I’m really worried about the state of the US despite being a white male who was I’ll coast right through it. I’ll also accept “I don’t” and “very poorly” as answers
I realize that it is materially better than it has ever been and it continues to improve, despite very obvious issues and inequalities.
By realizing that it IS getting better. We live in a world now where information has exploded out of control. What this means is that we now know exactly what’s going on everywhere, and it turns out that’s a lot of shit.
That shit was still happening, but until fairly recently it was just out of the picture. The average person didn’t know about any of it , couldn’t do anything about it anyway, and thus it didn’t really impact them.
Fast forward to today you hear of tragedies ALL THE TIME. Bad shit happening to good people for seemingly no reason. The difference here is that you just happen to know about it. The objective truth is that bad shit happens less today than it did at any other time in history. We just see every instance of it, not just our local community instances.
When all the bad information from the news begins to bombard me, I think back to March 2020, when the pandemic hit full swing. That might seem odd to some because many would argue that was the spark that set of the series of events that got us here. However what I see now, years later, with a bit of perspective, it was an amazing time. For the first time in human civilization almost our entire species focused in on one task and overall succeed. An existential threat to our entire way of life emerged, most people got on board and we avoided the absolute worst.
We’re not meant to process all the bad things that happen in the world every day. Our primate brains are meant for small communities, not international events. Perhaps the pandemic isn’t OPs thing or yours to think about, but I’ll bet that almost everyone has some memory that gives them hope. Think about it, hold into it. A hopeful thing happened once, it’ll happen again.
For the first time in human civilization almost our entire species focused in on one task and overall succeed.
Except we didn’t. COVID is endemic, and it never needed to be if not for a gaggle of shithead capitalists demanding the gears of the economy be greased in the blood and sputum of “essential workers”.
I never said we avoided everything, but regardless what are you saying? I’m wrong? I’m just sharing one thing that we can all relate to that makes me hopeful. I even said that it might not be for you. It takes a real immature and sinical person to say your wrong for finding hope.
If you’re gonna insult a person, at least fuckin spell the word correctly. And a pandemic going endemic in a nation that had prior, eradicated a couple pernicious viruses before through both strength of medicine and actual social cohesiveness, is an abject failure.
tl;dr You’re not just wrong, you’re either dangerously wrong through this toxic positivity nonsense, or actively washing your hands in the blood of those who died to this virus like "didn’t happen to me tho, so we beat it; score!"
I don’t know which disgusts me more.
Take heart. Things are indeed better for many people at a global scale. Perhaps not you and I today, just yet, but millions of humans are safer and happier now than a short time ago.
I know it’s of little comfort when you’re suffering, but consider how many fewer children today live in poverty, people who are no longer starving, the freed slaves and refugees now building new lives, the millions alive who would have fallen to diseases like malaria and AIDS or armed conflicts and environmental disasters. Also consider the millions who now have access to education and basic necessities like drinkable water and basic healthcare.
Yes, we have a climate crisis and great tragedies and injustices remain. And yes, citizens of many developed nations are less secure and prosperous than our parents due to various factors (namely backward policies targeting specific groups like women, dismantling most social safety nets, feeding hyperbolic economic disparity, etc).
BUT there are massive sociopolitical shifts on the horizon in these countries as well, which promise to restore the security and well-being that’s been stripped away in the past half century. And it will arise from solidarity and organization.
I’d venture to say these changes are all but inevitable (assuming we don’t completely fuck up next year) because these changes are ultimately bound to generational attitudes that have always predicted the sociopolitical tide. So I’d encourage you to not sink just yet, because it’s a tide that will soon raise your boat as well.
We can hasten this better tomorrow by voting, organizing, and getting others to do the same. We can delay it by isolating, wallowing, or convincing others there’s no point. But this new day is coming regardless. We only control when.
Don’t despair. We’re closer to a brighter future now than we’ve ever been, and we’ll get there sooner with your help.
a tide that will soon raise your boat as well.
like what?
Stoicism, move somewhere else, get active, make the small world around you better and stop reading national/world news.
This is my approach as well. If I can’t change it I don’t let it occupy my mind. I focus on actions I can take to make things better/mitigate problems for myself and the people I care about and that’s it.
I too think that this is the correct approach. I mean if you can’t change something, you can make a decision to either let it drag you down, or avoid it. I always try not to focus on negativity and I don’t like drama.
Granted, this isn’t always easy. And I don’t know if this applies to (for example) the political situation and society in the US. I can’t relate to that too much. I mean there is so much populism and I don’t know what I’d do if half of my neighbors were in the mindset to vote for right-wing a-holes, there were hundreds of school shootings each year, my medication was unaffordable to me and women’s reproductive rights were cancelled. I mean you can’t really ‘avoid’ that. I don’t want to bash the USA but it’s somewhat beyond my own reality. I struggle with other things in my life. But all of that isn’t my achievement. I was simply born someplace else.
