# Is the World Getting Better or Worse?



## NewYorkEagle (Apr 12, 2015)

Exquisitor said:


> You need to look at the big picture to see that things are slowly improving, in measurable ways like life expectancy, quality of life, knowledge and opportunities, etc., though it's easy to be misled by the two-steps-forward-one-step-back nature of progress.
> 
> People who see everything around them as going to shit have a weirdly myopic view of history and their role in it, and are often stuck in loops of "social consciousness" that only make them less capable of effecting positive change, as their unbalanced perception is detrimental to the process of determining appropriate action.
> 
> ...


Well, I don't wish to have Donald Trump as president. That's all I want for the world to be better again. I just find his political views to be very bizarre, and I wouldn't really take your advice if you disagree with Obama.


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

PurpleEagle99 said:


> Well, I don't wish to have Donald Trump as president. That's all I want for the world to be better again. I just find his political views to be very bizarre, and *I wouldn't really take your advice if you disagree with Obama*.


Then I feel sorry for you. I didn't say I preferred one candidate over the other, and I'm not going to say which I do prefer, if either, as it's irrelevant to this discussion. I'm just concerned that you're more interested in the surface ethical ideas you associate with people than in seeking a more informed understanding of the complexities involved. Honestly, though, I'd be more worried if you were older, because it's fairly typical for teenagers to go through your attitude and outgrow it in a few years.


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## with water (Aug 13, 2014)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


This is at least seen as an abnormal thing now. This used to be not unusual. 
Team Half Full: 1
Team Half Empty: 0


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## NewYorkEagle (Apr 12, 2015)

Exquisitor said:


> Then I feel sorry for you. I didn't say I preferred one candidate over the other, and I'm not going to say which I do prefer, if either, as it's irrelevant to this discussion. I'm just concerned that you're more interested in the surface ethical ideas you associate with people than in seeking a more informed understanding of the complexities involved. Honestly, though, I'd be more worried if you were older, because it's fairly typical for teenagers to go through your attitude and outgrow it in a few years.


It's not like I disagree with your views. It's just that I don't seem political, since I get sensitive over anything that I disagree with politics.


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## Highway Nights (Nov 26, 2014)

joshman108 said:


> I'm shocked by all the NTs voting worse. Better life expectancy and overall quality of life for increasing numbers of people isn't good enough to sway you to have a positive outlook on the direction of things?


A lot of young, newly typed NTs seem to go through a very forced "god, I am just so logical and nihilistic, everything sucks. Nietzsche is my idol *hair flip*" pessimism stage, and that might be what we're looking at here.


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## SaltyCrackshot (Aug 5, 2015)

SaltyCrackshot said:


> It tends to ebb and flow, depending on where you live, but as a species or interrelated grouping of cultures, it is drastically getting better...
> 
> ENTP/INTP


Given all the crying foul [insert one random phenomenon of negativity] individuals, especially the NT's that voted no, I would like to re-reference my own post. NT's.... you are either young and don't know any better or aren't an NT. Yes, this should piss you off. The world and those of us on it (Save for a few, Isolated locations/States) are far, far, _far_ better than _anyone_ whom has lived before us Pre-1920, Pre-1950, and _definitely_ pre-1990... Stop being pessimistic children. Do your research... Doom and Gloom is a concept older than dirt. The World and Humanity will continue to function for a _very_ long time... the real question is... what are you going to do to make sure it stays that way?


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Earthquakes (and likewise volcanoes) are getting worse.


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## Kurt Wagner (Aug 2, 2014)

No way to tell. I still think it's better than the Middle Ages though.


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## Kurt Wagner (Aug 2, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Earthquakes (and likewise volcanoes) are getting worse.
> 
> View attachment 409082


Too recent. Besides they might just be getting better at writing them down, no?


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Luke Skywalker said:


> Too recent. Besides they might just be getting better at writing them down, no?


You don't think earthquakes are getting worse and more frequent?


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Earthquakes (and likewise volcanoes) are getting worse.
> 
> View attachment 409082


That's a pretty short timespan to focus on, for a major geological trend. It looks like cherrypicking.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Exquisitor said:


> That's a pretty short timespan to focus on, for a major geological trend. It looks like cherrypicking.


Cherry picking? I just chose a graph that represented the global situation rather than one part of the globe. You do have a point with the time span tho...

