Random Musings (again).
I had a conversation with my mother the other day in which she said that she felt like everything was getting worse, and that people were getting more and more evil and cruel to each other. Being the ever (perhaps overly) optimistic type, I wonder about that. Personally, I feel that a lot of people have no real sense of what it was like even five or ten years before their memories begin. I know I don’t. To me 1980, five years before I was born, is as ancient history as 1880 or 80 B.C. It’s not something we personally remember so we recall it through the hazy lens of impressions and limited information, usually fed to us by the media (especially movies).
Like I said, I tend to be the optimistic sort, but I really question whether or not the world is getting worse. Look how far we’ve come - we’ve abolished slavery, pushed freedom for -everyone-, no matter how rich or poor or black or white they are. We’ve given every their voice in a democratic system. Even things such as education, science, and religion have gone from being the realm of a small few to being open to anyone brave (or foolish) enough to pursue entrance into that world.
It’s not a perfect system, as evidenced by our judicial courts and the fact that people are still denied their right to live the way they want, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. We’re working on same-sex marriage now, it’s the new frontier. People are saying that we’ve gone too far, that that’s going to ruin the basis of our American families and culture, that it’s going to lead to our ruin… but I think they said that about women voting, too, and about abolishing slavery. Now look where we are - and what we take for granted.
Up until just a hundred years ago education was only for rich, white males. Females, lower-class citizens, and minorities were lucky to be able to read and write. And now everyone goes to school. In fact, you have to, and that’s something that Americans take for granted. When you’re young, you go to school. But when Jefferson and the Founding Fathers first proposed education for everyone (keep in mind it was only to make sure people could vote properly, and it was still only for middle to upper class white males), there was a huge outcry. Now? Well, you might even get arrested if you DON’T go to school.
So I wonder if this view, that the world’s getting worse, is because of two main reasons. The first is one of personal empowerment and enlightenment. We see more things as wrong and in need of correction - such as slavery - and also have the personal means to take up action against something that we feel is in need of correction. It’s no longer okay to treat African Americans as inferiors, and things such as the NAACP and the court systems in place allow slighted citizens to voice their protest and be heard. Like I said, it’s not a perfect system, but it’s still there. If you’re a female and your boss grabs your ass at work, you can go to the HR department and they will - they HAVE - to take you seriously and address the problem. You can speak out and get results. I’m pretty sure serfs in Medieval England or even females as recently back as 1930 didn’t have this option and didn’t feel capable of correcting this wrong - if they even saw it as a crime in the first place.
The other thing I think contributes to this view that everything is getting worse is that everything is, in fact, getting better - which only makes what bad things that do happen stand out in even starker contrast. As sort of an example, I’ll use a Voyager episode that I like a lot. The Voyager crew lands on this planet in which all of the people have become telepathic - and as result have been able to weed out all violent or hateful thoughts and establish this wonderful utopia. However, a stray angry (and violent) thought from B’lanna, stolen by one of the telepaths, results in a man beating another man, and then ultimately in an old woman killing someone. Just one beating and one murder, but it plunged the entire world into a panic. The utopian telepaths’ idea of normal was no crime at all; suddenly, they had two to deal with. Does this mean those people had gotten worse? That the world was taking a turn for the worst? I doubt anyone would say that. But their reference was no crime at all, and so even just one violent act seemed horrendous and horrifying.
I feel the same thing happens today. We don’t have to worry about invading towns sweeping down, killing all our men, burning our houses down, and making off with all of our women, so even just one crime can seem much more horrible and a sign of how “bad” things have gotten. I’m not sure if that’s the best possible way to put it, but hopefully you get what I’m trying to say.
I like to think that we’re doing great and I have high hopes for humanity that one day we’ll be able to reach that utopia state and people will truly be free to live the way they want while respecting all of the life around them. I don’t buy into this whole “the world is getting worse” thing. I think it’s getting better and that it’s our responsibility to keep trying to push us along that road to being even better. True, smaller things will become more horrible when we lose our reference of what was, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it. Then again, it might just be my nature to look for the good that’s coming. It’s too depressing to think that the world’s getting worse and all we’re doing is going downhill. Always look on the bright side of life! That’s what I’m gonna keep doing.
