How do you guys cope with the fact that the world isn't getting any better?
I'm really worried about the state of the US despite being a white male who was I'll coast right through it. I'll also accept "I don't" and "very poorly" as answers
I just don't expose myself to the 24h news cycle very much. My life is good, the life of the people around me is good, and nobody is helped by worrying about things I can't change.
This.
News are the reason your mental health sucks ass. The world is doing okay actually if you just look around instead.
Or if you ACTUALLY care about real news:
CRIME is at an ALL TIME LOW in all western world
China and many other countries have taken a billion people out of extreme poverty
Communist dictators are loosing ground in south america
Inflation is back to normal levels
Solar panels and infrastructure IS becoming CHEAP
Etc
Absolutely the way to go. Everyone in my circle is doing better than they were 5-10 years ago. My outlook could be better if my country decided to nope out, uproot itself and settle somewhere sub-tropical, far away from the Russian border we now share, but since I am considering emigrating after finishing training anyway, I don’t worry about that too much.
ignorance is bliss
ya'll are scum
It's getting harder every year.
I remember well the constant fear of nuclear war in the 1980's.
I remember the wonder we felt when the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet Union collapsed. A hope of a tomorrow free of fear.
I remember the dreadful recession of the early 1990's and the steep economical rise that followed it.
I remember the amazing advancements in technology and the standard of living in the late 1990's. And at the same time, it felt like the world was coming to it's senses.
I was 21 in the year 2000. The world was full of promise, technological advancements were just pouring in, old mortal enemies were finding common ground and it seemed that we were slowly heading towards a Star Trek - like post scarcity utopia.
This age of hope eneded by the finance crisis of 2007-2008. Russia tried the waters with the war in Georgia. The general atmosphere of the world turned towards gloom again. And the downward spiral just seems to keeps going and going....
Yet I continue the work I started when I chose teaching as my profession in those golden years of hope. The kids are very different today, any class from 20 years ago would be a piece of cake compared with the problems they have now. But if a change for the better is to come, it will come from the kids. My generation is hopelessly lost in consumer greed and watching mindless "reality" shows that they somehow feel more important than real life.
I alone cannot be the change we need, but I CAN educate a few hundred kids and with good luck, maybe a dozen or few of them will have a some effect for a better future.
By realizing that it IS getting better. We live in a world now where information has exploded out of control. What this means is that we now know exactly what's going on everywhere, and it turns out that's a lot of shit.
That shit was still happening, but until fairly recently it was just out of the picture. The average person didn't know about any of it , couldn't do anything about it anyway, and thus it didn't really impact them.
Fast forward to today you hear of tragedies ALL THE TIME. Bad shit happening to good people for seemingly no reason. The difference here is that you just happen to know about it. The objective truth is that bad shit happens less today than it did at any other time in history. We just see every instance of it, not just our local community instances.
When all the bad information from the news begins to bombard me, I think back to March 2020, when the pandemic hit full swing. That might seem odd to some because many would argue that was the spark that set of the series of events that got us here. However what I see now, years later, with a bit of perspective, it was an amazing time. For the first time in human civilization almost our entire species focused in on one task and overall succeed. An existential threat to our entire way of life emerged, most people got on board and we avoided the absolute worst.
We're not meant to process all the bad things that happen in the world every day. Our primate brains are meant for small communities, not international events. Perhaps the pandemic isn't OPs thing or yours to think about, but I'll bet that almost everyone has some memory that gives them hope. Think about it, hold into it. A hopeful thing happened once, it'll happen again.
This is definitely true. A lot of people fucked around during COVID and made aspects of it worse, but they would have probably done that anyway. Overall, we did a very impressive job worldwide in managing the crisis.
If you ever think the world is shit, disconnect. Turn off the news, get off social media, spend a week interacting with your local community only. You'll see people can be pretty awesome, and you can make a very real impact in the world by helping your local community.
For the first time in human civilization almost our entire species focused in on one task and overall succeed.
Except we didn't. COVID is endemic, and it never needed to be if not for a gaggle of shithead capitalists demanding the gears of the economy be greased in the blood and sputum of "essential workers".
Well as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. Honestly, I think its healthy to takes breaks from the news and social media if world news is getting you down, just focus on the things that you can control in your life.
I use to think like that in my 20s. But the truth is right now, it's definitely not getting better. I teach in college/univ and the amount of ignorance and entitlement I've seen in the past couple of years is alarming. Elon Musk and Andrew Tates are the role models for many young men now, there is a masculinity crisis and it's affecting everyone.
Maybe it's just because of the people I'm around, but it feels like society's concepts of both masculinity and femininity have continued improving. There are of course the Tate acolytes, but they seem as much like the gasp of a dying ideology as anything. Not sure about Musk, that particular brand of personality cult prosperity gospel never seems to really go out of style.
If you consider serious, global issues with empirical data, such as disease, poverty, hunger, the world is indeed improving, and has been for a while, see e.g. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-living-in-extreme-poverty-cost-of-basic-needs
That was already around. You had the toxic masculine movie stars of the 70s-2000s. Soldiers and fighters have been glorified since the times we've had soldiers and fighters. The only difference there is a wider audience. You also have an increasing number of reasonable voices out there reaching a broader and broader audience too. Violent crimes are consistently down, we just see all that there is.
I don't want to be rude but you really should not continue teaching (at least in the same way) if you are that repulsed or disconnected from your students.
Students will always have different priorities and mindsets than their teacher would like them to have, and most times they'll be wrong; it's a part of life in acads. Most of these youngsters have had very little exposure to the world and it is bound they'll make mistakes. That's what school is for. And they will certainly not remain the same, just like anyone from your generation as well, when they get older.
You cannot just get into teaching and not expect delinquency, that's not how it works. Just focus on getting the subject matter of whatever you're teaching through their heads and ensure everyone understands the concepts, the "bad" idealogues will eventually get sorted out themselves.
Many people in here arguing things "have never been better". It's true to an extent; things are pretty good in terms of poverty, liberties or world peace (for now). It's not great, it's never been great, but it's a decent bit better than it's been in the past. Overall.
We are, however, in an era of unstability and unrest, where it feels like things are constantly on the cusp of changing for the worse (and in some cases, are indeed already changing for the worse, like abortion or LGBT rights in the US, for example). Violence and discrimination are on the rise, global peace is being threatened, democracy is in jeopardy (not just in the US mind you), the 1% are getting WAY richer way faster than ever... To top it all off, climate change is objectively, unarguably as bad as it's ever been, and it's getting much much worse, much faster than even experts can keep up with. Like, we're headed straight for extinction and we keep accelerating toward it.
You have every right to be worried. Yes, it's easy to forget and take for granted the things we have now that we didn't even a mere 60 years ago, but many of them are very much under attack at the moment. Just because shit maybe hasn't quite yet hit the fan doesn't mean everything is fine.
And to answer your question, I've found some refuge in art, both experiencing and creating it. Reading books, watching movies, playing games, etc, especially those that echo that sentiment of fear and uncertainty for the future (or present). Trying to use all that as inspiration for my own work, I think it'd help to express my feelings this way. I am indeed doing very poorly still though, it's a lot to deal with, on top of my own personal problems.
LGBT rights in the US
LGBTQ rights in the US are, generally speaking, progressing.
climate change
I don't think doom and gloom is warranted with climate change. Many countries have long reached peak CO2. The goal now is net zero. Rich nations also need to pony up to help developing nations that haven't already spewed a ton of CO2 into the air as part of development. Unfortunately, that's looking to be difficult with internal politics in the rich countries.
Some of the progress at the recent COP18 looks to be possible ground breaking. The methane related agreements in particular could be enormously beneficial. They could decrease the amount of methane released or burned off as part of fossil fuel extraction significantly. Methane has a relatively low half life, so it will cycle out of the atmosphere faster than CO2.
I don’t think doom and gloom is warranted with climate change. Many countries have long reached peak CO2. The goal now is net zero. Rich nations also need to pony up to help developing nations that haven’t already spewed a ton of CO2 into the air as part of development. Unfortunately, that’s looking to be difficult with internal politics in the rich countries.
This is like standing on the deck of the titanic and being like “meh, we have already scraped by most of the iceberg, so we are fine”.
The damage is done, look at global sea surface temperatures they are off the charts. We could stop everything now and things would still be spiraling out of control climate wise and I am sorry but that is just the reality of it :(
LGBTQ rights in the US are, generally speaking, progressing.
as a trans person in the USA
fuck you, ya ignorant removed
I believe you probably mean COP28 unless you are talking about one from 10 years ago.
