For a group of suppossed hippies, I hear a lot of negativity on these boards. Don't you all realize that this is as good as things have ever been in the world? Now, it is possible that plague will wipe us all out tomorrow but up until this very moment, humans have never had it so good. Until about 200 years ago, 99.9% of all humans really were living hand to mouth. Just getting by day to day. The average human lived until their mid 40's as they had for ten of thousdands of years without a heck of a lot of progress. The 0.01% who lived like kings were in fact, the kings, but they were a neglible part of the population. And you know what? If King Henry had a toothache, he suffered. He'd have given up half his kingdom for antibiotics for him and his children. Over the past 200 years, advances in technology and medical science have steadily increased the lengths of our lives and made those years more comfortable. People have gone from averging 80-90 hour work weeks in 1900 to just 35 a week now in the USA and 30 in Europe. Our grandparents did not have the luxury of wondering whether or not they found their careers fulfilling. They just wanted jobs that filled their tummies. We are already spoiled by the luxury of needing more meaning from our work. And in the last 50 years, wealth from the West has spread to Asia and is now making serious headway into South America and hopefully, Africa. Even looking at our immediate past, are there any women or minorities that would rather be living in 1965 when sexism and racism were more common? And frankly, I would argue that even you white guys have it better today because now you get to be more of a part of your children's lives than was socially acceptable back then. Even looking back just five years ago, go pick up an electronics catalogue from 2002 and tell me how much of that stuff you'd want to buy today. None of it. We all have flat screens and ipods and soon iphones and you know what? they kick ass! I am not saying that we shouldn't be reminded of all the ways that we can make the world better and of course we need to avoid "blowing" it all away, but you know what? We have never had it so good and if this is as good as it gets, enjoy!
No one denies that these are the best of times. I have a nice home in a quite community in New England, my life expectancy is around 80 years, I make good money, and I drive a nice gas guzzling SUV, life is good. Yet while the quality of life has vastly improved over the past 100 years, I see little improvement by man over the past 10,000 years Hotwater
are u fucking serious? Pick up any high school history book and read that shit then tell me how man hasnt improved over the past 10,000 years.
200 years ago, London was a cesspool of garbage with a poisoned river flowing through it. Today, its one of the world's best cities. Most of America was covered by garbage in the 1970's until recycling and a successful marketing campaign effected change. Today, we are much more aware of the damages we do and we can make a cost/benefit analysis of whether we should embark upon a new project (another shoe factory? another nuke plant?). People have a social conscience today that didnt exist at times when we pretty much just wanted to feed ourselves. I didn't say things are perfect. In fact, I think things may still get a whole lot better. yah for us!
