17 replies to this topic

[Bling]

Every day people worry about floods, wars, mans inhumanity to man, diseases, animal cruelty and extinction, famines, child abuse and global climate change - etc. and often say the world has got worse. But have things really gotten worse, or has technology given us the ability to communicate with other countries within seconds and travel great distances in no time at all, therefore spreading stories of what's going on in the world. If we consider our history, hasn't there always been causes for concern? Bad things have always happened!
Before our ability to communicate so highly throughout the world, we didn't worry about what was going on in other countries, whether it be natural disasters or man made atrocities did we? Maybe ignorance was bliss, maybe now we know too much?
Should we just stop, for the sake of our own happiness, worrying about things that have happened before and will happen again? Global climate change has happened before and will again, nation has fought against nation, natural disasters occur throughout the world.....nothing has got worse, we just know more about it.....so try to chill and not worry - life's too short! Or should we worry ourselves silly all our life trying to stop and change things that are going to happen anyway, and always have happened?

Edited by Bling, 07 October 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[The Mule]

Bad news sells. Five alarm fire on the East Side. Story at 11.

[Hasina]

I wouldn't say we should stop worrying about things, but perhaps we should just calm down a bit and think logically about these problems. Some can be fixed, some can't, some can be controlled. I do agree with you that the proliferation of communication systems has made the world seem small and more chaotic, but it's not, just seems that way. All in all, we need to chillax and work on things without panicking so much.

[Still Waters]

Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)

As my mum always says - "There's no point in worrying, it won't change anything".

[wanderer_]

Maybe this article will help clarify things for you: http://www.spiritual...-and-its-cycles

[Bling]

wanderer_, on 07 October 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

Maybe this article will help clarify things for you: http://www.spiritual...-and-its-cycles

Not really. It gives me information I already know and that's why I started this thread.

[Bling]

Hasina, on 07 October 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

I wouldn't say we should stop worrying about things, but perhaps we should just calm down a bit and think logically about these problems. Some can be fixed, some can't, some can be controlled. I do agree with you that the proliferation of communication systems has made the world seem small and more chaotic, but it's not, just seems that way. All in all, we need to chillax and work on things without panicking so much.

Yeah I don't mean stop worrying altogether, but enough for us to gain some clarity on the big picture and not think that this period of history is more horrific than our past.

[markdohle]

Bigger populations, our modern weapons that kill more people, governments that can exert more control over their peoples, make suffering more widespread, but the world is not worse for that. Cultural brainwashing is worse I believe.   We are just getting better at it as a species, we can easily become cruel and uncaring of those less fortunate.  Of course our news media brings all of this to our front door everyday as entertainment.  We have our dinner while watching people being gunned down in the streets, or fires raging etc., yes it is entertaining.  It shows in our movies, our entertainment etc.  We are a strange mixture of good and evil, of compassion and indifference, it is amazing we do as well as we do.

Peace
mark

Edited by markdohle, 07 October 2012 - 08:33 PM.

[spud the mackem]

Good news doesnt sell as well as Bad News,If we dont have a couple of disasters a week the news hounds think they've had a bad week. Sad but true.

[ouija ouija]

haha! markdohle & spud nipped in ahead of me with some of the points I was going to make.

Something that I find infuriating and depressing is that humans don't learn from each other's mistakes, which you would think with our mighty brains and powers of mass communication, we would.

Yes, worldwide communications mean that we are informed daily about a lot more awful things than we can emotionally(?) deal with .... ignorance certainly was bliss. And yes, I believe things have got worse because of the sophisticated weapons armies now have(killing is easier when you don't have to do it with hand-to-hand fighting). They've also got worse because so many individuals own guns, and cars in which to swiftly get away from the crime scene. Many people behave badly because they live in stressful, noisy cramped conditions with no access to nature; this was not so much the case even a hundred years ago. Things are worse because there are so many more people than there were in previous centuries.

It is not possible to just make the decision to stop worrying and then immediately stop. I'm not sure you would be quite so blase' about telling people to 'chill' if you were th one on the receiving end of abuse of some sort, or if England was invaded by a much larger, very hostile country and no other country came to our aid because it was 'none of their business'.

Unfortunately, if the information is out there we really have no choice but to keep up to date with what's going on, so that we can act where we can and speak out and keep up pressure on governments to 'do the right thing'. Otherwise, those with money and power and bad intent will simply rule the roost(even more than they do already!).

It's a very tricky juggling act: staying aware of what's going on in the world, being informed, and not allowing the information to overwhelm us.

Edited by ouija ouija, 07 October 2012 - 09:19 PM.

[Bling]

ouija ouija, on 07 October 2012 - 09:19 PM, said:

I'm not sure you would be quite so blase' about telling people to 'chill' if you were th one on the receiving end of abuse of some sort, or if England was invaded by a much larger, very hostile country and no other country came to our aid because it was 'none of their business

I was playing devil's advocate with those few words

[Bling]

Haven't we had many great tragedies over the ages? The Black Death and loads of other epidemics. There has always been earthquakes - they have defined our landscape and changed the shape of countries for years. Millions of service men died in WW1 and many wars before using quite simple artillery compared to today. I could add the destruction of Pompeii and lots more! What I'm saying is we only know a fraction of the earth's history, we've only been recording it for a few thousands of years, and yet we sometimes think we live in the worst times, and some religions believe it to be 'the last days'. I think our world now is no worse than it was centuries ago, there was still the same problems just in a different scale. This is just how I choose to see it.

[The Id3al Experience]

I dont think things have gotten worse, but things havent changed and that is the problem, with all the communication its become easier to access sad news around the world.

As the OP says its been around before and not much is changed.

We are aware yet sit back as ask why... this the the sad truth - all the years of wars, famine etc and we still sit back and say 'man the world is getting bad'

With all our wounderfull tech, huge amount of money around the world, it could have been changed into the garden of eden. BUT the powers at the top and the greed within commericalism has only keep the world at bay - not fixed it.

My thoughts.

Regards,
Me

[csspwns]

Bling, on 07 October 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

Every day people worry about floods, wars, mans inhumanity to man, diseases, animal cruelty and extinction, famines, child abuse and global climate change - etc. and often say the world has got worse. But have things really gotten worse, or has technology given us the ability to communicate with other countries within seconds and travel great distances in no time at all, therefore spreading stories of what's going on in the world. If we consider our history, hasn't there always been causes for concern? Bad things have always happened!
Before our ability to communicate so highly throughout the world, we didn't worry about what was going on in other countries, whether it be natural disasters or man made atrocities did we? Maybe ignorance was bliss, maybe now we know too much?
Should we just stop, for the sake of our own happiness, worrying about things that have happened before and will happen again? Global climate change has happened before and will again, nation has fought against nation, natural disasters occur throughout the world.....nothing has got worse, we just know more about it.....so try to chill and not worry - life's too short! Or should we worry ourselves silly all our life trying to stop and change things that are going to happen anyway, and always have happened?

tats why some of the weak minded people convert to christianity. as long as you are good, then you could go to heaven and live in eternal happiness

[redhen]

I've seen studies that show a decrease in war and violence . Here's one article where it's claimed that "historically, we've never had it this peaceful."


http://www.huffingto..._n_1026723.html

Of course every few million years an asteroid slams into earth and wipes out most life, and eventually, after 5 billion years the sun will go nova.  /shrug