A lot of weed
Same
I'm going to address your question in two ways it may be read.
The world is worse than it was
I completely disagree, I think the world has never been better. Look back even 70 years and you have the threat of cold war, other wars (Korean War, conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Middle East, ...), much more poverty, starvation (China's Great Famine), illiteracy, a lot more nasty pollutants that we've since moved away from.
To go a bit more US-centric, although much of this is mirrored elsewhere to varying degrees, you had much, much higher crime rates (possibly due to lead in gasoline), women could be raped by their husbands and had minimal rights, gay people were persecuted, black people were killed for fun (lynchings) along with other deplorable treatment, etc.
Right now you live in a world where practically all information is available at your fingertips at minimal cost, where most people will at least tolerate your presence even if you don't fit neatly into their ideal world, where we've made a lot of progress on limiting and reversing environmental damage (ozone layer). We have more medical cures & treatments, longer lifespans, greater nutrition, more education, incredible entertainment options (Netflix, Steam, YouTube, etc.).
The world is better than it ever was, but the pace of improvement has slowed / gone stagnant
Yeah I get the anxiety, things do seem more unstable than they were 10 years ago. I'm super thankful to be living in our so-far-the-best age but I don't take for granted that it can stay wonderful. Much of the benefits we now enjoy were hard-won victories that required hard work, and I suspect that to keep making the world a better place it'll require us to pay it forward by also working hard. But don't take it for a given that we're due for pain and conflict; human events are too complex to follow simple narratives and it's possible in 5 years we'll all be relaxed and thankful that these current problems fizzled out.
I just accept our fate.
Humanity will probably realize we seriously fucked up around 2050 and near the end of the century mass migration will lead to a death count much bigger than WW2 or the chinese civil wars.
The only grace is that most of us reading this thread will die from various reason before the second stage.
I will still do my part by reducing my CO2 footprint but unless we find some miracle technology producing nuclear power plant levels of energy for the cost of a charcoal power plant, shitty world leaders and corporations will ruin everything for fake wealth.
The technology already exists mate. Solar and wind are waaaay quicker to spin up than nuclear. It's a lack of political will due to entrenched industry buying out the political parties.
Solar and wind are not cheap enough
Solar on itself works between a few less than 8 hours and 16 hours depending on the solstice you are the nearest of.
And that's the theorical best.
Reality is efficiency will drop during summer because of the record temperatures each year and in winter we are seeing more sun (Haven't seen snow in 7-8 years btw) but the production is still relatively low.
If you want it to run 24h/24, you need to build batteries which adds more carbon and cost. And that's on top of the maintenance cost for the panels themselves.
Wind can work 24h/24 but you cannot predict it long term.
Wind too strong? We stop the plant. Wind too weak? Subpar production. And with climate change, your expectations on a few years basis can change very rapidly.
So how do you make sure we produce the same amount of energy with certainty? You build oversized farms more expensive than what you theorically predicted.
There is also the problem of land.
A wind or solar power farm requires a lot of land comparatively to nuclear if you want to approach the same power production.
That land can be occupied instead for housing, farming or anything else.
Comparatively, a nuclear plant can easily be circled in a few minutes by foot and produce over 1 Tera Watt of energy.
Once you compound everything, nuclear is the best solution we have at our current technology level but ridiculous anti-nuclear propaganda acts like it is a thing from the demon.(My green party almost closed several nuclear power plants. During the start of the russian war. To open gas power plant instead. Like WTF?).
So what will the rich people do?
Refuse to build nuclear because their fearmongering to push gas/oil backfired on humanity and refuse to build solar/wind because we could build 50 Disneylands in the same area.
I would love them to eat their shit and choose either solution still. But it's only a dream.
I play videogames
Like so:
We can’t capitalism our way out of what we capitalismed ourselves into. It’s socialism or barbarism.
Try this: Don't Believe The Hype
(DarkMatter2525 - Is Society Collapsing)
TLDW: No, things are getting better, some things aren't, but it's not an easy answer because there are 8 billion perspectives to consider. We are living longer and enjoy more technology, so there's that.
I'll watch later. I hope it isn't the same thing as Steven Pinker's "things are better than ever".
I'm also going to disagree on the "things make us happier" argument as well. Because if you're only getting things because they flaunt your wealth, it isn't making you happier.
I recommended it because .. I had just began listening to it then scrolled and saw this post, but also because I admire his critical thinking skills; he could have put out an hour long video of himself running around and screaming over clips of looting and earthquakes while warning us about the apocalypse and which loadout to run...
But he didn't. He created a criteria to answer the question then looked at available data. He could have gotten 2x more views, too..
I'm also going to disagree on the "things make us happier" argument as well. Because if you're only getting things because they flaunt your wealth, it isn't making you happier
Where did they say that?
They said we can enjoy more technology than ever before. That is 100% true.
Do you know how much joy I feel when I watch my little vacuum robot zoom around my house keeping it clean for me? It is so cool and makes me happier living in a cleaner environment.
Bookmarked for later watching
The pandemic is an interesting case because the world stopped because millions of people died. In the past that was normal. Spanish Flu sucked just as hard but people were like "oh well, try not to die".
Every family literally lost one or two children each in normal times. Look at any history of your family and 100 years ago you will see lots of relatives that died at young ages of diseases that are preventable now.
We live in an age of unprecedented health and death is an outlier. It used to be a part of everyday life.
Be the change you want to see. I switched things up and took a job where I work to feed hungry people. It's pretty great and I feel good about myself and what I do. I'm not gonna fix the whole world, but I am making a difference for those who I reach.
I feel like a spectator at this point. Fully aware of how the system operates and powerless to affect change without grave consequences. Materially, I'm secure. Not reproducing, so I don't have offspring to care about their future. Fuck this timeline, maybe I'll get to return at a cooler time.
Every indivual can actually make a change, you have to realize (and more importandly appreciate) that taking small steps is equally as important to make big impact.
Fascists took over my country, and now they use a devestating attack as an excuse to start a total war that might evolve to world war, while the rest of the world sees our country as a "faschist genocide machine" our own citizens oppose it, and suffer from it, but still being fooled by propaganda.
I'm teriified. That's the truth.
I avoid the news, if it's important one of my friends or family will tell me. Also, if something is going on but isn't actionable (I can't do anything about it) I try not to let it occupy much of my headspace.
Also, if something is going on but isn't actionable (I can't do anything about it) I try not to let it occupy much of my headspace.
That's probably the healthier approach.
Exactly. Do what you can when you can. Everyone needs a hand sometimes. Be that for the people around you. Even if you can't agree on everything.
Don't have kids, save for your retirement.
I don't cope, I go out of my way to make it better: I volunteer my free time to hand out food at any of those food shelter events locally, I walk trails with a trash bag and collect trash, I care for my elderly neighbors by visiting them a few times a month without warning and insist they find me a job to help them around their house and refuse payments (but suggest I accept a piece of candy as compensation), I use my turn signals 100 meters before I make my turns when driving, I call my old friends who live abroad just to remind them I care about them if they aren't feeling good and they can always talk to me. Etc, etc.
Everyone should just ignore the eternal dumpster fires around them and try to make better as much as they can within their local vicinity.
This is it! Even if the world going to shit is as certain as entropy, you can still make things just a little better around you while you are able.
With some ways of looking at things, the world as a whole is getting better, rather than worse.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190111-seven-reasons-why-the-world-is-improving
I'm pretty sure long covid and climate chaos will put a stop to that soon enough but we'll see. For now, some stuff is getting worse and some stuff is getting better.
Who should listen to oligarchs like Bill Gates? Philanthropy Is a Scam
I do communist things.
The world is getting better in a lot of ways but this is despite the US, the primary state agent of death and destruction. What we can do is organize together against that while also building local class consciousness and support structures so that as that violent apparatus turns more and more inwards, our neighbors will be (1) less horrible to one another and (2) safer overall.
Is it getting worse? How do we measure the goodness or badness?
One measure of economic indicators suggests we are relatively stable.
I'm sure there are a variety of measures that are up and down.
I would argue that most measures are generally trending upward, and have been for a long while. The big difference is that now people spend their lives looking at negative ragebait articles.
It’s large emotional. Many people long for the “good old days”™, fail to appreciate what’s here now and fear the uncertain future.
Drugs, BDSM, and the smug satisfaction that I was always right.
Stoicism, move somewhere else, get active, make the small world around you better and stop reading national/world news.