How 'bout this one? It starts in 1900 rather than the 70's.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Here's a graph on volcanoes over time...(only one I found)


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Cherry picking? I just chose a graph that represented the global situation rather than one part of the globe. You do have a point with the time span tho...
> 
> How 'bout this one? It starts in 1900 rather than the 70's.
> 
> View attachment 409098


What I mean is, if we're interested in geological events, it's worth considering much further back in history, as far as we can. In the long view of time, our recorded history is only a blink, so what looks like a dramatic trend in the short term might actually just be random noise moreso than a meaningful trend.

That chart's more striking, because it goes back a little more, but it suffers the same problem.


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## Tsubaki (Apr 14, 2015)

Although the media tries to tell us how horrible everything will be, it has always been like this. And so far, we have been able to fix everything. 25 years ago, trees were dying in masses in Austria and the rivers had a foul smell to them. When the situation got serious, the gouvernment managed to find the cause and stop it and by now, nobody talks about it anymore.
We don't even know if global warming is really caused by humans or if it's just a dry-period. I've read somewhere that we are expecting a small ice-age in 202x that would lower the temperature by 2-3°C. Even if a giant vulcano erupts or if we get hit by a big meteor, the ashes that would get blown in the athmosphere could fix our climate problems.

I've voted for "getting better", but actually, I think that it will just stay the same. There is no "better" or "worse". Just "different". And imo, the planet earth and also the humans are capable of incredible things when in times of need and there is always a way to fix things.

*ENTP*


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## Catwalk (Aug 12, 2015)

Worse? Better?

In what ways? 

I like to think by ''worse'' - new problems are arising and *replacing* old problems - not that (problems) in general, have been eliminated. 

It's just that, it seems, we have _different_ problems than previous ones; not more or less.

But in _another_ sense of worse, I understand things can *always* be worse because of our natural decline (sun dying off) - but the decline is so far off (end of the world), its hardly anything to worry about. The ''end of the world'' (e.g species dying off) to me, seems like the worst thing that can happen to _*humans*_ so far. Unless a random catastrophic event happens to cause human extinction, things have never been _better_ nor worse because of natural decline.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Exquisitor said:


> What I mean is, if we're interested in geological events, it's worth considering much further back in history, as far as we can. In the long view of time, our recorded history is only a blink, so what looks like a dramatic trend in the short term might actually just be random noise moreso than a meaningful trend.
> 
> That chart's more striking, because it goes back a little more, but it suffers the same problem.


True, altho from the perspective of one life time of a human it is quite a jump.


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## illow (Dec 23, 2012)

The world's potential is limitless and all possibilities, its has the capacity to become better place for everyone and I do beleive by woking all togethere we can do great things.


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> True, altho from the perspective of one life time of a human it is quite a jump.


That's why I suggest a long view of history. If we're going to answer the question "are things getting better or worse?" it's worth having an idea that has the best chance of standing the test of time.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Exquisitor said:


> That's why I suggest a long view of history. If we're going to answer the question "are things getting better or worse?" it's worth having an idea that has the best chance of standing the test of time.


Ok, but if we were to just look at the last 100 or so years, we can see that earthquakes and volcanoes have been getting worse in that period of time. It would be good to be able to stretch that and see how far back it goes, but it's fair to say that "things have been getting worse" in regards to earthquakes and volcanoes during that period of time.

Another interesting thing is security. When my parents were kids the majority of people never locked their cars or houses, but now everybody locks up everything.


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## Ardielley (Aug 4, 2013)

I'd say the world is simultaneously getting both better and worse, so it was difficult to choose. Civil liberties have drastically increased in the last couple decades, but corruption in government has never been more prevalent. Average lifespan has gone up, but now we're starting to deal with overpopulation and limited resources. Technology is rapidly expanding, but it could expand too much to the point where our freedoms are infringed upon. 

However, to answer the poll, I asked myself if I'd rather live in today's world or the world a century or two before. For me, that's not a difficult decision to make, which is why I voted for 'better' in the poll. For me, it's imperative that people are not discriminated against based on factors beyond their control (race, gender, sexuality, etc.), and I'm not sure how I could've lived in a time where discrimination was so rampant.


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Another interesting thing is security. When my parents were kids the majority of people never locked their cars or houses, but now everybody locks up everything.


This is also tricky, talking about a difference of one generation, and only the experience of the more developed world.

