Regarding TorgoX's journal entry: remember the good old days, when it was the right wing that had pollyanna-ish views of the good old days?
Personally, I feel pretty good about the way the world is going, though I realize I'm in the minority. The economy is pretty good, the Middle East outlook is better than it ever has been in any of our lifetimes, standards of living around the world continue to rise dramatically, democracy and free speech are sweeping the globe.
Sure, there's a lot of problems, but when haven't there been? For most of the lifetimes of anyone older than me, we faced a far greater problem than anything we face today, with the constant threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation. For the rest of us, we've had worldwide poverty, lots of little wars all over the globe, cries of using up all our oil by next week or so, etc.
I cannot recall a time in my lifetime when a positive outlook of the world was pervasively felt. What makes now different? The only thing I can think of is that some people feel more negative than they did before. Well great, but other people feel more positive than they did before. Whoop-de-do.
Re:The cold war ending
pudge on 2005-03-30T21:58:45
Well, even if we accept that people generally felt good at the time, in retrospect we know that there was a lot that were missing, like increased tensions in the Balkans, the rise of Islamism that we're fighting now, etc. But I don't accept that they generally felt great, because when the Berlin Wall fell, we were still worrying about poverty, the environment, the Middle East, etc.
I am reminded of a very old Kingston Trio song, Merry Minuet. "They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain, there's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain / the whole world is festering with unhappy sould: the French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles, Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch / 'and I don't like anybody very much'".
Or cf. "We Didn't Start the Fire."
Re:premature optimisation
pudge on 2005-03-30T22:00:17
I am not saying the world is doing great. There are always huge problems, that's my real point. My personal feeling is always generally optimistic, however, because I think that despite the problems, we keep improving overall. Some may feel the opposite, I just don't believe this feeling is any more or less pervasive now than at most, if any, other times.
Just another guy who watches the constitution erode one sentence at a time, thanks to the republicrats.
Re:"democracy and free speech are sweeping the glo
pudge on 2005-03-30T22:17:59
Ahh, I get it. There's only a limited about of democracy and free speech in the world, so we can only raise theirs by lowering ours, eh?
Name one way in which your rights to democracy or free speech have been eroded.
Not including your criminal conviction.
Re:"democracy and free speech are sweeping the glo
phillup on 2005-03-31T01:15:07
Name one way in which your rights to democracy or free speech have been eroded.
I'd really like to answer that question but I can't talk about that subject.
;-)
Re:"democracy and free speech are sweeping the glo
pudge on 2005-03-31T02:15:12
What's the emoticon for "rolling eyes"?:p
Re:Rich v poor
pudge on 2005-04-05T04:03:23
The best thing we can do to feed people is to help spread democracy and capitalism. Note that there's not famine in Zimbabwe because they don't have natural resources or able bodies, but because a dictator has created a terrible political situation that has resulted in severe depression. The solution for famine there is to get rid of Mugabe, get a democracy in there, and use institutions like the World Bank to help get private enterprise going.
Not that it doesn't bring its own problems, but it's the best answer there is.
And I don't think the problem has worsened in your lifetime. All the stats I've seen show the opposite, especially when you consider that the two largest nations have seen huge economic improvements in that timespan, in China and India. South America and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have improved as well, thanks to democracy and capitalism. Africa has not improved, but I don't think it's gotten worse, and in the areas it has improved, it is where capitalism or democracy have been introduced. Maybe you're just more aware of the problems now?
As to disparity between wealthy and poor, I am unconcerned with this. The problem is not how much the difference between you and me is, it is whether both you and I have what we need to live healthy and happy lives: food, shelter, medical care, education, etc. Yes, there are concerns other than those, but I think it is a moral responsibility to help people get those things; I don't feel the same about having access to a computer or car or the latest video games or stylish clothes.
So stats that talk about the growing gap between rich and poor don't matter to me, not at this level of the discussion, and most of the evidence that people say shows that the problem of poverty is getting worse, focus on this gap, which to me doesn't show the problem of poverty is getting worse. The stats to show that would be the number of people below a poverty line, where that poverty line is based on real income, etc. Or that shows a certain number of people who are homeless, or undernourished, etc.