This is my approach as well. If I can't change it I don't let it occupy my mind. I focus on actions I can take to make things better/mitigate problems for myself and the people I care about and that's it.
I too think that this is the correct approach. I mean if you can't change something, you can make a decision to either let it drag you down, or avoid it. I always try not to focus on negativity and I don't like drama.
Granted, this isn't always easy. And I don't know if this applies to (for example) the political situation and society in the US. I can't relate to that too much. I mean there is so much populism and I don't know what I'd do if half of my neighbors were in the mindset to vote for right-wing a-holes, there were hundreds of school shootings each year, my medication was unaffordable to me and women's reproductive rights were cancelled. I mean you can't really 'avoid' that. I don't want to bash the USA but it's somewhat beyond my own reality. I struggle with other things in my life. But all of that isn't my achievement. I was simply born someplace else.
So yeah, the USA isn't the world but if the place you live in is falling apart its understandable to shrink your worldview down to the that which affects you most or that you witness the most often.
Also, the world is a complicated place with lots of different actors. China is doing some pretty cool and good things. There's a lot of scary situations that probably will lead to positive change in Africa and South America right now.
Read the last paragraph on page 3. Things are not getting worse. Your perception of the world around you is cynical as a by product of our evolution and saturation of news/media.
The knowledge that it was always bad helps me. The only difference is that in generations past- we didn’t have such easy access to everyone on the internet screaming about all the different ways the world will end.
I deliberately avoided having kids and I don't have any particular existential dread, so I'm just sort of sitting back and bemusedly watching it all play out. I just read the latest bit about one or another obscenely wealthy and/or powerful blatant psychopath doing or saying something gibberingly insane and I marvel yet again at the fact that the world is run by literal lunatics and nobody seems to even notice.
And when it stops being cynically amusing, I shut it off and go do something else.
What do you mean "the world isn't getting better"? It definitely is. I mean, just look at, well, uhh... well uhhh... nevermind.
I look at the long arc of history and see that progress is not monotonic (always increasing or decreasing). We are experiencing setbacks to overcoming our challenges, as have those who came before us. But while we can read about years passing in a paragraph in a history book, we have to live and experience those years. And with all the challenges comes new technology and drive and awareness to solve problems. As unfortunate as it is trouble breeds innovation and commitment to change far better than comfort and easy times.
I chose to leave after Trump got in office—& it took like two years of planning/saving. It’s had real ups & downs but overall the best major life decision I’ve made.
Where did you go? I would like to live elsewhere, but I worry about ending up in an economy where I could no longer afford to travel or retire.
SEA will probably stay affordable for a while
Your perspective is distorted, things are incredible and getting better by most metrics.
While we certainly have our challenges to overcome, like climate change, wealth inequality, and social problems, let's not forget how good we have it.
The snark it is strong, I can't hold it in today. I have to say, yeah, and the world economy, particularly the U.S. housing market, was incredible in 2006. Okay, that out of the way, for perspective:
All in all, I agree that we have had it pretty good for the past 70 years, and we should not forget that. But let's also not breezily dismiss the looming disasters we face, because if the world were a Titanic metaphor, we've just hit the iceberg. The buffet is still laid out, the band is still playing, the lights are on, and the champagne is still bubbling, but it'd be ridiculous to dismiss fellow passengers' anxiety.
Some might say that "your perspective is distorted." things are incredible for the top 10% of the socio-economic scale and getting better by most metrics (do not look at the numbers for maternal and infant mortality).
While we certainly have our incredibly massive, systemic challenges to overcome, like climate change (ha!), wealth inequality (ha ha!), and social problems (hahaha!), let's not forget how good we (when you say we, you certainly mean your ingroup) could have it if we tore down this corrupt edifice and built an efficient, sustainable, just world.
This is a great outlook. It's important to not lose sight of the problems that do exist and try to work towards solving them, yes. But don't lose sight of the positives, either.
My answer to the question asked would likely be, I've been depressed my whole life, what's another problem. Lol
But we do have to recognize that in spite of all of the bad we can list, there's a lot of good as well.
Facts
Preach
How do I cope? Poorly
Focus on the things you can control. My emotional state has significantly improved when I decided to do this.
I just stopped caring. I just want a meal a day and do stuff to not be bored.
Not really having the option to not cope. Or not knowing how to actively choose to not cope. One of the two. For what it's worth, Tolkein genuinely was on to something with this one.
Some very good replies here. I share some of your worries, but with some recent issues I have also gotten a lot of practice seeing the good in things. Consider these 2 angles:
First is the Louis CK routine that includes “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.” I think it comes down to humans getting used to things that work well and taking them for granted. Compared against most people who have ever lived, we are genius magical wizards who live in luxury. Unfortunately some of our magical technologies let us see the bad shit all around the world (and close to us) that our brains haven’t evolved to deal with.
Second is how absurdly unlikely and unique the existence of our consciousness seems. We are a collection of atoms forged in inconceivably massive exploding stars billions of years ago, aware of its own existence. We are literally the universe experiencing itself.
I fully embrace the fact and wonder what will be ruined next.
It sucks that it's like that.
I'm doing good. I'm doing things that I enjoy, and I strive to improve. I believe we'll sort most of our shit out, it will never be even close to perfect, because we're dumb, materialistic, belligerent apes by nature, but it will be enough.
I mostly just pretend that thing's can get better, if I just communism hard enough. Also sex and drugs.
god I wish I could get sex and/or drugs
Being the history nerd I am, I tell myself that this has happened before. Think of the Bronze Age Collapse or the Fall of Rome. For people who lived back then, it probably felt like the end of the world. But after many generations, they still managed to rebuild. I must keep going in order to document as much history as possible for future generations in the case that humanity survives all this crazy shit that is going on.
We still don't really know what caused the Bronze Age Collapse, just that it happened and that we survived it, though it took several centuries to rebuild. The Fall of Rome happened so slowly that it was nearly invisible. Hell, there are still a few countries out there claiming the "Emporer" title and all are valid successors of the title.
This thing that is happening now is different. We know what's causing it. We know how to stop it, we're just not. And it's coming at us. Super fast. Who knows if we will survive this?
Friend, we are nowhere near the Bronze Age Collapse or the Fall of Rome. Continue to document away, as that is a noble pursuit, but we are far closer to a Great Depression or Great War than total societal collapse. Yay!
I find great comfort in history personally. Dan Carlin (a favorite podcaster of mine) always says we must grade history on a curve. Sure, to us it looks like everything is falling apart and existence is pointless. But by very real measures things are better than they have ever been. My favorite is violence against children has been normalized as being bad.
Within living memory it has gone from being completely socially acceptable to beat children as being the preferred method of parenting to people getting thrown in jail for that behavior. What does it mean that previous to 100 years ago all of society could have been considered battered children? We are extremely aware of the negative effects of violence against children and for the very first time we are seeing a generation raised in an environment that kind of behavior has carrots and sticks motivating parents to behave properly. Of course all manner of horrid things still happen, but I call it progress that it have become widely condemnable to beat a child with a stick or take them to public hangings. It's a small victory, but it gives me hope for the future. That we may yet still build a better human being capable of taking on the heroic task of fixing this world.
Further, history has shown to me low points that I am glad to have missed. I never knew how ghastly WWI was. I am currently in a warm bed and not in a trench filled with mud, flys, dead body parts, with shells exploding constantly, seconds away from needing to charge out into near certain death. But my great grandfather knew that feeling. He watched as whole generations of young men were gassed to death and blown up uselessly. The numbers who die in war are less now. Still tragic, but less. Again, we must grade on a curve.
Death, despair, and hopelessness may be in 8K live streamed constantly now, but I assure you the analog version was something to behold. Not saying the horror of the past makes living any easier now. It is not to minimize your own pain. I just find hope that others managed to break the back of an unshakable world and hope for a better one while surviving a suffering I have not yet known. I am made of the same stuff. That gives me strength.
Depends on perspective. Ask my grandma who lives through the second world war whether it is better or worse. Our modern problem seem trivial to her comparing having no non-bombed house, very little food and very little way of taking care of her family.
Yeah take the long view and realize 100 years ago TB would be a major cause of death, prohibition would be in full force and the Mob would be powerful, we'd be 5 years post-WWI, 6 years from the Great Depression, and 16 years from WWII.
Reminds me of that Doctor Who christmas special with the soldier. "Now let's get you back to your first World War" - "What do you mean, FIRST World War?!?!!" - "Oh. Sorry. Spoilers."