I mean, for one thing, people are moving to denser and denser urban areas, which tend to make them feel (sometimes rightly) less secure, as they can't know and trust everyone in their community the way they did in the recent past. But people are still choosing these urban centres, often when they have the option of living somewhere more regional with lower crime, because they appreciate the modern facilities and opportunities, which outweigh the cost of locking your door. So there's a whole lot of context that makes this less straightforward to judge by.


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## yet another intj (Feb 10, 2013)

Mediocre as always.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

Exquisitor said:


> This is also tricky, talking about a difference of one generation, and only the experience of the more developed world.
> 
> I mean, for one thing, people are moving to denser and denser urban areas, which tend to make them feel (sometimes rightly) less secure, as they can't know and trust everyone in their community the way they did in the recent past. But people are still choosing these urban centres, often when they have the option of living somewhere more regional with lower crime, because they appreciate the modern facilities and opportunities, which outweigh the cost of locking your door. So there's a whole lot of context that makes this less straightforward to judge by.


Yeah ok, tho my parents lived in urban areas back then as well. There is certainly a bigger picture we should look at. If we took into account our grandparents and great grandparents it might make things clearer, tho there was the two world wars which likely had some influence on this (oh, that reminds me...wars have been worse than ever). From what I learnt about my maternal grandparents, during WW2 they (in urban settings) didn't lock cars, and possibly not houses either, but began to hide things in ingenious places, so if someone did brake in then they wouldn't be able to steal anything valuable anyway - tho money had become almost useless. There was a problem with food thieves too, as my grandparents lived in the Netherlands (food-wise one of the worst places in the world to live during WW2 due to a severe starvation), so thieves would have broken in at times (maybe not into cars, but houses), and looked for food. Trouble was my ancestors usually didn't have any food either, as by the time you actually get some during starvation you are usually in a hurry to eat it, or deal it out to the entire family.

- An interesting fact: My ancestors had to partially survive on seagulls. As a result, in our family lore we know that in preparation of this bird you must carefully remove the salt gland above the beak before cooking it, otherwise you won't find the meat very palatable (that is of course if you also plan to eat the head, as you do during starvation). Pig's head, dogs, cats, and rats were also on the menu, as well as tulip flowers when possible.


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## hal0hal0 (Sep 1, 2012)

Answering this question is, IMO, akin to trying to hit a moving target by aiming where you last saw it.


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## BlueWings (Jan 27, 2015)

Both really, as it always has.


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## General Lee Awesome (Sep 28, 2014)

the trend is that it is getting worse, but it is slowly improving. so atm it is still getting worse, but in time, we will get better.


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## Genra (Aug 20, 2015)

Chasing Nereids said:


> This is at least seen as an abnormal thing now. This used to be not unusual.
> Team Half Full: 1
> Team Half Empty: 0


_its not about what people see it as . Generations change of course the old generation sees it as abnormal it's all about what the next one will be like . Extreme feminists have a new movement called slut acceptance which is all about accepting sluts into society so the next generation will grow into accepting these twisted ideals people are voting for drugs legalization and night clubs for those below 18

The only thing that the world got improved by is health care and education but that's only available in rich countries_


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## SaltyCrackshot (Aug 5, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> You don't think earthquakes are getting worse and more frequent?


No. Our movement into areas that are earthquake prone have just increased. Also, our ability to detect and study earthquakes has increased more in the last 20 years than the rest of human history combined, which just means our awareness of quakes has expanded...


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## Noir (Jun 20, 2014)

It really depends on how you define better. Purely statistically, I think the life span has increased and continues to do so, so from that point of view, yes. On the other hand, more and more people suffer from depression, so in regard of mental happiness, no.


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## Madman (Aug 7, 2012)

The more I learn about the world, the more I hate the world. The world and I are different animals.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


Statistically speaking, it's at an all time low.

Overall most things are getting better. Extreme poverty has been reduced to 10%. Mass shootings might be up, but violent crime is way down historically speaking. Technology is vastly improving and our standard of living is better than anything known to man. 

As an ENTP, I'd say things are constantly improving overall for the better. That isn't saying some things aren't still getting worse, but overall it's getting better. Also, new sets of problems are arising due to the success we have. We have more obesity related issues than starvation issues. This is a pretty new problem overall. A lot of the other problems we are now newly encounters no longer come from scarcity, but abundance.


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## NewYorkEagle (Apr 12, 2015)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


They have unprotected sex under the age of 18? What the hell is with these parents today? Are they nuts?


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

SaltyCrackshot said:


> No. Our movement into areas that are earthquake prone have just increased. Also, our ability to detect and study earthquakes has increased more in the last 20 years than the rest of human history combined, which just means our awareness of quakes has expanded...


