What's up gang?
I stopped watching TV the moment I bought my own laptop. Unless there's something serious happening (like an ISIS terrorist attack), I don't even pay attention to the news in general. Yesterday, I was with a couple of friends, drinking beer and what not. The TV was on and like the trained puppet I am, it caught my attention.
The headlines were horrible. It was like reading the mind of the most outraged and pessimist person ever. Naturally, as you dig deeper in the news, it turns out that things aren't that bad. It got me thinking, how's the world going right now? Twitter, Steemit, Facebook make it so like we are living in the worst period ever. But are we?
Some Hard Stats And Charts For You
The number of people living in extreme porverty has been declining since the mid-60s
“In 1950, forty-four per cent of the world’s states had policies of political discrimination against at least one ethnic group. In 2003, this had declined to twenty-five per cent.”— Johan Norberg"
In 2000 the share of the world population that was living in democracies had increased 85% and it's only climbing
The number of children dying befre the age of 5 has been reduced from 232 to 45 per 1,000 live births
Slavery is completely abolished, at least systemic and legal slavery
These are some pretty compelling facts. I could go on and on. You can find more of these at humanprogress.org. The evidence is clear that we are on the right path. Life is getting better and better.
But why people appear less happy?
What Is Missing?
First and foremost, let's just ignore the news for a moment. I am not talking about them and their fetish for disaster porn. They need the world to be burning or else they have no story. And the people who are addicted to news, have the same affliction.
I am talking about the regular fella. The one who although lives better than how kings lived 100 years ago, still feels empty and unstatisfied.
Now, I am not going to pretend i have all the right answers, but I DO have the right question, which is a big step on its own.
While we accumulate material things and we make progress in the physical world, we have abandoned the pursuit of the internal. "Abandon" is a heavy word and I am perfectly fine with misusing it as long as I make my point. I understand there are people who are aware of what I am talking about and are taking action already.
We have been consumed by the nihilistic approach that nothing matters ("YOLO") and all the ideals and values that fueled enlightenment (and then some), have already been forgotten. Have you wondered why people don't create art, music, writing as they did 100+ years ago?
Or why philosophy has been rotting ever since postmodernism?
We've abandoned God, in the archetypical sense and we have embraced scientism instead. Not science. There's a big fucking differece lad.
But fear not, we have the perfect conditions to embark on a journey to our internal self and finally create what Nietzsche called ubermensch, the overman.
You don't have to be a monk or a starving artist to explore the depths of human existence. We are living in a very unique and monumental, if you wish, period that allows us to really look.
So to answer the question. Are we living in the best or worst times?
We are living on the edge of the old world, looking at the new world. Embrace the chagne.
-Thatredbeardguy
P.S- I went too deep. Just do your thing man. Stay away from false prophets and you're gonna be fine. Cheers!
Some posts people find interesting for some reason:
Rain, Violence and The Shadow Self
Motivation Is For Losers
We Have An Unhealthy Addiction To Information
Yellow journalism is awesome!
Wait, it's a lie?
HOW DARE YOU STUPID NEWS CHANNEL FUCKERS LIE TO ME!
Funny how Pulitzer and Hearst were in the frontline of yellow journalism lmao.