Thread: Is the world becoming a better place?

Radko Mladic has been arrested, the last of the three Balkan beasts who was co-responsible for so much breaching of human rights. Soon he will be brought over to the Hague. My first reaction: at last justice is being done! Then I went musing over the 'Arab Spring' and thought: Is the world becoming a better place?

It's definitely becoming a bigger place, and bigger is better as they say.

No, it's not, especially in western world of North America and Europe lost in materialistic, hedonic "culture", deluded with silly ideas of democracy and pseudo-freedom. Funny, just yesterday I read one of Byron's journals and there was one sentence that sums pretty well this whole question. But I can't translate it without loosing the sense. Anyway, the essence is that world will always be as bad as always, only difference is the reason for which it's all bad and wrong - people just fall from one foolishness to another, from tyrany and close-mindness to no less delusive values of today. The world is not progressing in direction of "goodness", it's task of every single individual to do such thing.

Are you referring t Lord Byron? Surely That would already be in English?

Originally Posted by emiellucifuge

Are you referring t Lord Byron? Surely That would already be in English?

Yes, the original surely was english but I'm reading a book about him (with translated fragments from his letters and journals) in polish. I don't read books in english, unless it's poetry of english-language authors.

Not in any sense of the word it is not

Ah okay. I agree with most of what youve said. Im sure i will evil during my life in equal measure to the generations before me.

The world is exactly the same as it was before. The only difference is that it's maybe a bit more complicated. For the most part, people have been dealing with the same problems as we do for millennia.

Originally Posted by Kopachris

The world is exactly the same as it was before. The only difference is that it's maybe a bit more complicated. For the most part, people have been dealing with the same problems as we do for millennia.

So something new like the internet & social media you deny having profound influence on how the world is being experienced & run? Isn't one of the nice things of the nowadays world, that the bad guys are being fully exposed as bad guys, thus having less power to behave the way they did before? Berlusconi in the past could meddle around with lots of 17 year olds, Khadaffi (Berlusconi's friend) underestimated the power of social media, so did Mubarak (another friend of Berlusconi). Just musing.....

But you see, maybe those 'dictatorship' issues are fast becoming yesterdays issue. In todays world an argument could be made that the USA, the EU and other developed nations are the bad guys. We are using resources that we cant afford to use and in the process robbing poorer countries of their natural wealth. One consequence is that the changing global climate will exacerbate drought, desertification and further loss of resources in the countries that can least afford to cope.

Originally Posted by emiellucifuge

But you see, maybe those 'dictatorship' issues are fast becoming yesterdays issue. In todays world an argument could be made that the USA, the EU and other developed nations are the bad guys. We are using resources that we cant afford to use and in the process robbing poorer countries of their natural wealth. One consequence is that the changing global climate will exacerbate drought, desertification and further loss of resources in the countries that can least afford to cope.

Why is the Chinese government admitting that there is an environmental problem with the three gorges dam? They wouldn't do so in the past.

Thats true, yet at the same time:



Emissions from consumption in China

Originally Posted by Argus

It's definitely becoming a bigger place, and bigger is better as they say.

Yes, there is some truth in that. As the world continues to get bigger, as communication gets more sophisticated with emphasis on knowledge--exchange of ideas, there is that potential of better. On the flip side, we've seen the horrendous decline of education in America--a thirst for fifteen minutes of fame. I could go on....

The world would be a lot better if people would stop having so many goddamned children.

Originally Posted by Rasa

The world would be a lot better if people would stop having so many goddamned children.

Apart from the "goddamned"...

Concerning numbers...

1950 World Population - 2,556,000,053

2010 World Population - 6,848,932,929*

2050 World Population - 9,346,399,468*

Projected*