People have always lived in many earthquake zones. During the last 20 years our detection methods have shown an increase.

Do you also think that global warming isn't really happening?


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

better, and my personality has nothing to do with it:










~thread


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## SaltyCrackshot (Aug 5, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> People have always lived in many earthquake zones. During the last 20 years our detection methods have shown an increase.
> 
> Do you also think that global warming isn't really happening?


Ha...haha... I _see_ what's going on here, nice twist with the GW topic. Would've hooked me had you not thrown that in there. This thread is your playground, cool, I'm out, have your fun. I won't be an obstacle.... at least in this thread...


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

SaltyCrackshot said:


> Ha...haha... I _see_ what's going on here, nice twist with the GW topic. Would've hooked me had you not thrown that in there. This thread is your playground, cool, I'm out, have your fun. I won't be an obstacle.... at least in this thread...


Lol, ok?


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## SaltyCrackshot (Aug 5, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Lol, ok?


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## Wild (Jul 14, 2014)

I'm actually really surprised more people aren't saying better.

Like, MODERN MEDICINE? Non-profit organizations? How about recent all of these scientific discoveries? Better education worldwide than ever before? Near gender/racial equality in a lot of places? How about modern music, that stuff's pretty nice?

...FINLAND?

But I mean, shit, if y'all would rather live in the pre-1900s, you do you.


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## FlaviaGemina (May 3, 2012)

It's mainly the same as always (e.g. USA and Russia meddling in other countries affairs and breeding terrorists, only their ideology behind it has changed from "Capitalism vs. Communism" to "America is special! vs. Putin is the man!").
There's just more media hype nowadays because of the internet.
Oh yeah, neo-liberals are getting dumber by the day, but no surprises there. Let them destroy the world, so we can start from scratch.


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## Katie Koopa (Jun 25, 2014)

Better overall. For starters I wouldn't want to live back when there was a huge possibility I could die from a disease we now have vaccinations against, or when I would have been forcefully married to some random guy my parents picked out.


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## Ziwosa (Sep 25, 2010)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


Doing drugs is bad why? ...


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## FourLeafCloafer (Aug 5, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Here's a graph on volcanoes over time...(only one I found)
> 
> View attachment 409106


Keep in mind that the activity of both is related, and that measuring equipment has become a lot more spread around the world in that timespan... Still, I wouldn't talk about a trend if there isn't any data from at least the last 1000 years to see if there aren't any spikes there.


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## ENTPness (Apr 18, 2015)

Where is the "neither" option? The world doesn't get better or worse. It just changes, but even that's only superficial change for the most part. History repeats itself.


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## ENTPness (Apr 18, 2015)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


This is a myth. The reality, according to CDC data, is that teen pregnancy rates are at an all-time low and they were much higher back in the "good old days" of the 1950s. They just didn't have MTV back then.


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## ENTPness (Apr 18, 2015)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> better, and my personality has nothing to do with it:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah, but inflation is a thing.


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## FourLeafCloafer (Aug 5, 2014)

ENTPness said:


> Yeah, but inflation is a thing.


Does inflation also account for the decline in infant mortality? (also, these numbers are usually corrected for inflation.)


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## Intricate Mystic (Apr 3, 2010)

It's getting both better and worse. Technology is bringing us useful advances such as the internet. Climate change is going to take us for quite a ride in the future, however. We can look forward to water shortages from not enough glacier melt to fill rivers, food shortages from climate disruption induced crop failure, the loss of coastal land and property from rising ocean levels and increased conflict around the world between people fighting over the diminished resources.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

INTP: It's getting worse.

Material quality of life is improving - more and more of us live in relative comfort and have a few nice little gadgets to play with. That kind of thing. Even in poorer countries there is a reasonable amount of tech in most major areas, making life easier and more manageable.

This is nice.

BUT.

Socially we're crumbling. The capitalist mindset is pretty destructive, and as consumerism and large corporate interest takes an ever deeper hold on the planet, we're just gonna go to shit. Now, I'm not predicting war or anything like that. I just see a future with a general level of malcontent, dissatisfaction and overall loneliness. I even think back to 10 years ago when people would call each other up and see if they wanted to hang out or something. Now we just pass time in front of screens. On Friday night I was ready to get drunk and go out with one of my housemates; he spent the entire time staring at fucking facebook on his fucking phone. He does it all the fucking time. When there's only two of you in the room, it really isn't healthy. It's depressing as fuck. This kind of shit never used to happen. Technology is great but it's causing a serious, serious disconnect within society. It can only get worse really.

