Do You Think the World Has Gone Mad Comparatively to its Past?

[TheGravemind]

Let's consider the following:
- Civil war in Syria where there are still thousands of innocent civilians being injured (among them little kids) at the hands of things such as artillery, chemical agents and wholesale execution-style mass murders.
- Problems with Arab/North African (Muslim) immigrants in Europe and intra-societal issues that arise as a result (extremism from both factions.)
- Iran on the verge of nuclear missiles.
- Russia arming Syria even further.
- Swedish riots.
- Armed terrorist groups from Lebanon granting their support to Assad's regime.
- North Korea (although this has been dampened lately) acting more volatile than usual.
- Mass starvation, terrorism in Africa (primarily Somalia, Nigeria and Mali.)


Considering that alone, it makes me wonder sometimes if humanity as a whole is descending into total madness. Has it ever been this bad is what I suppose I'm discussing here?

PS: what really prompted me to make this thread is why can't we just be rational and help each other rather than being blinded by things like nationalism (which is a huge part of why we haven't intervened in Syria yet, because it's not in our best interest) while letting innocent people die?

[Mayhem]

are you serious?

it usually was worse than now

[Kisho]

Wars have happened in the past too. There've always been idiots, dictators, and monumental cockups. The only difference is that now, we're far better at documenting those things, so it seems much worse now.

But y'know. Simple history lesson will show you that the world was just as mad back then... And at least now we have advanced medical science to prevent us dying to, say, the bubonic plague.

[TheGravemind]

are you serious?

it usually was worse than now

I don't remember the source (I'll try to find it and post it here if I do), but I recall reading somewhere that the world was more volatile now than even during the few years that precipitated WW2.

[Rokom]

I think it's less that we're descending into madness, and more that we just keep getting better at sensationalizing the madness that already exists in the world. The madness isn't new, but it is easier to discover/observe due to advances in technology. A good, though older, example of this is how all of the t.v. coverage of the Vietnam War exposed civilians to how horrible war actually is.

[Deleted]

No, it hasn't gone mad. It's just that today you actually HEAR about these things 1st hand rather than reading a history book, so it obviously has more emotional impact.

[Coldhearth]

If you compare "now vs then", violence has actually gone down since the dawn of man.

[Gheld]

The world is getting better. On the other hand as the parts of the world where mass violence is allowed to occur shrink, it starts to look a lot more concentrated.

I think there are some things in our own society that have changed throughout the last couple of decades that are causing us to become more detached from each other.

At the same time given the fact that the inflation of certain essentials such as food and home greatly outpaces wage inflation, the mathematics would suggest that our western free market paradise will survive, at best, 2 more generations unless our society sees a profound fundamental change; unfortunately in a world of conflicting ideologies this seldom happens peacefully.

A lot of the things we take for granted in the first world were paid for by the blood of our ancestors.

[Underverse]

Nah I think we're doing pretty good

[Skroe]

Not even remotely close to 'Mad'.

[Thimagryn]

To understand the present, we must understand the past. Read some history books and you'll easily see how shitty life was 'back then' compared to things now.

[Gambit5555]

I don't remember the source (I'll try to find it and post it here if I do), but I recall reading somewhere that the world was more volatile now than even during the few years that precipitated WW2.

Just to give you an idea what people are talking about, what was happening in Syria, North Korea, Somalia, Mali, Asia leading up to World War 2? If you're not sure, it's because there wasn't the 24/7 worldwide news feed that there is now. This world has gone through far more troubling times than this, with empires expanding across continents killing millions and millions of people. We are now fortunate to have worldwide information to prevent that from happening again, but we sacrifice the peace that ignorance can bring our minds

[Deleted]

It's less mad in some ways, and madder in other ways.

To understand the present, we must understand the past. Read some history books and you'll easily see how shitty life was 'back then' compared to things now.

Some conflicts are kept alive thanks to "history", such as national tension. We better start thanking technology for fixing life, not history.

[Deleted]

Globalization and more recently the internet has made all this news much more accessible, that's all really. Until we have a single enemy we can unite under, man will just fight himself.

[Deleted]

Ask yourself this:

Can I criticize my government without fear of imprisonment?

Can I marry a person of the same sex and/or different race?

Do I have equal rights, regardless of my race or gender?

Can I not believe in my country's majority religion and not fear for my life?

Can a woman have sex before marriage without getting stoned to death?

Do I have a life expectancy over 30 years of age?

If you can answer yes to those questions then, yea, you're better off than most human beings who have ever lived.

We're not perfect, maybe not even good, but yea, we're definitely better than any other time period. In most countries you only need to go back a single generation to have lived in a much worse society.

[Deleted]

How fucked up the world is atm, in the past it was even more fucked up.

[Deadvolcanoes]

Humanity, in our current state, is less violent and more peaceful than ever before.

[Deleted]

I see the reason this question even being asked is simply because of the media coverage being infinitely better. 40 years ago you wouldn't hear about some brutal murder in a country far from you war coverage was small etc.

The world is far better then ever, we just hear every single dramatic thing that happens

[Baracuda]

Let's consider the following:
- Civil war in Syria where there are still thousands of innocent civilians being injured (among them little kids) at the hands of things such as artillery, chemical agents and wholesale execution-style mass murders.
- Problems with Arab/North African (Muslim) immigrants in Europe and intra-societal issues that arise as a result (extremism from both factions.)
- Iran on the verge of nuclear missiles.
- Russia arming Syria even further.
- Swedish riots.(immigrants)
- Armed terrorist groups from Lebanon granting their support to Assad's regime.
- North Korea (although this has been dampened lately) acting more volatile than usual.
- Mass starvation, terrorism in Africa (primarily Somalia, Nigeria and Mali.)

So most bad things in the World are caused by Middle-easterners and Africans? Guess the rest of the world is normal then. By the way nationalism isn't what's causing people from intervening in Syria it's because no matter what side we help it's still gonna be shit and we'll get the blame if we pick the wrong side. Result will be dictatorship or Islamic state, I don't want to risk dying for that.

[Deleted]

it doesnt matter how far you go back in history, man has always been waging war against someone.
the day we become extinct, is the day this planet will get back to a normal, peaceful existence, where a single species isnt trying to ruin everything for everyone.