The world really is getting better and better

World better and better?

HA!!!!!

Since I was a wee lad, from my very first memories I've hated this place, earth, existing in this limited and fragile body of a prison..... looking around seeing wars, greed, friends and cousins that were molested as little kids, lost friends to drugs, car accidents, suicides, alcohol poisoning ...... and just looking back at history and seeing the same cycles.

Honestly man ...look around you at this planet and the evil that happens, the corruption of human nature.

I'm really disgusted personally that you see it all as getting better and better when Im out here on the front lines and see people homeless, crying, in pain, dying, diseased......

The hell outta here w/ this phasad like optimism.....

One day it will get better, I agree only with that much, but it will be thru divine intervention.

I find the following thread far more inspirational and noteworthy of a world getting better and better than the dry blind pontificating optimism in this thread.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

Is the world getting better? ...Yes. Is the world getting worse? Yes. Perspective is the name of the game and we as observers choose what we want the reality of our world to look like. Its an enormous canvas filled with battle scenes and lovers and fiends in the shadows and crying children but as you step further back you are able to see the flora and the fauna....the sky and the sea and suddenly things are a lot less personal. And further still the world becomes even more impartial and you begin to see the big picture and remember that you aren't removed from it. Without being cliched.....life is suffering. Existence is wrought with pain and desperation from early on but these things HAVE to happen. However that sounds....its what I have come to believe after many years of depression and outright cynicism. It wasn't until I shed that belief that I was supposed to be happy and things were supposed to be good all the time that clarity begun to set in. There will always be pious pimps, swindling suits, hungry bellies and turned out pockets and there is nothing new about aspirations of world order, lol. The best you can do is live your life and see the beauty in as much as you can....even if its during a time of crisis. Bill Hicks was always one of my favorites and his rollercoaster analogy is very fitting. Im paraphrasing but he speaks of how life is a roller coaster in an amusement park and you get on and it goes up and down and you think its real because thats how powerful our minds are......but there are those who come back and say "dont worry. Don't be afraid ever....because this is just a ride."

With respect to the OP:
I've always wondered if when they poll people for various maps to see who is happy... to check the bias behind it.
Cancer rates are insane, and the death is horribly painful. People are happy just to be alive on 50 different drugs for diabetes, heart conditions, eye errors, brain issues... the list goes on.
People with terminal cancer end up going through chemotherapy which usually will make you hate yourself, assuming you don't die. I doubt they'd have access to poll the people who are on their deathbeds wishing they were a bit healthier in life
Seeing some of the massive pollution in places like China make me question who they asked. Then again I haven't been over there and I've only seen fear-mongering issues on their country-- so I can't really be a valid source for discussing this in detail.


I won't deny that it's better than it was hundreds of years ago. Sanitation and not being killed by random bacteria do make me quite content

reply to post by Skyfloating

The world really is getting better and better

Are you a Teletubby?

If so, then - oh yes - fer sure, fer sure...

:-)

The much slandered "powers that be" are actually doing an excellent job at creating an enlightened planetary society in which we live side by side in diversity, mutual respect and prosperity.

well, I'm sure we're all waiting for the moment that The Powers That Be get their day in court - it's been a long time coming

I'm not an optimist - I'm a realist. But that doesn't mean I can't still be optimistic.

But, I want to go on the record as having said: if even one child in some African country gets its leg blown off, because the conditions in that country that make it possible for such a thing to happen are either tolerated or ignored - I am not going to be happy

That stuff is not addressed by happy people – the kind of change that has to happen in a situation like this comes about because people are outraged and fed up – not happy

There will not be enough chirping birds or windsurfing in the world to right those wrongs

For some reason – I have some problems with your map
en.wikipedia.org...

The Satisfaction with Life Index was created by Adrian G. White, an Analytic Social Psychologist at the University of Leicester, using data from a metastudy. It is an attempt to show life satisfaction in different nations.

well – it was an attempt

This is an example of directly measuring happiness -- asking people how happy they are...

maybe the folks living in the countries that aren’t green, blue or purple didn’t understand the question

Some studies suggest that happiness can be measured effectively.

right... :-)

The trick seems to be - get yourself situated in a blue or green country. Then just don’t think about any of the other colors and you will be happy.