Also there's the negative impact of a society becoming too 'perfect', in which we start to just get bored. Hell, it's already been creeping up on us for a few decades now. This whole ideal vision of growing up, getting a job, earning your money, 9-5, every week, and at the end you start to question why the fuck you're even doing it. I've been to poorer parts of the world (yes, this is another benefit of advancing human civilisation) and have seen places where people have to work through necessity on things like crops and other staple requirements. One thing I noticed (and in fact most 'richer' people tend to notice) is the beaming sense of happiness, togetherness and community among these people. And so the massive poignant question is: If these people are so much poorer and so much worse off than us, why do we 'more modern and developed' members of the human race spend so much more time feeling worse and complaining about things? As rich and 'happy' as we apparently should be, there is certainly a major malfunction somewhere.

And there we have it. As things develop, socially we go down hill.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

I am NT and it horrifies me that anyone thinks the world is getting worse. _What staggering naivete_. Or just plain ignorance. I hate having to sound like a broken record, but I guess I need to keep a word document of a list of ways this world could suck and has in the past:

-You can probably read. You probably read quite a bit. You can read basically whatever you want, and there is lot out there to read. Things did not used to be like that.
-Are you a person of color, a woman, a LGBT, mentally ill, or simply have some unconventional views that you like to promulgate? Enough said.
-You've probably never seen anyone get beheaded, disembowled, burned to death, broken on the wheel, keelhauled, or otherwise tortured. This would have been common before.
-Have you ever had surgery? Try it next time without anesthesia. 
-Have you ever used life-saving medicine? Do you appreciate the idea of even knowing what a germ is, and that you can kill such microorganisms by boiling your drinking water? Congratulations, you will never shit yourself to death. Like millions have. Have you died of smallpox? Didn't think so.
-Do you like being able to move around in the world as you please, keeping in touch with friends and families from other states or countries? Didn't used to be possible.
-Do you like doing chores all day? Or do you like refrigerators, microwaves, laundry machines, and air conditioning? 
-Do you like violence and poverty? The past had a much greater abundance of both, and the data proves it. Do you like political freedom? 

I'm going to go bang my head against a wall now, bye.


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## Ghostsoul (May 10, 2014)

Better, but it is also getting more dangerous.


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## Riven (Jan 17, 2015)

Worse because of an unstoppable terrorist organisation; a shattering economy that can't fund its people; our stupid taste in fashion, games, music and tech; rising obesity rates; global warming from increased energy use i.e. smartphones; people/institutions being less friendly.

Better because sci-tech and gay rights, but the YT gays are all the same sheeple.


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## FourLeafCloafer (Aug 5, 2014)

Amine said:


> I am NT and it horrifies me that anyone thinks the world is getting worse. _What staggering naivete_. Or just plain ignorance. I hate having to sound like a broken record, but I guess I need to keep a word document of a list of ways this world could suck and has in the past:
> 
> -You can probably read. You probably read quite a bit. You can read basically whatever you want, and there is lot out there to read. Things did not used to be like that.
> -Are you a person of color, a woman, a LGBT, mentally ill, or simply have some unconventional views that you like to promulgate? Enough said.
> ...


I don't get it either. I see that a lot of people who say 'worse' either only look at recent events, disregard the increasing flood of information that we experience these days, and/or hypothesize that increased wealth and health don't outweigh perceived moral decay.

Those who say 'better' tend to look at the long term, and use numbers and facts to back up their claim, but don't generally consider things like morality.

I notice that for whatever differences in opinion we may have, we are remarkably alike. Have you ever noticed that those who are or aspire to become scientists tend to have a more positive outlook on life than others?


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## IDontThinkSo (Aug 24, 2011)

...... for who ?


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

stultum said:


> I don't get it either. I see that a lot of people who say 'worse' either only look at recent events, disregard the increasing flood of information that we experience these days, and/or hypothesize that increased wealth and health don't outweigh perceived moral decay.
> 
> Those who say 'better' tend to look at the long term, and use numbers and facts to back up their claim, but don't generally consider things like morality.
> 
> I notice that for whatever differences in opinion we may have, we are remarkably alike. Have you ever noticed that those who are or aspire to become scientists tend to have a more positive outlook on life than others?