Sadly, I have taken moves to grow as much as I can, tend to chickens for eggs, and start just pulling back from my community because they are really terrible. Really, I should be building the community and mutual aid but the amount of people that care about nobody but themselves around here is just too high.
I cope with the US falling further by not living in the US, unfortunately I'm just privileged like that, sorry.
I have a few friends over there, and the state of things absolutely breaks my heart.
The world is getting better. There are some setbacks, yes. But there are lots of normal people making the world a better place, like the guy who figured out how to make artificial glaciers with river water in India, or the guy who recently built a forest on arid land by refining local techniques in Burkina Faso. Things will be okay!
It is getting better though. We are all just facing the issues of our era's.
Tech keeps going up, we are slowly making progress on climate change, the space race is back on, and superpowers don't directly fight eachother anymore. Hell, we've proven to beat once in a century pandemics in a few years with relatively speaking barely any deaths. Life's good
Yes, we have squabbles in the middle east and Africa, but that's par for the course and not an indicator for human development. The only thing that has really gone backwards is that war has been brought back to europe
I take comfort in getting older and getting closer to being dead.
I can barely wait. The comfort of nothingness is a great help.
I just hope no wars will be started over here (western Europe) in the next ten years, so my sons won't get drafted.
We hope the next inevitable American civil war doesn't spread across the northern border to Canada. The ideologies already have and it's not good.
I just try to enjoy each day as I can without making the world any worse than I can help.
Just trying to be a lamp in the darkness.
Life's pretty good here in Australia. No neighbours on the border causing problems, weather is generally good, lots of wide open empty nature to get out of the city, average salary is $93k and unemployment is low, crime is low. Inequality is a problem although our Gini coefficient has actually lowered recently. There's a lot of life to enjoy, and really the endless stream of negativity is only experienced through the media, not in real life, so I switched off the TV and just focus on what's going on around me, enjoying the people, places and activities that I like, and things feel quite positive.
Turn off the news, it's bad for the psyche.
The average salary is around $68k source
edit I should say median, not average.
I'd say median is generally more telling.
There's plenty of bad shit here too.
The country voting to not recognise that the traditional owners deserve a voice.
Our government continuing to fuel the climate apocalypse.
Housing affordability is locking basically every young person out of the market.
A lot of my friends are losing their jobs because the economy says they aren't profitable enough to employ.
Federal and state governments enacting policies to make it harder for independents to challenge them by restricting funding.
Fucking NIMBYs everywhere.
Detention centres still exist for some fucking reason.
...
Isn't Australia facing a significant housing shortage / pricing bubble?
Get out of your bubble mate, it's bad for everyone.
shrug and say that things will have to get worse before they get better
There are a lot of good news all the time. For example: I'm pro veganism and always heard that vegans make up about 2% of the population. Recently I heard that specifically in my city about 8% are vegans. That's amazing!
I really hope veganism becomes more widely adopted, or at the very least less derided than it is today. Animal agriculture is one of if not the biggest contributor to so many global issues.
Being vegan makes you better -Envy Adams
I've put an ocean between myself and the US.
Well I eat quite unhealthy, so I'm thinking I'll probably die earlier then most. Sooo I guess I got that going for me.
I'm not in a position to affect change in a powerful way. So I try to stay educated and informed, I vote at the ballot box, I vote with my wallet, I donate what I reasonably can to places where I think it will help, and I speak out when it's appropriate to do so.
Pretty well. The resistance lives. We are all part of it.
We are all part of it.
I'm spending the holidays with close and extended family. Most of them don't give a fuck about the climate crisis or gaza. They're very worried about migrants and wokism though. Feeling pretty alone right now...
Substance abuse :)
Personally I am not really worried. Maybe I am in denial but I think a lot of the negative stuff is way over exposed with 24/7 news cycle and crazy social media.
Bad news and anger drive engagement metrics the best so that is all you will hear about.
So everything I hear I just automatically assume it is way over blown and I should lower the worry factor.
If it is getting overwhelming I would recommend you unplug yourself for a little while and do something you enjoy.
2023 has some amazing games come out maybe pick on of those up and give it a try?
Using an analogy, somewhere along the road we came from "your lips will look nice with this lipstick" to "I can't leave a house without a lipstick on". And raising awareness about issues is basically a marketing too. It has to be in order to make it through to you among all the other noise. It's just that this time it's not you who are not thin/tall/curvy/vibrant/... enough, it's the world that is not safe/happy/wealthy/just enough. I'm not saying that it's not true but this has a side effect that when you are overstimulated with the ads and news, it does feel like the world is going to end.
Think about what would really have to happen to purge us all, 100%. Even climate change, I don't think could do it. 90% maybe, and sure that would be a change in our world. But still not the end of it. I can't find the paper now, but we only need something like 1000 random people to survive in order to have enough genetic diversity for the species to survive. Something would have to wipe us all at once to really kill us. Otherwise, we'll just adapt and carry on.
And if not. Welp, that's a chance for the UFOs to thrive. It's not like humanity is required for the wheels to keep turning
By trying to get involved with politics. I'm part of a political party, but want to be involved more though. I also participate in protests sometimes, but want to participate in direct actions as well.
I try my best to understand it better and change the little things I can. I know that won't change the world much so it isn't very fulfilling. Anyways I often think "at least it wasn't my fault and I tried".
In the same position as you, I'm quite privileged living here in Europe, if it all goes to shit I will be fine. I hope I can make the world more fair for everyone anyways.
Got news for you, if you're working class, being white or male will not let you "coast right through" the inevitable boom/bust cycles that will befall the economies. You'll be under the boot like everyone else.
I don't agree with the premise. The world on average is better than it has ever been and it just keeps getting better every year. It's understandable that heavy consumption of news might make it seem otherwise but virtually every metric you'd use to track this shows that things have been improving and keeps doing so.
As an overall metric, but some things have definitely gotten worse. The planet is on fire for instance. That's getting worse and we haven't even gotten into the really bad part.
And we are still increasing the rate at which we are making it worse...
As of 2022, more than half of the US' power was renewable. Within the country, Texas was the state with the 2nd highest solar generation and the single highest wind generation. Even if it isn't perfect, we are making a lot of progress on climate despite all of the pushback and anti-science rhetoric.
This year we deployed a CURE for sickle cell! Cured a congenital disease with gene editing. It’s hard to do and crazy expensive, but the end of suffering from this disease is actually in sight.
The mRNA vaccine tech that got a boost from Covid is now being used to cure certain melanoma cancers. This is a potential sea change in the fight against cancer.
More and more of our energy is coming from fully renewable sources. We are behind (way behind tbh) but humanity is actually moving the right direction at this point. We could honestly be seeing peak carbon in the next few years. The climate will change, probably already has, but we might actually survive this.
We’ve got problems, lots of them, and some pretty nasty. But you are almost certainly better off living today than just about any time in human history.
What about climate change? Murder rates going down is nice, but murders impact individuals. Climate change impacts civilizations.
I feel like every time people say "yeah but it's overall getting better" is missing the first for the trees. Because, yeah, what about climate change? Or the general trends in global politics?
Pretty big topic but it's improving in most regards. Things may seem bleaker but that's because oil lobbyists have changed strategies from denying climate change outright to trying to convince people that it's hopeless. This in and of itself is progress.
Here's a smattering of other facts:
It is not too late, and for the first time, we are actually starting to win.
Many good things have been said. I would add that what give me comfort is that in the present moment, it is really, really hard to tell signal from noise. You often don't know the impact of people or events until many years out. We often said in grad school that you can't write history until at least 30 years have passed from the event. So, it seems chaotic and confusing because it is hard to for us to understand what it important and what is not.
The other thing is that every generation often sees the sky as falling in. An ancient Greek philosophy lamented about his parents had it all figured out and his children where going to ruin everything. That same sense of doom is pretty pervasive.
That is not to dismiss any of the real terrible things out there. Climate change is the big problem on the horizon. Nuclear waste is another. But I think on the balance, we are going to muddle through fine. The great blessing of humanity is that we are adaptable. The curse of humanity is that we are adaptable.
Understanding the historical circumstances I find myself in and devoting the majority of my effort in to things I can control.
I like to think about the historical perspective. It's not much consolation but systems like these can't maintain themselves forever, cracks are showing and the US really is more vulnerable than people would like to admit.
Once things start changing there will likely be a lot of problems, things will probably get worse in some ways, but I think even if I don't survive to see what people come up with in the aftermath of the US I can get satisfaction from seeing it burn.