Ignorance is bliss

All kidding aside – I don’t believe the purpose of life is to be happy – but I’ll admit, maybe that is just my own personal hang up

Also: Happiness gets more done than fear.

Really? Can you prove this?

when you get a chance Sky, I would love a postcard from the Tubbytronic Superdome

:-)

reply to post by backinblack



"Quality of life has gone down"

Are you slow?
Fifty years ago I possibly couldn't even look at a white woman because i'm black.
GTFO

Life is better now.


Only time life would be better in the past is if you're a white person.

"When you change the way you look at things...the things you look at change"

...applicable either for the positive or the negative...

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
However, many of the stats I've looked at seem to indicate that while the other classes have movement, either up or down, the middle class is stagnant. The medium income remains what it was twenty years ago. I even heard a financial expert call the current middle class the "flat-line" generation, because it's not going anywhere.

What some call "flat-line" and "not going anywhere", I call stabilizing. The lower class did not go anywhere for 1000 years, yet in the last 50 years more and more are joining the middle class.

Reading through this thread I am taken aback by the impatience. Certain improvements may take many Generations of human effort and courage. Steady and constant improvement can only be proven if not viewed locally but globally and not for a short period of time but in generational spans.

Originally posted by NadaCambia
Also the civil rights movement, gender equality, all these things happened in spite of TPTB. It was the common man, the people, protesting for the rights of their brothers and sisters. Something government and elite were absolutely opposed to.

Why are people living longer with less illness? Because of social healthcare. Something again TPTB RESISTED.

The people have been fighting for these things for thousands of years.

So all negative events are secretly orchestrated by TPTB and all positive events come from people without power? I would argue that in order to make change, you need some power.

Your thread opened my eyes to looking at the world from a different perspective. We are bombarded with a lot of negativity on a daily basis. Here on ATS alone we have a lot of pessimistic views and doom and gloom threads. We're almost being brainwashed without even realizing it. People are attracted to watching violence, and people who are struggling with addiction. Just look at all the violent reality shows, and the focus on people like Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson. Why are we being fed with all this negativity? Good point OP! Star & Flag for you.

reply to post by Skyfloating


You sure you don't work for TPTB ???

Seems like propaganda to me..

Riots like never before in many countries and here's you saying
"all's rosy, in fact you've never had it better.Now back to your keyboards and TVs and don't forget- you have never had it so good and you are HAPPY."

Originally posted by KilgoreTrout
How do you figure that? In terms of improvement for the many, as opposed to the few, that is...or don't you consider 'them' as having an opinion as to what constitutes a dramatic improvement?

If you believe improvement has only come for the few and not the many, you forget that there was no middle-class just a few hundred years ago. There was no medical care for many things.

I´d love to transport some of you to just a few hundred years ago so that you can smell the stench of decaying bodies in the streets. You`d certainly awaken.

Originally posted by DuceizBack
reply to post by backinblack

 

"Quality of life has gone down"
Are you slow?
Fifty years ago I possibly couldn't even look at a white woman because i'm black.
GTFO
Life is better now.
Only time life would be better in the past is if you're a white person.

I see your point but the OP's point was TPTB have made it better, they even say in the last 5000 years..
You know it's those same PTB that allowed and used slaves..
Again, it was the people that protested against slavery and racism and TPTB were slow to change..

TPTB have been the resistance IMO, not the change...

Originally posted by Skyfloating
If you believe improvement has only come for the few and not the many, you forget that there was no middle-class just a few hundred years ago. There was no medical care for many things.

I´d love to transport some of you to just a few hundred years ago so that you can smell the stench of decaying bodies in the streets. You`d certainly awaken.

Hahahahahahahahaha!

How about I transport you to the Amazonian Rain Forest, or the Australian mangroves a few hundred years ago?