Like I said, I tend to be the optimistic sort, but I really question whether or not the world is getting worse. Look how far we’ve come - we’ve abolished slavery, pushed freedom for -everyone-, no matter how rich or poor or black or white they are. We’ve given every their voice in a democratic system. Even things such as education, science, and religion have gone from being the realm of a small few to being open to anyone brave (or foolish) enough to pursue entrance into that world.
It’s not a perfect system, as evidenced by our judicial courts and the fact that people are still denied their right to live the way they want, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. We’re working on same-sex marriage now, it’s the new frontier. People are saying that we’ve gone too far, that that’s going to ruin the basis of our American families and culture, that it’s going to lead to our ruin… but I think they said that about women voting, too, and about abolishing slavery. Now look where we are - and what we take for granted.
Up until just a hundred years ago education was only for rich, white males. Females, lower-class citizens, and minorities were lucky to be able to read and write. And now everyone goes to school. In fact, you have to, and that’s something that Americans take for granted. When you’re young, you go to school. But when Jefferson and the Founding Fathers first proposed education for everyone (keep in mind it was only to make sure people could vote properly, and it was still only for middle to upper class white males), there was a huge outcry. Now? Well, you might even get arrested if you DON’T go to school.
So I wonder if this view, that the world’s getting worse, is because of two main reasons. The first is one of personal empowerment and enlightenment. We see more things as wrong and in need of correction - such as slavery - and also have the personal means to take up action against something that we feel is in need of correction. It’s no longer okay to treat African Americans as inferiors, and things such as the NAACP and the court systems in place allow slighted citizens to voice their protest and be heard. Like I said, it’s not a perfect system, but it’s still there. If you’re a female and your boss grabs your ass at work, you can go to the HR department and they will - they HAVE - to take you seriously and address the problem. You can speak out and get results. I’m pretty sure serfs in Medieval England or even females as recently back as 1930 didn’t have this option and didn’t feel capable of correcting this wrong - if they even saw it as a crime in the first place.
The other thing I think contributes to this view that everything is getting worse is that everything is, in fact, getting better - which only makes what bad things that do happen stand out in even starker contrast. As sort of an example, I’ll use a Voyager episode that I like a lot. The Voyager crew lands on this planet in which all of the people have become telepathic - and as result have been able to weed out all violent or hateful thoughts and establish this wonderful utopia. However, a stray angry (and violent) thought from B’lanna, stolen by one of the telepaths, results in a man beating another man, and then ultimately in an old woman killing someone. Just one beating and one murder, but it plunged the entire world into a panic. The utopian telepaths’ idea of normal was no crime at all; suddenly, they had two to deal with. Does this mean those people had gotten worse? That the world was taking a turn for the worst? I doubt anyone would say that. But their reference was no crime at all, and so even just one violent act seemed horrendous and horrifying.
I feel the same thing happens today. We don’t have to worry about invading towns sweeping down, killing all our men, burning our houses down, and making off with all of our women, so even just one crime can seem much more horrible and a sign of how “bad” things have gotten. I’m not sure if that’s the best possible way to put it, but hopefully you get what I’m trying to say.
I like to think that we’re doing great and I have high hopes for humanity that one day we’ll be able to reach that utopia state and people will truly be free to live the way they want while respecting all of the life around them. I don’t buy into this whole “the world is getting worse” thing. I think it’s getting better and that it’s our responsibility to keep trying to push us along that road to being even better. True, smaller things will become more horrible when we lose our reference of what was, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it. Then again, it might just be my nature to look for the good that’s coming. It’s too depressing to think that the world’s getting worse and all we’re doing is going downhill. Always look on the bright side of life! That’s what I’m gonna keep doing.