I have not, tbh. I think they are mostly negative, probably because they have been made aware of the severity of things like climate change and other environmental problems. Their indoctrination doesn't usually go as far out of its way to try to prove its own worth, for some reason. I don't see why it shouldn't, as long as it's going to do the other thing.

Plus science people tend to have an grim outlook about human ignorance because they are constantly exposed to it when people botch what they try to talk about.


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## Buttahfly (Jul 30, 2013)

NF:
I think it's getting better in general. To be honest I don't really get why someone would think the world was a better place in the past. Well, sure, nature was in a better place, but also much more dangerous and deadly.
I'd never ever want to live in the past. My sexual orientation alone is a reason for that. The rest would depend on what exactly you mean by "past". 

And pretty much what @_Anime_ said.


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## ENTPness (Apr 18, 2015)

wixness said:


> Worse because of an *unstoppable* terrorist organisation


LOL, no. We haven't stopped them yet, but that hardly means they're unstoppable. If we really needed to we could annihilate them in days.

And it's not like they're worse than, say, the Nazis, or many other groups that have existed throughout history.



> a shattering economy that can't fund its people


Our economy has seen much, much, much worse times in the past (*COUGH*Depression*COUGH*) and frankly being near the bottom now is better than even being in the middle several decades ago, let alone centuries. Not to mention our economy is recovering pretty well now.



> our stupid taste in fashion, games, music and tech


Entirely subjective and completely ignores how much stupider taste in these things has been in past decades. (Seriously, have you seen the 1980s?) It's just that only the enduring things from the pop culture of the past are still remembered today, and with rose colored glasses at that. We get everything in real time unfiltered in the present, some that seems like crap now and will be remembered (if at all) as such, some that seems good now and will be remembered (if at all) as crap, some that seems like crap now and will be remembered as good, and some that seems good now and will be remembered as such.



> rising obesity rates


I will give you that; it's the only valid point you make. However, one could counter that it beats starvation. Obesity really is a first world problem. And despite all the obesity our life expectancy is around 80 now, double what it was several decades ago.



> global warming from increased energy use i.e. smartphones


Huh? Smartphones hardly have any carbon footprint at all, their use anyway. Now manufacturing them (and lots of other stuff) on the other hand... But even still, at least we are now starting to recognize that we can have a harmful impact on the environment. In earlier industrial decades, let's just say there was no EPA and practices were a lot less clean and efficient. Not to mention technology, like those smartphones you mentioned, saves a lot of trees.



> people/institutions being less friendly.


Well there is no more slavery, a lot less institutionalized racism and sexism, we treat the poor, the elderly, prisoners and the mentally ill better than we used to, etc. etc. So there's institutions. And the average person is not less friendly. I would argue we understand each other better than ever before, and that despite how much some may bitch about modern technology, it truly allows us to stay more connected.

Now I'm not saying that our world is perfect, we could still use a hell of a lot of improvement (and we always will), but things are constantly changing and this is not bad. It's mostly for the better seeing as how bad it used to be. It's certainly not worse. To be frank, you seem to be very young so you don't have a whole lot of understanding of the past or how the present relates to it. You'll probably realize that in time. At the moment you don't like what you see, you look at idealized depictions of the past and think about how much better it must have been, but it wasn't. At that time they still looked to the past in the same way, and some day in the future they'll do the same for our current time period. It's all an illusion. If you recognize that you can better enjoy the now, warts and all, and work toward improving the future rather than longing for a fictional past.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

stultum said:


> Keep in mind that the activity of both is related, and that measuring equipment has become a lot more spread around the world in that timespan... Still, I wouldn't talk about a trend if there isn't any data from at least the last 1000 years to see if there aren't any spikes there.


True, but in the last three or so generations of humans, in that time span it has digressed. Unfortunately our earthquake measuring tools only take us back so far, so we don't have that much time to work with either.


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## Earworms (Mar 27, 2013)

Wild said:


> I'm actually really surprised more people aren't saying better.
> 
> Like, MODERN MEDICINE? Non-profit organizations? How about recent all of these scientific discoveries? Better education worldwide than ever before? Near gender/racial equality in a lot of places? How about modern music, that stuff's pretty nice?
> 
> ...