You're an insult to yourself if you really believe half of the twaddle you spout.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
The word is getting better, more healthy and more wealthy overall. bathtub.

thanks for the thread
But I ain't biting.
This article below is symbolic
of what is going on in
ALL countries.

thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com...

Modern Day Slavery

Originally posted by Skyfloating
reply to post by Dyax-

 

99% of all posters here will disagree with the OP, for exactly the reasons you state. Im expecting that, so thats OK. But maybe you`ll give the subject some deeper thought than compiling a list of wrongs. We could go on compiling lists of bad things or good things all day, but it is the overall state of humanity? Even if you say "the state is bad", can you really deny that its getting better?

"Getting better" could also mean from horrible to bad.

i coulndt agree and disagree with you more.

everything you have stated is valid with a BUT

yes more people have access to food.GENETICALLY engineered food that hasnt been tested and some believe cause cancers and genetic defects. so yeah more people can afford cheaper food but they will die sooner of some new illness. not much of a trade off is you ask me. and the same applies for all the things you mention. yes people are living longer with newer degenerative diseases. Alzheimers parkinsons aids cancers and a host of others.

also you mention that TPTB are actually doing a fantastic job of improving the lives of the general public and in the same post you talk about how skewed and biased the media is?? who the hell do you think the owners of the multinational media monopolies are??? the same PTB you say are trying to help us. so which is it??

no offense i love you positive thinkers always so optimistic even when your getting robbed of all your rights.


nobody can really deny that technology hasnt gotten better every year and as a result obviously our life gets easier but easy doesnt equal better. also we havent covered the suppression of technology and medical discoveries that would put multi trillion dollar energy companies and pharmaceutical companies out of business. we live in a world driven by money and profit. we are NOT driven by scientific breakthroughs that free mankind from the ruling elite. anything that frees the average man will be suppressed anything that makes him/her a slave to addiction will be encouraged.

look around you man, people are slaves. slaves to fashion slaves to their addictions slaves to fear slaves to money slaves to power slaves to sex we have been conquered well and truly. even those of us here are addicted to information. our crack is knowledge, we come here like poor peasants hoping some rich and powerful lord who is privy to some legitimate insider info will look down upon us with pity and throw us a half eaten bone.

the only thing we now have left is hope. its the only thing that sustains me. for we have nothing else.

the majority of people are morons, im sorry but its true its not nice but the truth is never nice. they cant distinguish between reality and fantasy. obviously this is just an opinion but i work in sales and i deal with all sorts of people from the dirt poor to the very rich and they all have one thing in common. none of them have a clue whats really going on in the world they all just do as their told.

but wasn't barry placed their by the masters? , really getting better Huh? , that's what they want us to believe , g.m foods by our favourite corporation monsanto, the u.s becoming a police state.

Originally posted by desert

I find a lot of optimism in this publication. Good things are happening, all over the world.

I browsed through some of their articles and I like it, I like it! Intelligent Optimism....

A very interesting thread and has promoted much lively debate. Nicely done Sky.

In the past 2 pages I've noticed the word perception sprout up a couple of times - I think if we are looking at something getting "better and better" we should certainly question the value system we use to define it.

One of the toughest things about community development is education. How do you define what someone needs to know? Is promoting a value system for 'growth' in conflict with their cultural rights to independence?

If we take, as an example, a group of women from rural Pakistan and explain Human Rights to them by way of 'liberating' them from a misogynist culture we alienate them from their fathers, sons, brothers and husbands. We overwrite the stability of the hegemonic elite and stir up dissent. On one hand we can say we are empowering these women to live fully within their Human Rights but on the other it could clearly be stated that we are causing them unhappiness and starting a revolt. The entire time these women will not enjoy the experience and resistance will be found in every facet of that community. We can say that we are bringing them happiness but what we are doing is giving them enough of an education to make them unhappy with what is going on around them.

Should these women have access to their rights as humans? Of course they should.

Should their existing culture and mindset be taken into account? Of course otherwise it's just another form of colonisation.

