The “good old days” are a trick of the mind.
Can’t read the paywall. But the headline sure seems like something Orwell would love
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984
Link to non-paywall version: https://archive.is/Bkx66
Ah thanks. It is about the false belief that morally we are worse than before. Yeah, that makes sense. I thought from the headline it was general welfare of the earth, and that just didn’t make any sense.
News definitely has a vested interest in making us think things in general are getting eternally worse. For example, see the “there’s a recession coming! Any second! It’s coming…now! No wait let me try again…now! No? Well it’s coming soon, it’s almost here!” every day for the past what, 3 years?
Or for another example, you never see news stories about how the GHG emissions in the US have been falling every year. But they are.
Bad news sells better than good news.
There are quite clear massive deaths happening to the ocean and it’s coral, for one. Global warming, warned about for decades, sure seems to have pushed over the tipping point recently. Wealth inequality, and the failure to maintain a livable minimum wage, world population fucking doubling in my lifetime, and <so on and so on>. Things are pretty shitty, and there is zero chance that the collective human spirit (or whatever) will do anything in time to stop what is going to be wide spread suffering. The people at the top, they like the way things are, fuck the rest of the world.
The good: well, people are generally safer (depending on where you live). People in general are still mostly nice. <- That is something that just about anyone who has traveled will attest to. Even in shitty countries, for the most part the people are pretty welcoming and nice. Traveling tends to give people a renewed appreciation of humanity.
But the article was about morality and if it’s become worse or better. I don’t think fundamental human nature changes much over the course of 2-3 generations.
Things are pretty shitty
You need context. Things are more shitty than they were 10 years ago. Things are less shitty than they were 20 years ago. Things are MUCH less shitty than they were 50 years ago. The general trend is towards less shittyness (with the very important exception of the climate, which has been getting exponentially worse for 200 years (although in the past decade it’s stopped getting exponentially worse and is now just getting worse, which is technically an improvement kind of)).
Great analogy.
As a person with anxiety, this is the real mind-fuck. The world keeps proving the things I worry about are valid. I’m supposed to work on not worrying so much about the future, but it’s saved me several times now.
With the incredible and important caviet that some things may actually be worse. And the overall conclusion that it doesn’t matter,: because better things are possible and necessary.
caveat
