deep in to life and existence one is looking.

Some things are definitely getting worse, and the biggest problem is over population. 30-40 years ago the world had 4 billion people. Now it's 7 going on 8. It's insane, and the by far the largest problem in the world. Every other problem would be less without it.

I really agree, and I'm not even extremely religious. I want to see the world reverse the trend and get better instead.

And technology taking over everything...not just working and jobs, but a lot more of it actually makes me sick. I guess people are sugar-coating how the internet made society a better place, but really it seems a lot worse off because of the internet, even considering all the good stuff that came from it.

The world is getting hotter; that's for sure.

The world is going the way of the movie Idiocracy

I'm supposed to be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, but what's there to be thankful for anymore? Every two days a hurricane or mass shooting, people are getting more intolerant of other people's tastes, opinions and ideas more than ever, and politicians are evil corrupted slimebags. I hate them. I can't stand them. I wish they would all just drop dead. Okay no, not really. That would be too quick and painless. I wish they would all die slowly and horribly from a disease that no one else gets. In fact politics and religion are the reasons why the human race is nothing but a bunch of stupid screaming apes, only apes are intelligent and civilized, so humans are a *devolved* species of ape.

Politics and religion are worse than drugs like crack cocaine and crystal meth. They corrupt people's brains and turn them into blithering idiots and liars. You can tell me *I'm* being intolerant to people who believe in such things, but it's the truth. Unlike the politicians and con-artist evangelists, I have to say the truth even though I know doing so can get me literally killed in this day and age.

Whenever anyone claims they are going to make a country a better place, they do the exact opposite. They say they're going to make it a utopian society, but make it dystopian. They have anyone they deem unworthy tortured or killed. They don't help victims of abuse, poverty or disasters. And yet they ALWAYS have money for war! There are shortages of doctors and nurses, at least where I live, because they'd rather move to the states where they can treat sick and suffering human beings like customers at a grocery store. But there are ALWAYS plenty of soldiers! Behold everyone , the almighty idiots who we have the audacity to call "leaders".

I wish I had the courage to just take a sharp object like the scissors on my desk and rip my wrists open with them. But I can't. And if I survived, well that's yet another thing I suck at doing. And what's the point of suicide if I can't take several political or religious leaders down with me. At least I'd be remembered through history if I did. No one thinks a woman is capable of such an insidious crime, even if she is on the spectrum.

And people are all complaining about stores and malls closing, but they don't sell anything good and you have to go online to buy anything halfway-decent, so what's the point? Nothing we do changes anything.

In my view, the world is a much better place in many ways. We live our lives full of creature comforts from temperature control, to ease of communication, and relative freedom from disease.

Life used to be much harder, but you don't hear that on the 24-7 constant news cycle. Disasters, murders, and economic upheavals aren't new. Politics have always been ugly. What's new are the algorithms to attract your attention and color your worldview. The constant media saturation of many lives. It's not good or evil, but the side effects are more pronounced.

I'm just overwhelmed with the amount of cars there are on the road. Driving tests are becoming harder, but everybody still seems to pass their test and be driving around in a car as soon as they can. People are saying that in about 10 years time or so, towns and cities are going to be completely gridlocked with no space between each car and everything just moving at very little speed on roads that were once 30 or 40mph zones.

It's no fun living in the UK any more. The government cut back lots of needed services (like police and hospitals), then they give away millions of pounds worth of that money to other countries. I mean, what the f**k? And now that the UK has become a "multicultural country" for some reason, there are just millions and millions of extra people here, and so it's more overpopulated than it should be, and it's all just overwhelming the system. It's all crazy. Nothing against foreigners, they are good workers, they are decent, but us Brits feel like we are being kicked to the side in our own country, and the place doesn't feel like England any more. But, I'll say no more because I'll just be called "racist". I am not racist, I'm a patriot.

Let's see... Misogyny and misandry, plenty of sex, porn and other stuff that promotes objectification, pollution, global warming, war, terrorism, gangs, drugs, addiction to electronics... Yep, the world seems to be getting worse.

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on October 4, 2017)

Matthew chapter 24

I dont think the world is getting worse because there has always been violence somewhere. The only new problem we face is pollution.

Okay, well tell me, everybody... How are the things being more accessible or convenient necessarily always better? Does instant gratification services and a lot of other very modern stuff always lead to a truly better quality of life?

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In a way, I do kind of hate the porn thing. I think it reinforces feelings today that women have that sort of come off as misandrist. But, again, I don't really think it's fair to say men should be ashamed for being visibly turned on by something. Some women who say this stuff just can't accept biological evolution. Lastly, women aren't the only gender being treated in a negative way by society. We don't have mutual equality today. We have to deal with the dynamics that are shifting the other way instead of meeting a true balance.

I hear ya.

Technology DID improve the lives of millions markedly within the living memory of folks born early in the 20th century.

Appliances like washing machines freed millions from drudgery.

But now technological progress has kinda reached the saturation point where things change, but it doesn't obviously improve anyone's life. Its like we are just moving sideways into a different world, but not forward into a better world.

I mean you could argue either way. GPS in your car, and access to all of the depraved porn you could dream of might be heaven to someone. Others might be able to live without the later, and might even be able to live without the former and the later.

That was NOT the case with washing machines. I cant imagine going back to beating clothes on rocks (or hand cranked half barrels of water they used back in the day). Technology did make positive dramatic differences from 1900 to 1950. But since 1990 the even faster changes of the digital age are mostly just changes. Not obvious improvements.

We are much less likely to lose children to disease. We can assume relative safety at home and work, and aren't likely to be poisoned by either. We don't have to drop out of school at ten to work the factories for 12 hour shifts. We don't have to was through rivers of sh#t on the streets. The bubonic plague is still here, but now it's a medical hiccup instead of death for millions.

It's a win in my book.

I don't think people in this thread are talking about living back in the 1600s. I think we're talking more about the mid to late 20th century. Some useful technology was invented by then, but not all this horrible talk of self-driving cars possibly being the next thing.

I know that in the future (I might be very old by then), everything will be a machine, and nobody will use their brains any more. I can see things like drawers being opened by pressing a button, and in supermarkets every aisle will be full of touch-screen vending machines, and even a machine will be stocking up the vending machines. And if you order online, you'll be able to digitally access a store computer that will get your selected items from the warehouse and will be delivered to your house in a self-driving van. Everything you can think of will be a computer, and all humans will be good for is standing around guarding the machines to fix them if they break down, which in the very distant future technology will probably be so advanced that they won't ever break down. So humans will be took over by robots. In time (none of us here, nor our great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchildren, will be alive to see it so don't worry), robots will gradually evolve into conscious beings and all humans will die out.
Wow, that really makes you think.