ColinWallis wrote:it's easy for everything to seem bad in current times because we have never had the ability to be aware of (and stream live from a device we keep in our pockets) all the insanity occurring around the globe.
i'm not saying there is any shortage of negativity or bad shit happening, but i will say i believe there is more positivity in the world than there ever has been, and more and more people become aware of it every day.
sure, the war between awareness, truth and censorship can be frightening, but that is just inevitable human nature playing out. chimp-like tribalism.
just because things are chaotic and overwhelming doesn't mean they aren't getting better.
As much as I'm baffled by this kind of statements I have to agree.
I don't live in a first world country, but each time I talk to or conceive my elders' lives I am amazed by the persistence of conjoined human effort and how far we have reached in improving our conditions, physical and spiritual and what not. Many of their lives were crushed through work since childhood and useless warfare. They wouldn't dream of spending time with friends or partners, reading books, going to concerts, travelling around, much less think about it. Idleness was a myth at best.
And yet there is a mystification of decadence hard not to fall into. I would consider myself fairly neurotypical. I go through my share of illusions and troubles as much as the dude next door. But often (e. g. yesterday when I was strolling across the city (no, I wasn't listening to BoC) and looking at passers-by's expressions) I can't evade a certain vibe of pervading gloom. Is it due to the downfall of religion and moral values? Or am I projecting my own morbidity into otherness and the world?
Anyhow, I always appreciate these posts; they lift me up. It might well be that, as Leibniz said, we live in the best of all possible worlds. Thank you.