What about war? Brutal acts of terrorism? Shootings on school campuses? Tens upon tens of thousands of refugees? Homelessness? Unemployment? Hunger? Poverty? Drug addictions? Cops shooting minorities and then the minorities rioting in the streets? Global climate change? Extinctions of species? Pollution? Crime? Rogue States attempting to acquire nuclear weapons? It isn't getting any better just because you have a handheld smart device that allows you to keep in touch with all your friends and that also allows you to play endless mind numbing fantasy games.


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## ENTPness (Apr 18, 2015)

Earworms said:


> What about war? Brutal acts of terrorism? Shootings on school campuses? Tens upon tens of thousands of refugees? Homelessness? Unemployment? Hunger? Poverty? Drug addictions? Cops shooting minorities and then the minorities rioting in the streets? Global climate change? Extinctions of species? Pollution? Crime? Rogue States attempting to acquire nuclear weapons?


I just find it hilarious that you apparently believe any of those things didn't exist in the past or were at least somehow better, when literally all of them were at best the same and most were worse. 

War: There has been war since WW2, but none of it comes close to the same scale and I doubt it ever will again. And that was 70 years ago. War before WW2 was worse than it's been since too.

Terrorism: Yeah, it's been around forever. Guy Fawkes is one famous example.

Shootings: Overall gun violence has gone down, both in the US and other countries. It's just reported on more.

Refugees: You act like this is the first time that's ever happened. Where do you think the state of Israel comes from? Ever heard of Cuban refugees, Rwandan refugees, etc. etc.?

Homelessness: All-time low in this country.

Unemployment: Far more people have good jobs than they have in the past.

Hunger: Nobody starves to death in first world countries anymore.

Poverty: Poverty is neither as prevalent nor as severe as it has been in the past.

Drug addiction: Far lower than it has been in the past. Cocaine, heroin, etc. were huge problems back in the 70s and 80s. Not as much now.

Cops shooting minorities and riots: Been happening forever, and was worse, it's just now getting a lot of mass media attention. Well that's not even true. Rodney King was nearly 25 years ago after all. Riots after MLK death, etc. got tons of coverage too and were far worse.

Climate change: The only difference now is that we know we're doing it. It didn't just start from nowhere in the last few years. We've actually gotten somewhat better and have developed promising new, cleaner energy technology.

Extinctions of species: Hahaha, yeah that was way worse in the distant past to say the least. (Where did all those dinosaurs go again?) Even in the recent past, we didn't have the conservation efforts we have now. Hell, the time you are talking about is the time we were fucking killing all these species!

Pollution: Again, it's actually gotten better, not worse.

Crime: All-time low.

Rogue states attempting to acquire nuclear weapons: They were before too, but at least now we're not on the verge of nuclear holocaust in a cold war with the Soviet Union. Something that had a far more realistic chance of happening than this guy ever posing a serious threat:










All I'm getting out of this thread is that people have a frighteningly limited understanding of history, and are also unaware and unappreciative of just how good they have it.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> People, you have to admit that it's worse with some things, even if not everything.


That's an extremely low bar to set. Sorry, the prophecies aren't coming true.


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## grimoire (Nov 7, 2015)

Better for sure. New technology is being developed every year to cure diseases and lengthen lifespans (as well as just making lives more comfortable), the internet is an incredible resource for everyone and cell phones are very useful. Life has gotten significantly better for women, people of color and LGBT people in many countries, where as a decade or so ago it might've been very hard. We care more about developing nations and are doing more to help them (not to mention many nations have developed a lot in the last few decades) and it's much easier to help people out and spread news of international abuse due to social media. Not to mention luxuries like air conditioning and smart phones. There are always problems with every new advancement, but overall the world is definitely improving.


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## grimoire (Nov 7, 2015)

Apolo said:


> Completely disagree with this point. However, I know that the majority of those who frequent these forums are below 21, so I am sure that most would disagree with me, as everyone likes to be offended theses days, so it will some how seem like an affront to them personally... But... The up and coming generations are not only becoming exceedingly lazy, but severely entitled. To the point, where it seems like a disgusting trend, and popular concept, is to expect to be handed everything, and to get offended if you are told to work for it. As if it is some natural born right to free anything your heart craves.
> 
> All of that, mixed in with the sharp decline in morality, and this push to force everyone to sprint toward self destruction through the abuse and addiction to sex, pron, drugs, alcohol, ect, has created a cesspool. It is absolutely disgusting, and pathetic. Our society seems hell bent on proving idiocracy correct on every level.


This seems like a very biased and extreme generalization to make over such a huge population of people. 