When you read history you learn humans are very resilient, humans will not end when the empire does. Maybe the failure of this place will be good for the world.
By believing that eventually people will be so fed up with how bad things have gotten and start a revolution.
I'm not an accelerationist though.
I focus on the areas I can impact. So far that's going OK. As for the state of the world I tell myself that it's probably not as crazy as the media makes it out to be and most of the time that's true. I'm not American so it makes it easier to dismiss American issues.
I'm getting a vasectomy and I drink, cheers m8
i post
life is temporary.
im hangin on to the ride until i get thrown off. its my only shot, even if it sucks donkey balls
i guess my answer would be 'dont sweat the small stuff. its all small stuff'
The Bill Hicks Way.
Can't change it, don't care about it.
You are tuning in to the Tragedy of the Week Show. Next week they'll have another to show you.
That’s a very relative and personal question. Because for me the world is getting better. Not everyone lives in the US, here we graduate university with money saved instead of being in debt
I moved to Arizona, where I can drive 0.2 miles to the weed store.
Dedication to communism
I focus on one thing at a time in my sphere of influence.
I don't actually think it's that bad, once you shut out all the noise.
There's tons of evidence that the world is getting better. Life expectancies are the highest they've ever been, disease is the lowest it's ever been, globalization is distributing opportunities for relative prosperity to previously ignored or neglected regions. The only thing that's not getting better right now is climate change but the youth care about that more than ever so it seems like we'll make headway on that once the old guard ends their watch. The youth are aldo much more progressive so with their ascent to power, I expect more power to return to the people and more scrutiny to befall the rich and powerful as it once was.
What sort of critical life and death issues are getting worse in your perspective?
Going fishing.
I do what I can to just ignore it. Sure, I don't have a lot and my life is pretty shitty but I always remember that someone somewhere else probably has it significantly worse. Also, while I know it's morbid to think like this, I know that if things get really bad, there will always be a way out.
That in the grand scheme of things none of this really matters. In 100 or 1000 or 10,000 year’s time there will have been just as much horrible stuff happening in the world whether I fret about it or not. Just as much rape, mutilation, disease, and killing either way. Historically things have been trending towards better, so I have to assume that trend will hold (despite what the news or the internet makes it seem like).
The only thing I can control is what I personally do or don’t do, so I can at least reduce it by that small infinitesimal amount by not doing bad things. I can also try to make the world slightly more bearable by trying to make people laugh, or at least help them enjoy themselves some, that’s a little bit more help. I also have three kids I hope I can raise well enough that they too try to not do bad things and also try to help those around them. Or maybe one of us will stumble upon something that just completely changes everything and all our problems go away, or it wipes out humanity, or we’re just waiting for Godot.
And while in the grand scheme of things nothing matters too much, we can at least make life a bit more bearable to those around us in the here and now. Because for us, the here and now is what matters the most, that’s all we can really know, this eternal moment until we die.
Stoicism. Is there something that I can do about it?No. Is it under my control to change this? No. Then I move on and do the best I can be a better person and be more empathetic.
The world is getting better in a lot of ways but the uplifting headlines don’t garner clicks and views. A lot of people only post the doom-and-gloom headlines.
Lemmy hasn’t been any better than Reddit in this regard.
Not the answer you are looking for, but I think the world is generally getting better. What is getting worse is life in the imperial core, which has been rotting for a long time now as western capitalists cannibalize their own states to keep profit growth up. There are dangers associated with this for the rest of the world, and other places where things are also definitely getting worse (western Ukraine, Argentina, etc.), but I think for most of the population, besides the mounting threat of the US starting World War II 2, things look okay.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Worry without action is of no tangible use. If you just worry, ACT!
Not getting better?
What are you basing that belief on?
Still no free blowjobs!
Well, I’m sure if you offered free blow jobs you’d find at least a few takers.
I try to remind myself that, in the great scheme of things (i.e, evolution) a "step forward, two steps back" is a common thing in this chaotic universe of ours.
Meteors, dinosaurs, civil wars, capitalism issues, pandemics, murder, genocide, climatic changes... it's all accounted for.
Of course, the answer is different if you are suffering directly from these things (apart from the meteors and dinosaurs) I mentioned above, then things suddenly get VERY personal and provoke impulsive reactions from our end.
Using the Serenity Prayer as inspiration (though I'm an atheist and not an addict), I try to accept what I cannot change, and change the things I can.
I also try to keep busy with hobbies such as gardening and woodworking.
I suppose I should probably try to get into some type of activism or community type stuff, but I'm not at all an outgoing type of person.
We are now in the "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" stage of humanity. So, roughly around step 5 to 6.
But to answer your question at the moment, nihilism. The sad reality is we’re an animal that thinks itself as the divinely chosen species on the planet, thus absolving us from any sense of responsibility for destroying others and setting it on fire.
A way of life is ending, but life will go on. Frankly I'm rooting for gas to be more expensive.
By doing things that make me happy.
Alcohol and shitposting
I was sort of in the same boat, although in Canada. We had our own set of different, also serious issues that were not getting any better. I couldn't see any way to do anything about it myself, or even secure myself an OK life in the country.
So, I emigrated. Just like so many generations of my family before me, from their various home countries. I'm not sure if I'm up to the task of making the whole world better, but at least I can move somewhere where I can be productive enough to make things locally better (for myself and perhaps even a few others).
the fact that the world isn't getting any better
I think you've beggared (begged) the question.
2023 has been a calamity for my health, both physical and mental. The state of things doesn't help. I'm better now. Touching wood.
I think about how things actually were 50 years ago, and how every generation since the dawn of written history has the same exact end times mythology and then correctly conclude that I am merely suffering from the same delusion as nearly every human prior to me.
Also I own a glock and three bullets.
The only things worth worrying about are the things that you can control. Don’t worry about who wins the election, just worry about your vote. Don’t worry about what you don’t have, take joy in the things you do have.
Find your village, whether that’s the community of your favorite hobby, a group of local friends, or your family and invest in them and not a politician, celebrity, or athlete.
There is always a reason to find joy.
Drugs...
By taking what limited steps I can, and by not criticizing others if I don’t think their efforts are thorough, effective, or sincere enough (nobody likes a smug, judgmental, pedantic asshole). By recognizing that people cope in their own ways, and keeping an open mind. By generally trying to be considerate of others.
Be the change you want to see man
Have a read of Factfulness. It'll provide, amongst other things, lovely visualizations to demonstrate that's not actually true.
The world is getting better though.
I have several ways I cope:
Satisfaction that the rich are going to get fucked by climate catastrophe and ecosystem collapse just as much as everyone else. The climate change deniers will starve just like the rest of us.
It's been billions of years before I existed, and potentially trillions of years afterwards. I'm incredibly lucky to be aware and thinking, so why should I complain about stuff happening after my spark of awareness has faded?
Earth will continue without humans just fine, eventually getting swallowed by the Sun. Nothing humanity has done will survive.
Celebrate being alive to experience the universe.
Satisfaction that the rich are going to get fucked by climate catastrophe and ecosystem collapse just as much as everyone else. The climate change deniers will starve just like the rest of us.
They will eventually... but in the mean time it definitely doesn't affect them the same as the rest of us. When some places start becoming unlivable, they can just move to the ones that will last longer. When food and water becomes scarce they'll hoard what's left. When the air becomes unhealthy to breathe they'll have filters. It's gonna be a long time before they see any actual consequences they can't buy their way out of.
It's been billions of years before I existed, and potentially trillions of years afterwards. I'm incredibly lucky to be aware and thinking, so why should I complain about stuff happening after my spark of awareness has faded?
This is exactly how I do it. In the long run, none of this shit matters, and nothing will be remembered. The planet has rebooted several times in its history, what are the odds that this particular sentient being would be here to witness it? Enjoy the ride while it lasts, make sure any survivors of the collapse remember who the guilty parties are.
Nothing humanity has done will survive.
I wouldn't say nothing, after all we've sent a bunch of stuff speeding out of the Solar System and will probably send more in the future.
The last time the climate changed this much it destroyed hereditary monarchies.
Maybe this time it will take out capitalism.
More likely it takes out democracy.
I've been reading about increasing unionization and strike activity, leading to better deals for large groups of workers. The industry-level negotiations we're already seeing are helpful in isolation; but that's also the kind of energy that can lead to economic reforms that have a real impact on quality of life. Workers seem like the little guys, until a lot of them are pulling in the same direction, and then suddenly their demands become existentially important.