We are faced with a value system which will 'increase their quality of life' by decreasing their immediate happiness. A couple of generations later they may have a daughter who is an excellent doctor, but they most certainly will have had unhappy repercussions from the transition.

So to pan out from that particular group. Industry is cheaper to run in the East than it is in the West. That industrialisation beings with it education, utilities, progressive governance and a higher quality of life. People can now read and write and take a vested interest in the world in ways they couldn't before. For every job that's created in the East there is 1 destroyed in the West. Someone who can already read, write and vote is how out of a job and angry about it.

The stock holders of the company he worked for are happy though - they've decreased their overheads, minimised the levels of safety required in the workplace and generally made a decent amount of money from this. They probably got a kickback from the government of the West to help them whilst they downgraded and another kickback from the government in the East for setting up there. TPTB making sure that they benefit from it by being board members or having stock with them.

When banks charge their stakeholders for every transaction get themselves into so much debt that the government bails them out that is an abuse of TPTB. The debt still exists - but it's the East that owns it now and it's the East that will benefit from it. TPTB allowed this to occur, this was no mistake.

So going by indicators like education level, infant mortality, running water, internet and democratic elections more people are happier now than they've ever been. However the critical thinking that these benefits bring mean that people are more aware of injustices and short comings and will express their thoughts on the matter which could be seen as more people being unhappy.

-m0r

Originally posted by Skyfloating
I hereby argue that much of the doomsaying you can read here every day is itself disinformation meant to keep you in a state of fear and inertia. The much slandered "powers that be" are actually doing an excellent job at creating an enlightened planetary society in which we live side by side in diversity, mutual respect and prosperity. The fearmongers are not actually the "awakened ones" as opposed to who they call "sheeple", its just the other way around. I can prove this.

I believe both the mainstream media and alternative media are manufacturing a false sense of reality by focusing almost exclusively on disaster, crime, genocide, war in order to gain attention and sell papers because reality is just too "mundane". If news-media were to show normal life or report good news, the majority would not believe that the world is generally a bad place. But this is not only the fault of the media, it is actively desired by the majority of humanity. People mostly pay for watching violent movies. Peaceful and harmonious movies usually dont become Blockbusters. That means humanity still prefers negative to positive.

Newsmedia tends to break reality down to a snapshot. So if, in some African country, a child got its leg blown off, they will take a picture of that. That picture will then come to represent "what is going on in that country". People will start associating that picture with the country. Of course that is a gross distortion of reality because 99.99% of the people are not having their legs shot off 99.99% of the time. Using 1% of reality and making it look as if this 1% represents 99% is the classical tool of disinformation.

The word is getting better, more healthy and more wealthy overall. The life-expectancy of the world has increased. The overall health conditions have gotten better. Overall, the world is more peaceful. The overall population is more educated and more people are getting an education than ever before. The world is better relations and communications with another. The world is technologically more advanced. The world is psychologically happier. There are many thousands of reasons to look at the future with optimism and zest...the exact opposite of what most newsmedia and "alternative" media suggest.

The end is not nigh. The "good ol days" were not better. Quit looking at the snapshot or the 0.0001% of what is happening, and look at the big picture, the whole film-reel. Two key concepts that prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the world is getting better:

1. Quality of Life

2. Standard of Living

As you can see from the articles in the links, the science is settled and the facts laid out.

Some typical objections I keep hearing:

"But the greedy rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor"

Truth: The middle class today are richer than the rich a century ago. Things that only royals and the elite used to have, are no longer restricted to the elite. A few hundred years ago some royals couldnt even afford a bathtub.

"But our greed is taking its toll on our environment"

Truth: Pollution has been in steady decline since the 80s

"But there are many parts of the world which are in extreme poverty. The greedy have only become rich at the expense of these poor people"

Truth: Of course poverty still exists in large parts of the world. But that poverty already existed 500 years ago...except that it was even worse. With the steady path upwards we are provably going, world poverty will be solved within another 500 years (looking at the whole film-reel of reality, not just the snapshot of today).

