Is the world worse now?

[toecoffin]

So much gloom and doom

However if you were born 1900 you lived through two world wars, pandemics, global recession etc

I'm inclined to think more positively whilst not denying there are worrying things for a lot of people

I do wonder if we burden our kids with these worries. I don't deny anything to them but I also stay positive and optimistic

If I ever feel sorry for myself I think of my grandparents who fled mainland China to get away from the Japanese army. They lost their home, almost all their possessions and one of their children died during this period. They then had to make a new life as refugees in Hong Kong. The family had been very prosperous till that point and they then scattered further to the four winds settling in America and England.

I went to a lecture by the Holocaust trust a few years ago and listened to a survivor relaying his life, what an amazing man he was.

The pandemic is obviously awful but I thank my lucky stars I was born in a safe country in a time of relative peace.

No I don't think it's worse my grandparents were born in 1909 and 1912 ,as you say a pandemic and two world wars ,their first child also died at two weeks old in 1937 from something that could have been easily treated now ,and my Grandad died at 41from congenital heart disease ,which in this day and age if not cured probably could have been treated
We have had a an awful time of it for the past couple of years but all pandemics come to an end eventually .

Is it worse than livng in fear of the German's bombing your house or your husband, father, son, brother dying while in military action, food rationing, no supermarkets, no automatic washing machines - you washed in a tub and then put washing through a mangle as no spin dryers, no central heating, so ice formed on inside of bedroom windows in winter, a weekly bath in a tub in the kitchen, no foreign holidays, no computers or mobile phones or computer games, just a landline, usually situated in the hall, 9 inch black and white tv with 1 channel. My mother had diptheria and scarlet fever, losing a child during both.

No, it's not worse.

It's amazing what people endured and still found will and desire in life

I read a lot of historical fiction set in the 16th century. Huge wealth inequality. Less international trade, if the local harvest failed, prices sky rocketed and you could starve. Death penalty for what would now be considered relatively minor theft (even with mitigating factors of starvation). No tenant rights. Could be put off land for sheep grazing. No NHS. No benefits. Less medical understanding. Most people had no vote. Wars going on all the time that men could be recruited into (no professional army). I could go on.

That is not to say we are doing everything right. There are some very worrying trends right now but I would rather live now than at many points in history (at least in the UK)

@toecoffin

It's amazing what people endured and still found will and desire in life

Probably easier to do when there isn't 24hr news and social media to constantly tell you how shit it all is. Easier to just focus on day to day stuff, putting one foot in front of the other.

I read something that said for the first time - possibly ever - the situation for most of the planet isn’t improving and is getting worse. And that feels like a loss of hope to me, which is much harder to be resilient against.

For whom, when, what are you comparing to? Is the world worse than it was in the middle of World War Two? No, but is that the only aspiration you have?
Is the world worse now than it was in the 'Trente Glorieuses'? Yes.

It rather looks to me as if we're entering a new era of great power creations and manoeuvrings, and we are not one of the great powers. Our leaders are desperately pretending we are, though, stripping us of assets so that the rich can get richer. Europe may yet end up as a new battlefield between Asia and America, or locked out of global friendships. And for ordinary people, work doesn't pay and nothing looks good.

Next question??

So this :
"Probably easier to do when there isn't 24hr news and social media to constantly tell you how shit it all is. Easier to just focus on day to day stuff, putting one foot in front of the other."

Well I don't have to go for a poo in a bucket under my bed or worry about getting eaten by a sabre tooth tigers, so no it's not that bad.

My parents are in their 70s and the difference between their childhood and my children's is profound.