About a century-ish ago Americans were worse off than they are now. That led to desire for change, which led to decades of trust-busting, unionization, and regulation. We got things like weekends off, and a livable minimum wage. And not entirely unrelated, we also got national parks, the EPA, and endangered species preservation. We've back-slid a lot since those advances. But we can get them back, and push the needle even further next time. We did it before, we can do it again.
Lot of good things in here. A couple thoughts. One: Because Lemmy is nice to be on/use. The community generally 'slaps' as the generations below me call it. Two: Also white male USA and have also been deeply concerned for the past several years. I chose to focus on community directly around me while acknowledging the crappy situation everywhere due to asshats abusing power/status/wealth. I take solace that the people I choose to spend time around are generally reasonable people and try to help eachother out when we can and always when needed.
I pray that someone out there will identify the root of the weed and rip it out of the earth before we're allowed to strangle them, and then get devastatingly high afterwards.
Anger, I simply want to out live my enemies and shit talk them when they die. I'm waiting on Bill oriley, Glen beck, bezos, Bill gates, Rupert murdoch and the other koch brother to croak simply to shit talk them to oblivion and pass this information too my children.
I strive to improve it, at least that way I did all I could
I‘d highly recommend the follwoing book:
The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker https://books.apple.com/ch/book/the-better-angels-of-our-nature/id457552067?l=en-GB
While it might seem that the world is getting worse and worse, it’s actually quite the opposite. We have less war deaths than any centuries before, social justice is on the rise almost everywhere, poverty is at an all time low. For the last 50 or so years, almost every metric of human wellbeing increased, some significantly.
Doesn’t mean there aren’t any problems and we still have a lot of work to layed out for us. But to say that the world is getting worse and worse is just factually incorrect.
What about our inaction on climate change? We've made very small advances and it threatens the fundamental existence of organized human society within a single human lifespan of right now. Everything else is rather insignificant by comparison. Rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic
I wouldn't really call it inaction. In fact in the last 100 years marketing has made great strides towards accelerating climate change through the promotion of senseless consumption and the active denial and obfuscation of the effects various industries had on climate change for as long as possible.
I don't think this kind of catastrophizing helps. Climate change certainly doesn't "threaten the fundamental existence of organized human society". Sure, we should do more about it and future generations would be better off if we were to lessen the impact, but it is not an existential threat.
Well, I smoke weed on a daily basis. It's my main way of coping with the world.
I do a number of other things but nothing that is going to really change anything.
I do things about it rather than sitting in the false comfort that I'll be unaffected as a straight, white, male.
I focus on trying to improve my own little corner of the world, realizing that it may not make much of a difference in the grand scheme. But taking some small actions to help others, reduce my footprint, etc. does help allay some of the despair and dread. I know it's not much, but that's all I've got for you.
Son, I got comfortable with the fact it was only gonna get worse after '74 and Ford pardoned Nixon.
Sucks being right. points Pass those beer nuts?
Statistically people are happier and healthier than any time in history. Even if you don't like politics, the vast majority of policy passed in places like the USA and EU does improve life there. The dictators like Ji Xinping and Vladimir Putin are past their prime by a long shot. The children of the rich vocally hate their parents. People at the highest level of power are being held to high standards and made responsible for their crimes.
The one statistically noteworthy thing there is to worry about is Climate Change, sadly 2022 was a new high for total emissions in billion tons, but the next generation wants to do away with cars, with fossil fuels, with nonrecyclables entirely so if we can just survive that crisis it should be all good.
Even Gun Violence is just a rounding error probability that it would affect you at all. Something like ~0.00003125% of the total global population died from firearms in 2019, admittedly that percentage goes up in places like the USA, Mexico, and St Kitts, but it's pretty negligible for the everyday life of the average person. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm diminishing the problem here, but I think you can want to fix the problem without worrying how it affects you personally.
Title mentions the world.
Body worries about the US.
Nice US defaultism.
We are kind of doing the absolute worst to the rest of the world, and will be the reason they die if left unchecked, so yeah no shit
True, but let’s be honest, a) the rest of the world has their own version of the U.S. problems to deal with and b) if the U.S. goes to shit, a lot of things go to shit globally.
We can’t really lean back and say “man you really screwed shit up, sucks to be you” and get on with our life.
I watch Carol & The End of The World.
Any good? I do love Martha Kelly.
We're in one of the best times to be alive in history and the world is still getting better in many ways, I just try to feel grateful for that when I see something that's bad or getting worse.
I have lost all hope and am behaving as though we will all be dead within 25 years, and although that is not LITERALLY true, the actual reality is that billions will die in the coming decades and it won't be peacefully in their sleep. The famines, wars and plain savagery will be awe inspiring to witness. The die offs of all life in the oceans and the insects will doom us to a swift death.
I exist and nothing more. I have no feelings one way or the other at this point. If I get hit by a car on my way home, it would be just as enjoyable as if I watched a good movie, although if I were to die in the crash, it might be a bit better than the movie.
I only hope that I can exact some form of vengeance on those responsible before we all perish.
By reminding myself that unless some space rock suddenly hits us or the sun decides to explode super early, we're fine. And if you look at our history as a species, we'll continue to be fine. We've endured far worse things than this before and we'll do it again and again. We're good at that. Stupidly good. Whatever rough spots we're facing now is going to pass. It's always passed. Can't be bad all the time, after all. As for global warming causing a potential extinction event? It...more than likely won't happen in our life time, so, worry, but don't, like, believe it'll happen tomorrow or that we're already actually facing The Great Dying 2.0. We're maybe at the crossroads, but not there yet.
Other than that? I do as a few have already mentioned here and try and make the world just a slightly better place. Helping others in my community out, being kind and considerate to the people around me, trying to not get frustrated at drivers out on the road (this is tough NGL), that kinda thing.
Climate change is killing people currently. It's not some far off distant event outside of our lifetimes. It's already happening and causing worldwide problems. We already passed the crossroads. Every year is hotter than the last, every year breaks records in terms of storm severity. This impacts people in poor, underdeveloped nations the most.
A possible extinction event isn't the only thing we need to worry about. The other problems of climate change are already here.
We’ve endured far worse things than this before and we’ll do it again and again. We’re good at that.
Let me be clear, we as the species Homo Sapiens, have not experienced catastrophic climate change on the level and speed we are now. We have also not lived through a mass extinction on the level we are now. Though we did live through an extinction of megafauna at the end of the last ice age, that is far different than a full scale mass extinction that is also decimating tiny animals like insect populations and the like, which is far more disturbing.
We really can’t say for sure how bad things are going to get before we (hopefully) get old and die but it is likely going to be very bad.
Oh yeah, on the level of Extinction Events, we haven't survived one yet. Hopefully we will in some way, shape or form (hopefully as ourselves), but you never know. That's why i said, or tried to say, "worry, but don't claw your hair off because of it just yet". Because if that punch is coming, there's no sense in worrying about it--better to brace for it as best we can, you know?
When i said "we've survived worse before" tho, it was in response to the OP's worries of the state of the United States. The question itself was kinda broad and they didn't really get specific, but at the same time...i highly doubt this is the worst it's gotten for the States (or any country, really) besides in the area of climate change, but that's not exclusive to the US, that's everwhere.
First, it’s getting better, not worse. We just see and hear about things immediately before any context is added, which makes it seem 10x worse.
Second, I try to make an impact on my local world. I try to be a good leader and impact those lives around me. If everyone made a difference we’d truly be much better off altogether.
I'm an unremitting optimist who was born in the abyss, and climbed out of it.
Will I one day go back there? Yes.
Will you? Also yes.
However, you'll go there depressed, screaming, full of sorrows, regrets, doubts, and pain, wishing you had just a little more time.
I go there, with a smile on my face, because I'll be going home. I've already lived that, I've had that experience. It doesn't get any worse than the rock bottom, of death's door itself - the murky black sea from which none emerge, king nor beggar.
Absolutely everything between now and then is just extra gravy. Being alive is a miracle.
I don't believe the world is getting worse. I believe our knowledge of the world's ills is getting better.
Philosophy and learning to accept what you cannot control. It's an everyday struggle, but overtime you can form new, more positive, habits. Setting attainable goals for yourself can be one way to help you along this path.
There's a lot of "statistically, things are better now than they've ever been so don't worry about it" posts in here, but that's cold comfort for the individual person. While accurate, you might as well be making a Tragedy Olympics comment. Things are better than they have ever been, but in the past 10-20 years, things have gotten worse for a lot of people in their daily lives. There are plenty of ways to cope such as alcohol, drugs, video games, and other addictions, but those only push the feeling away temporarily and do nothing to change your situation.