"But we're spiritually poor. We have money, but we have lost our values"

Truth: Today women are allowed to vote, and we have a Black President. Bookstores carry more spiritual literature than ever before in History. That idea is just nonsense.

"But there are many threats we are facing from the Middle East"

Truth: While it is true that we need to stay on the alert for various threats, the recent peaceful revolutions in various Arab countries are actually a sign of awakening, not of a problem.

"We can only be happy when there is world peace everywhere and at all times"

I tend to disagree with that for several reasons, some of them shown in this thread: Do we really need world peace?. We can have overall peace most of the time and in most places, but total peace "at all times" can only come about through totalitarian rule - which is certainly not preferable in my view.

Oddly, all these Internet-Doomsayers have access to the Internet (= open Communication to the rest of the world) where they can say anything they want (= more free speech than at any time ever in History), they have plenty of food in their refrigerator, they have clothing, shelter and are usually fairly healthy. Ive met people who own much less who complain less than these doomsayers.

Usually, when I present the idea that the world is getting better, someone will present me with a list of wars that are happening. That does not change the fact that 95% of the world are always at peace or in ceasefire.

The Satisfaction with Life Index is one of many ways science measures the overall happiness of the planet.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bb59a26c0101.png[/atsimg]

The green, blue and purple countries call themselves very happy to fairly happy and the orange and red countries call themselves unhappy to very unhappy.

From this we see that there is a fair balance of happiness and unhappinies, with a slight advantage for happiness.
We can see that happiness is connected to health, wealth and access to basic education.

We can also see that we are heading towards more happiness overall. Connected to are centrist/moderate democracies. This is what all the happy (colored green on the map) have in commin. Former Eastern European countries, as they were under soviet rule used to be "red". Since having gained Independence from Soviet Rule, countries like Poland have turned Purple. Poland is in an excellent example of a destitute nation turned happy as soon as their freedoms were restored. The fact that a strong economy is a major but not the only happiness factor is shown by the fact that one of the poorest countries in the world, Bhutan, ranks 8, far in front of the U.S (see Life Satisfaction Index).

Yes, there are "wounds" left to heal, such as the wound of the MiddleEast. However, even there, not all is as terrible as shown in the news. There too the Israelis and Palestinians have mountains, valleys, trees, singing birds, festivals, good food, windsurfers, couples falling in love, prayer and whatnot.

Many I present these facts to, claim that things have gotten better in the last 5000 years but are going downhill in the last thirty years. That claim to, is easily disproven with the Human Development Index:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0f25181e6d72.png[/atsimg]

According to Human Development Index, life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living, and GDP per capita are slowly increasing worldwide, although faster in some countries than others. The world population is increasing with 2.2 percent per year, expecting to reach nearly 9 billion by the year 2050. There is also an ongoing technology development, sociocultural evolution as well as economic development.

A few more facts that prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the world is getting better:

25 years ago in China, over 600M people were living on < $1/day. Today this number is 180M … meaning 420M+ people are now above this level.

Between 1999 and 2004, 135M people worldwide rose from < $1/day to above this level. This is more people, more quickly than at any other time in history.

In South Asia, the number of people without clean water has halved since 1990.

In 1975, 75% of people aged 15-25 were literate. Now the rate is almost 90%.

In 1970, the fertility rate in East Asia/Pacific was 5.4 and now is 2.1

Almost half of all humans live in countries with growth of more than 7% per year (which doubles the economy every decade).

I understand this contradicts most of what people are taught by their parents, taught in school, taught in the media, taught on the Internet, but there you have it. If you continue to insist that things are getting worse, it may be that you are psychologically projecting your own bad situation on the world.

edit on 6-3-2011 by Skyfloating because: (no reason given)

I agree with you more than I have ever agreed with anyone in my life! The world is getting better but no one realizes it because they and the news media only
Focus on the negative! Look at what is going on! I only focus on the positive and that's why I am here. The world gets better and better everyday wether you realize it
Or not! Big star and flag from me