"Who cares?"

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I'm tired of this attitude! i'm sick of irony, apathy, and cynicism. People are giving up!

The world is becoming more peaceful, there is hope for the environment, so why are people so cynical?

I really want a bright future, but it seems people have given up on it. As long as you have your reality TV and recycled 1990s fads...

Where did you get the absurd idea that the world is becoming more peaceful? With butchery and disease and starvation rampant in the world you must have a most peculiar concept of peace.

The world certainly is much more peaceful than it was in the past- there is an excellent TED talk on the subject, I'll find the link later if I have time.

To the OP: it's because time and again, people have been promised paradise and let down by religious institutions, by governments, by scientists, by everyone they have ever put their hope and trust in. Big promises are made, and then people fail to deliver. Also, with the shrinking world (TV, internet etc allow us to view happenings on the other side of the globe) we can very easily see everything that is wrong in the world, and the availability heuristic takes over from there.

Look at this: maybe you will learn something.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_ ... lence.html

ruveyn

I think really a lot of it is just natural human pessimism, and not really rooted in being "let down". I personally find it weird and crazy how much this exists myself to be honest. We live in one of the richest, most progress-oriented, freest worlds compared to most of what is found in the past, but there is still so much cynicism towards it. It seems like every generation cries out "the sky is falling" in their own way, when nothing is *that* wrong. Seriously, the world was worse during the Cold War.

Also, the TED talk is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_ ... lence.html And the argument made is that we are in the most peaceful age of our world's history.

I dunno, it makes one wonder what the point is of talking to these crazies out there.... then again, the crazier fact is that we all are somebody else's crazy.

EDIT: Well, ruveyn beat me to the TED talk. It is a good talk too.

Loved that!! ty

Although there is much in the link to consider I cannot be smug about the current brutality, misery and viciousness still extant in the world. There is still a long way to go.

A terribly long way to go, yes. People are still being raped and murdered every day, and children are dieing slow, painful deaths from starvation and disease all around the world. But on the other hand, things are better now than they have been at any point in human history. More people than ever before have access to food, shelter, clean water, medical care, an education, and the luxuries made possible by modern technology. There is still racism and bigotry, but less than in ages past. We are, it seems, still moving in the right direction. That, at least, is something for which to be grateful.

Somehow I am not mollified.

No one is asking you to be smug about it. It might help to have a view of things that is congruent to historical fact. Pinker has shown things are actually getting better in spite of the alarmist publicity. Keep in mind that news media that printed only good news would be out of business in under a year.

ruveyn

ruveyn has the right of it.

Even in my short life I see that people are treating each other better. Do you forget how the disabled and diseased were treated?

I recall that even people with things like cancer were somewhat pariah. And everyone even knew that wasn't catching.

How about young unwed pregnant females? Shipped off to hide their fat bellies, then stripped of their children. That changed before my time.

Who now is not permitted to use the front entrance of restaurants? Nobody.

100% peace is a fine target, but 70% still beats the hell out of 50%. Being sour about partial success doesn't make much sense.

Try telling that to the 1 million Iraqis killed to destroy the weapons of mass destruction that never existed.

I'm not fully-qualified to post here because I didn't watch the video. But anyhow, from what I'm gathering I have to agree with Sand here because I'm not mollified in the slightest by this either.

Does a mother of three children feel at ease because two of her children are healthy, even though the third one is dying?

The world is in a constant state of flux with the various parts of the world vacillating between making progress and going backwards. I don't know - how many Golden Ages have there been throughout history? And so why aren't we all still 'golden'?

donnie darko - I'm all for wanting a bright future and not giving up. However I see the way to go about this is to realistically encompass all situations - both negative and positive - in one's viewpoint. Otherwise we're unfairly dismissing the fact that there is still immense suffering in the world. And then we'd be at risk of failing to correct this situation once and for all, whilst being content with only partial progress.

Fuzzy - there is still plenty of oppression. Just a couple of examples being the roma, or gypsies throughout Europe: in some of these countries their race and culture is the only one actually legally permissable to be prejudiced toward. I'm not sure of the facts but I heard that in Italy they are the only people that are actually forced to be DNA tested at birth. Then there's the unbelievable torture and oppression of the Tibetan people, their culture and religion. And loss of their country. Still going on after all this time. And contrary to what ruveyn suggests - the true extent of this is rarely broadcast by the media. And this is just a couple of examples!

And then there's the question of how progressed our own societies of today really are. Take for example working mothers. I don't know about any of you but I probably would have committed suicide as a two-year-old if forced to endure a childcare centre. (Dramatics aside.)

I'll remain optimistic, but as far as I'm concerned - if only one person is suffering in this world it's one too many. And "it's best not to count the eggs until they've hatched."

Name one.



And yet they are a recognized culture and language in Switzerland. Thats not a step backwards.




All this time?
You'll have to convince me that Tibet was ever its own country. You are aware that Chinese neolithic settlers flooded Tibet 3000 years ago, right? Do you think they left the original early stone age people in charge? I hope you dont.

And that they were sending tribute to Genghis khan in 1200 AD. That means that they basically bribed him to leave them alone. IE: they asked that he pretend he didnt own them. Its basically ransom to the khan. They were part of the Mongol empire like it or not.

In fact, the only time they might claim freedom was when China was distracted in the first part of the 1900s.. due to world wars and such. Had those things not happened, dont you think China would have been all over their s**t like.. well, they are today?

So when was Tibet ever really free? When was it ever really its own? For the past 60 years China has stomped where ever they like in Tibet. Longer than their supposed freedom. How many years does China need to kick them around before you'll recognise the fact that they really dont control their own destiny? They never have and they never will. To put it to a fine point: they are not a independent country.

3000 years of someone else messing with you does not a country make, even with a 50 year coffee break.

List me one country that recognises Tibet as an independent state. Thats right. Not even your country does. And without international recognition, they just dont exist.

And what? We should continue beating ourselves over the head and cursing the world because even though we've made progress in this world unlike what our ancestors would ever believe?

I mean, this world will probably *never* be "good enough", whatever that might be. Maybe one can feel bad about this, but that doesn't mean that an unrealistic view of ourselves in history is worth it. I'd actually argue that if there is a problem, it is less "the system" and more the human race, because systems come and go, but the sufferings of the human race have continued on and on.

I find the pessimism of each generation that it's world is worst to be somewhat odd and disturbing. I mean, even if we improve massively over the next 100 years, I would still bet that this phenomenon would continue, just continuing to cry over an ever declining brutality.

I basically don't care who 'runs' the 'country' of Tibet. But I do care that Tibetan people are not free to engage with their own culture and religion like THEY WERE ACTUALLY FREE TO DO SO BEFORE OCCUPATION IN 1959. And that's not to mention the torture they've experienced since that time as well.

NB: Sorry about the obscure presentation here - don't actually know how to select portions of quotes inbetween my replies to them. If you look above you'll see that some of my responses are actually in the quote box. I tried my best to differentiate them from the other posts.