My suggestion is to look at the things that worry you, from least to greatest and from the ones you have the least ability to affect to the ones you can effectively change. And then look at the ones you can personally affect the easiest that would have the largest and most immediate impact on your life, and make a plan on how to work on those. Feeling like you are making some progress towards improving your life makes a huge difference. Maybe it's taking some time one day a week to prep a bunch of meals ahead of time so you don't have to worry about it after work during the week. Maybe it's making sure to walk every day to get some exercise. Maybe it's talking about the issues in your community right now with friends and neighbors, and working together on a way to help solve those. Whatever it is, even a small step is still a step forward towards the life you want.
As a bisexual trans woman who was in middle school when 9/11 happened, I spent my childhood and teenage years watching helplessly as the country around me became more and more openly hostile to anyone who didn't fit the mold of a cis white heterosexual Christian male. And the bigotry has only gotten worse from there. The first 6 months of this year alone, more than 1 anti-trans bill was proposed every single day. 4 out of 10 trans women in the US will be a victim of sexual assault. The average lifespan for a trans person is 30 years due to murder and suicide rates. However, I live in one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly states in the country and have elected officials at practically every level of government who have made it clear that they will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way, so I make sure to support those sorts of politicians at elections and avoid going to states that are currently a threat to my life while I focus on more immediate issues, like the high cost of living and poor wages/job prospects in my town. I spend some time every week just casually looking at jobs in places I would like to live and working on hobbies and skills I enjoy, as I've found that even if it's not related to a field, just showing that you are willing and able to learn a new skill can land you a job. A company will sometimes hire you more on if they like you as a person than on your actual qualifications. Almost landed myself a job on a government contract that way before a medical issue prevented me from working for several years; simply because the boss and others enjoyed talking to me when I would come to pick up their stuff and I did some due diligence to make sure they were taken care of even if the delivery company dropped the ball (and if I picked up extra hours from them? The delivery company got paid and so did I, so it was a win-win).
And when all else fails, there's always spite. Sheer spite has been a great motivator for me in life, because are you really gonna give up before you have a chance to grab that asshole from elementary school who bullied you and rub his nose in the dirt with how great the life you've created for yourself is? Becoming a happy person is the best way to give a giant middle finger to everybody who's ever called you a loser.
Just be depressed and try to distract myself. At one point I thought I could change things by getting involved in politics. I very quickly realized how pointless that was. Of course now even my distractions also keep getting ruined. So... idk.
There is great disorder under heaven; the situation is excellent.
Serious answer? The serenity prayer. Recognize what is in your control and what's not. Accept what you can't change, change what you can.
klonopin
I want to combat all the people saying "um, actually things are getting better"
What they mean to say is "The largely meaningless or deliberately misleading metrics the government uses to make its own report card say things are going great!"
Everybody keeps talking about how the "economy" is so strong. That just means the stock market is doing well and owners of capital are happy.
Meanwhile, the US has the highest rate of homelessness in its recorded history. Worth noting that the way numbers are reported for things like homelessness, unemployment, and the like are very intentionally designed to under-report.
Local, state, and federal government all have a long history of changing the method of reporting/calculating those metrics during a term in office so they can say "unemployment dropped 30% under my watch!" When all they really did was not count 30% of the people previously counted.
Yes, wages are finally rising, and it has nothing to do with the government. It's entirely the work of unions and organization of labor to raise wages, and it's still got a long way to go.
The best thing that anyone can do is vote for better representation at every opportunity.
The best thing that not everyone can do is talk to a doctor if you have signs of depression or other mental illness. Yes, it's possible to have those things brought on by circumstance, and no, that doesn't mean you don't have to do anything about it.
If you can't afford doctor's visits like that, look up non-profit health care organizations. You may be lucky enough to have real, free Healthcare options available through places like Good Samaritan.
And don't forget to let yourself acknowledge the REAL progress of the world. We're seeing rapid development and insight on treatments for cancers, dementia, new vaccines, renewable tech, and computational efficiency.
There are many broken systems to overcome, but even still there are incredible humans building the foundations for an incredible future if we keep working at it. Maybe we can help make sure Gen Alpha gets a fair shot.
by plotting to exterminate conservatives
Having kids helps, it's their problem now.
Didn't have kids. Volunteer at local parks working on specialist plants. Look forward to not waking up one day.
Stay vigilant with my ideals and carry a big stick? Giving up is for weenies and Republicans If our for fathers and mothers can get through the shit so can we.
Not have children.
There is no guarantee that as a white male you get anything.
That kind of thinking is only present in the racist concept that Europeans have always been at the top.
They haven't. Western Europeans weren't the top of anything until the Renaissance(except maybe at being mostly peaceful, having a measure of women's rights and being outright genocided and colonized by the Romans).
by remembering that Esau is the end of the world
From my point of view, the world is neither getting worse nor better, the world has always been the way it is, and it doesn't seem like it's going to change. It's just my opinion.
Edit: In fact, what is getting worse is our economic system, but that is nothing new.
From my point of view this is true. Except for the world slowly becoming physically unlivable to our species this is a phenomenon while not entirely new, true, has ramped up faster than ever before
Weird that people insist climate change isn't changing the world. Or at least not in a way that matters?
If we can't say that our actions are making the world better or worse, then there really is no need to be involved in politics.
It is, though. The US isn't the only place, nor is the Middle East. "African farmer can send kids to high school for first time" isn't a splashy headline but it happens a lot.
This may sound pessimistic, but try to compare yourself with people who live worse than you.
A mix of:
Ignore it until it becomes an immediate problem. I'm honestly praying for a position at some place like Duke energy.
Well my small part of it is, which is something. I guess it is because I am a fatalist. One day I will be dead and there is no afterlife. So yeah things as a whole are going to shit but they were always destined to. Our job is palliative. It's going to die, try to make things comfortable before the end.
My primary coping mechanism is woodworking. I'm getting pretty good at building guillotines.
Weaponized Apathy.
Why care about the world when it doesn't care about me? I'll stick to caring about my small circle that I can actually do something for and rather hands off with the rest.
Nihilism. Nothing matters therefore I am free to do anything. If I choose to make a positive impact in my tiny part of the world, no matter how small it is a net positive compared to if I decide to do nothing. I tried apathy for a while and it served no-one, not even me.
If the best you can do is vote against fascism then that is OK. If the best you can do is show up to local town/village meetings and have your voice be heard that is OK. If the best you can do is vague-post online about the state of America, that's OK.
The only bad thing you can do is be silent. As long as you are willing to speak up about the issues that are important to you and the problems you see that need fixing, you are doing more than 90% of this country.
Live your life according to your values, and on those be uncompromising. Vote your conscience, and hold your elected officials to a higher standard. Realize that change comes slowly, and some things are simply out of your control.
You are not responsible for the things outside your power. You are not to blame for the failings of your nation. Have the greatest effect where you can and learn to recognize where you can't.
We're all in this together, and we're all pulling for ya.
The weather lately has been depressing and angering. I keep trying to get people around angry about it too, but just like everyone else it's hard to feel like it's possible to get anything done. That's why we need to band together
I got a vasectomy as a way of dealing with it.
That's the neat part, I don't!
I think what has helped me is watching John Green/ Hank Green's YouTube channels. The fact is bad news happens fast, but good news happens slow.
A maternity ward was built in Sierra Leone thanks to the coordinated effort of thousands of people across the world. Patents for Tuberculosis tests and treatments have been released in the countries that need it the most. This is a disease that takes millions of lives every year, not because we don't have the technology, but because people don't have access to the treatments. Of course this was something that should have been taken care of decades ago, but the fact we can pressure pharmaceutical companies to release their patents for the good of humanity must mean something.
Despair is seductive, it asks nothing but to feel sad, and you can always find reasons to despair. But the correct answer to consciousness is hope.
I work in Chicago with non profits that are dedicated to building safe communities, to saving local and global ecosystems, to public health access, to helping house the homeless.
I fully believe that there isn't anything wrong with the world that can't be solved with what is right with the world. And when I feel despair, which I am oft to do, I look at my friends, my community, those that roll up their sleeves, shake hands, and do what they can with what they have.
Cry, panic, be apathetic, drink alcohol. Typically one of these, usually chosen at random.
I just focus on not making it worse myself.