Granted, this isn’t always easy. And I don’t know if this applies to (for example) the political situation and society in the US. I can’t relate to that too much. I mean there is so much populism and I don’t know what I’d do if half of my neighbors were in the mindset to vote for right-wing a-holes, there were hundreds of school shootings each year, my medication was unaffordable to me and women’s reproductive rights were cancelled. I mean you can’t really ‘avoid’ that. I don’t want to bash the USA but it’s somewhat beyond my own reality. I struggle with other things in my life. But all of that isn’t my achievement. I was simply born someplace else.
All that are things I can’t do anything about. so I don’t let it occupy my mind. I’m fortunate to be in good health but if that were to change I’d deal with it as best I can. Nothing I can do to make it cheaper. I vote for whatever good that does but outside election time I focus on things I can actually do.
life is temporary.
im hangin on to the ride until i get thrown off. its my only shot, even if it sucks donkey balls
i guess my answer would be ‘dont sweat the small stuff. its all small stuff’
To me it’s not a question of the world ending, but the apropos question posed by all people around the globe: when will the old world die. Like, seriously? A return to nationalism, continued exploitation of the poor, subjugation of individuality and culture?
Oh the world will end, and it’ll end with guillotines. Republicans, democrats, EU neo-liberals, authoritarians like the Russia oligarchy, the Iranian oligarchy, the Saudi oligarchy, the Chinese oligarchy. All of it. Douse with fire, light a match and warm yourself.
The world will end, but a new one will be born in its place. Maybe this time we don’t allow a bunch of oligarchs and elites to define the new world, because the last time that happened we got capitalism and the ongoing broken promise of “modernity”.
get into areas like solarpunk that hold out hope against the dystopia
Solarpunk is amazing
say more words about it
Or you could just google it?
100% true. Or i could offer an interested audience to someone that seems passionate about the subject.
It’s getting harder every year.
I remember well the constant fear of nuclear war in the 1980’s.
I remember the wonder we felt when the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet Union collapsed. A hope of a tomorrow free of fear.
I remember the dreadful recession of the early 1990’s and the steep economical rise that followed it.
I remember the amazing advancements in technology and the standard of living in the late 1990’s. And at the same time, it felt like the world was coming to it’s senses.
I was 21 in the year 2000. The world was full of promise, technological advancements were just pouring in, old mortal enemies were finding common ground and it seemed that we were slowly heading towards a Star Trek - like post scarcity utopia.
This age of hope eneded by the finance crisis of 2007-2008. Russia tried the waters with the war in Georgia. The general atmosphere of the world turned towards gloom again. And the downward spiral just seems to keeps going and going…
Yet I continue the work I started when I chose teaching as my profession in those golden years of hope. The kids are very different today, any class from 20 years ago would be a piece of cake compared with the problems they have now. But if a change for the better is to come, it will come from the kids. My generation is hopelessly lost in consumer greed and watching mindless “reality” shows that they somehow feel more important than real life.
I alone cannot be the change we need, but I CAN educate a few hundred kids and with good luck, maybe a dozen or few of them will have a some effect for a better future.
There is less poverty and less major wars than anytime pretty much in recent history. On a local level, individual crime is generally also at its lowest levels. It varies a bit year to year but we are living in one of the safest and prosperous times ever.
There’s tons of evidence that the world is getting better. Life expectancies are the highest they’ve ever been, disease is the lowest it’s ever been, globalization is distributing opportunities for relative prosperity to previously ignored or neglected regions. The only thing that’s not getting better right now is climate change but the youth care about that more than ever so it seems like we’ll make headway on that once the old guard ends their watch. The youth are aldo much more progressive so with their ascent to power, I expect more power to return to the people and more scrutiny to befall the rich and powerful as it once was.
What sort of critical life and death issues are getting worse in your perspective?
klonopin
Read the last paragraph on page 3. Things are not getting worse. Your perception of the world around you is cynical as a by product of our evolution and saturation of news/media.
This is 11 years old. There has been an objective uptick in white nationalism, going beyond trajectory to repair climate, consolidation of wealth, “inflation” inflated prices for less goods through record profits, irrelevant and biased unemployment data from gig economy and partial employment without healthcare, debt, renters, etc There’s data on every one of those. Don’t gaslight people, these aren’t feelings or biased perceptions. The industrialized West has the (massively significant and impactful) benefits of creature comforts from bread and circuses. But as those dwindle, a population losing their mind from the current level of discomfort (and snowflakedom) is going to full on implode. They’re electing autocrats around the globe bc they’re scared of getting injections, wearing masks, and the feelings in their pants when they look at sexy members of their own gender.