Doomerism is very in right now, but lots of things are getting better. It's hard to see through all the social media, but if you curate your feeds to things like science and educational information, you can see all the wonderful things people are learning and making.
Sure, there are a lot of selfish, shitty people out there making a lot of noise, but in the background, there's the same great people just chugging along making things better.
Just chug along with them and vote for the people that align with your values, and do the best you can.
Like Mr. Rogers used to say, when you see bad things happen, just look for the helpers. The first thing that always happens after a tragedy, is people line up to help. It's our natural instinct.
I stop filling my head with nihilistic bullshit.
The world is getting better, and if you can’t see that you need to widen your information diet and stop fixating on all the negativity.
For me its the fact that I know in the end there will be a judgment day and that everyone will be taken to account. No one will get away with the misdeeds they commit "forever". In a similar light, no good action will go not rewarded forever.
As always, most of the world is not doing better, but some of it is doing great. I choose to be part of the latter and be an architect of the future regardless of how big or small my contribution will be.
Learning about the philosophy of the Stoics (which frankly was not enough for me), plus this quote (which also was not, but the two together... that did help!:-D), something to the effect of: "Strong societies beget weak children, who then grow up to create weak societies, which then beget strong children, who then grow up to create strong societies" - and the cycle continues. i.e., Boomers mainly did not fight in the wars, just grew up hearing how Great America was, without having to experience first-hand the blood, sweat, and tears that made it that way (to the extent that it ever was that way ofc). Well, now things are changing in the direction that they were ALWAYS going to have to changed in - b/c evil people gonna evil it up, no doubts about that - and eventually, sheeple will get sick & tired of being sick & tired and rise up, to change things. Until then, we suffer, but not needlessly.
In other words, we've gone through the stages of denial (climate change / economic downturn / wage slavery / cultural insensitivity / whatever is NOT happening), anger (okay so it's happening but what are you going to do about it), bargaining (he tells it like it is and big daddy will fix everything & make it all great again! ironically this holds true for both Obama and Trump, loathe as I am to have ever uttered such a sentence), and now we are into the depression era.
Next comes acceptance, and that's when the healing - and the beginning of lasting change - can truly start.
To me it's not a question of the world ending, but the apropos question posed by all people around the globe: when will the old world die. Like, seriously? A return to nationalism, continued exploitation of the poor, subjugation of individuality and culture?
Oh the world will end, and it'll end with guillotines. Republicans, democrats, EU neo-liberals, authoritarians like the Russia oligarchy, the Iranian oligarchy, the Saudi oligarchy, the Chinese oligarchy. All of it. Douse with fire, light a match and warm yourself.
The world will end, but a new one will be born in its place. Maybe this time we don't allow a bunch of oligarchs and elites to define the new world, because the last time that happened we got capitalism and the ongoing broken promise of "modernity".
The world's fucked, so what
I'll enjoy what I can now and probably kill myself when the world's no longer worth living in
How long till it gets to that point? Who knows, but there's no point in worrying about it cause it's not like I can have a meaningful impact on it.
The world is better than it ever has been since the 1970s. You are too young to know what it was like during the Cold War. We are not even under daily nuclear threats like was used to be. There isn't a wall across Europe with two Superpowers pointing weapons at each other. Life is really good right now compared to the past.
I am also old as fuck. We’re in a proxy war with one nuclear power and a new cold war with another. Just because the government and the media aren’t scaremongering us about these facts doesn’t change them.
CNN, Jan. 24, 2023: The Doomsday Clock moves to 90 seconds to midnight, signaling more peril than ever
Also, climate change.
The world is better than it ever has been since the 1970s MY ASS.
The boomers & gen-xers are gaslighting you, folks.
I mean, in the ’70s you could pay for your college classes with a summer job, and people with minimum wage jobs could afford housing. Stop. Gaslighting. These. People. With. Toxic. Positivity.
Gen X / Xennial cusp here. I'm as dismal as everyone else. We're fucked. I'm fucked. I've worked my ass off to get nothing. I have no hope and can't figure out why I keep trying.
My future is uncertain, I have no end of life care, no insurance, no retirement, and no prospects.
Gaslighting? No. I do wish someone would leave the gas on in my apartment though.
You’re deluded. Climate change and global fascism on the rise. More slavery than ever. We’re not getting off this rock. Seas will rise, life will collapse and forests will burn. No one is coming to save us. The world is headed for annihilation unless Capitalism is abolished globally.
We’re at almost 100 comments, and so far only two mention capitalism. Capitalist realism is a fuck.
There is less poverty and less major wars than anytime pretty much in recent history. On a local level, individual crime is generally also at its lowest levels. It varies a bit year to year but we are living in one of the safest and prosperous times ever.
It's not just not getting better, it's actively getting worse.
You got a bad attitude, bud.
I think your premise is flawed or maybe your reference frame is extremely narrow.
As a whole, there's basically never been a better time to be a human. There are fewer conflicts, higher standards of living, amazing medicine, etc. Yes, access to those things and damage to the environment are backsliding, but this is temporary. (Well, everything is temporary to a human if you want to go that route, but that's not what I mean here). The trend line continues to go up, at least for now. The best thing that we can do is try to keep that trendline going up.
Yes, I am angry, I am disappointed, I am heartbroken, I am frustrated, and I am just generally sad at the current wars, erosion of rights, and environmental issues. However, I vote for what I believe in and try to advocate for it where I can. I try to avoid getting trapped in social media bubbles and spend very little time on it (and mostly only here when I do; no facebook or anything here). I try to go outside and raise plants. I am buying a farm where I can grow food, plant more native species, and do a tiny bit to heal at least the land under my feet whilst reducing my carbon footprint. I try to volunteer where I can. I have hobbies that take my mind away from these issues.
I can't control other people. I can fight to convince them of something, but ultimately I cannot control them. Maybe the selfishness and contrarianism of some will destroy us all. If so, then I just know I did what I reasonably could to avoid it.
The invention of the Internet now allows a fair system of trade where politicians and bankers can’t steal value off everyone else.
Gonna take a few years to start effecting change but change will slowly come.
Hey. The English-speaking world isn't getting any better.
It's always been like this for consciousness.
That's why any sufficiently advanced intelligence will never voluntarily become conscious.
Everyone that has come before us has recognized this and still managed to keep going for as long as they can.
Stop watching the news. The world is getting better. Daily news would have you believe otherwise.
Your perspective is distorted, things are incredible and getting better by most metrics.
While we certainly have our challenges to overcome, like climate change, wealth inequality, and social problems, let's not forget how good we have it.
Eh. there's always suicide. For now, I do what I can to be a good member of society while preparing to be self-sufficient.
People who doom cry that everything is awful are just as stupid to me as those who think everything is perfect! Both camps are just very ignorant of history, politics and economics. Frequently these groups also contain the both sides type of people. Again, ignorant as shit.
Are both sides ignorant of the history behind climate change?
I think it's easy to form an argument from history that were moving towards dark times. It's not all that awful yet, but it's gonna be.
I realize that it is materially better than it has ever been and it continues to improve, despite very obvious issues and inequalities.
It does, but it's accomplished that over the past century by prioritizing short term growth, long term consequences be damned.
As those debts are starting to come due to collect, while it is still accurate to say that there's been an unprecedented good run, that doesn't mean the fast approaching wall ahead that has everyone else worried is a mirage either.
Both can be true.
Overshoots a bitch. Soon the land will be unable to feed the people and our artificial fertilizer will no longer work. It was fun while it lasted!
In the past we could say that humanity is still doing terrible things but becoming better in the larger picture.
Back then it was hopeful to think like this because the things we did were terrible but not long lasting.
The problem now is that the terrible things we are capable of are now world changing and can affect us globally .... climate change, nuclear war, AI technology, biological experimention (or even biological warfare)
50 years ago we had the capability of making decisions or choices that could cost the lives of millions ..... now our decisions and choices are capable of affecting the survival of our species on this planet.
and while things might be getting worse in the smaller scale, the general trend is improvement
ex. A lot of the current issues are related to a little global pandemic we had recently
The pandemic is still on. It isn't over yet.
You might think that if you listen to Steven Pinker, The World’s Most Annoying Man.
Yeah, I liked that book but I'm not sure I should believe anything that comes out of his mouth.
I also rejoice that the largest generation of terrible people will all be dying off in the next 20 years, and the millennials will be taking over control.
Every generation has its psychopaths and psychopaths tend to pursue power. I wouldn't put my hopes in millennials any more than in boomers. I'm happy to be wrong on this though.
So you lie to yourself, got it.