Society has always had a huge issue with overindulging in drugs, alcohol, etc. within the past 70 years. It simply seems worse now due to the insane amount of information we get flooded with daily, and the fact that it's much easier to access these things. Yes, it's true that kids are increasingly peer pressured to experiment with drugs, alcohol and sex at a younger age. However, I wouldn't really use this to damn an entire generation of children. It just seems silly to express so much hatred and vitriol to people who's brains haven't even finished developing yet and who--like all teenagers, past and present--will make a lot of mistakes they'll probably end up regretting just due to the process of growing up. Not to mention the fact that historically every generation before the current one in that time period have always thought that their younger generation is chock full of lazy, entitled heretics. It's nothing new.

Honestly, it really just seems like you're more bitter than anything. The world isn't really too bad. Kids are annoying but kids are always annoying, due to the ever present curse of puberty. And personally, what's so terrible about striving for a world where we can achieve true equality and get what we want? It's impossible of course, but if society simply shrugged and decided that things are never going to get better we'd never invent or improve on anything. It's through that same idealism, that same "but why do things have to be this terrible?" that any beneficial cultural shift or technological improvement has happened. Every generation is idealistic at heart.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

grimoire said:


> Better for sure. New technology is being developed every year to cure diseases and lengthen lifespans (as well as just making lives more comfortable), the internet is an incredible resource for everyone and cell phones are very useful. Life has gotten significantly better for women, people of color and LGBT people in many countries, where as a decade or so ago it might've been very hard. We care more about developing nations and are doing more to help them (not to mention many nations have developed a lot in the last few decades) and it's much easier to help people out and spread news of international abuse due to social media. Not to mention luxuries like air conditioning and smart phones. There are always problems with every new advancement, but overall the world is definitely improving.


Things were not always bad for the LGBT - ancient Greece for example, the ancient Celtic regions, pre-Colombian Meso/South America, or ancient Rome. And things are about as bad as they can get for LGBT in huge regions of the world today (Middle East, Africa, Asia, Russia..) - just because things have improved after a significant low in the West doesn't mean things have improved everywhere...Very Western-centric view you posted, considering that LGBT treatment is absolutely terrible is more places than not, and in some places far worse than before (Middle East pre-Islam compared to post-Islam. Meso/South America pre-Colombian compared to post-Colombian). In fact, it's fair to say that more LGBT people suffer discrimination than ever before, despite improvements in select counties - certainly for a fact the last 80 years have been worse than ever before in all other history combined for the LGBT!


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## Highway Nights (Nov 26, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Things were not always bad for the LGBT - ancient Greece for example, the ancient Celtic regions, pre-Colombian Meso/South America, or ancient Rome. And things are about as bad as they can get for LGBT in huge regions of the world today (Middle East, Africa, Asia, Russia..) - just because things have improved after a significant low in the West doesn't mean things have improved everywhere...Very Western-centric view you posted, considering that LGBT treatment is absolutely terrible is more places than not, and in some places far worse than before (Middle East pre-Islam compared to post-Islam. Meso/South America pre-Colombian compared to post-Colombian). In fact, it's fair to say that more LGBT people suffer discrimination than ever before, despite improvements in select counties - certainly for a fact the last 80 years have been worse than ever before in all other history combined for the LGBT!


That's a good point. While I am firmly in the "the world as a whole is getting better" camp, (or at least "the world hasn't changed at all") there are areas of the world that would be an awful place to live right now, more so than a few decades ago. Look at pictures from major cities in Afghanistan or Iran 40 years ago. They weren't the war torn places that they are now, and these countries were, along with the west, on the road to becoming more secular.


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## FearAndTrembling (Jun 5, 2013)

It would need a subjective value judgement. Every age is good by their own standards. The Ancient Greeks would think we are slaves. 

“In infinite space and time everything develops, becomes more perfect and more complex, is differentiated",is to say nothing at all. Those are all words with no meaning, for in the infinite is neither complex nor simple, no forward nor backward, or better or worse.” 

“My belief assumed a form that it commonly assumes among the educated people of our time. This belief was expressed by the word "progress." At the time it seemed to me that this word had meaning. Like any living individual, I was tormented by questions of how to live better. I still had not understood that in answering that one must live according to progress, I was talking just like a person being carried along in a boat by the waves and the wind; without really answering, such a person replies to the only important question-"Where are we to steer?"-by saying, "We are being carried somewhere.”
-Tolstoy


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## FearAndTrembling (Jun 5, 2013)

Amine said:


> I am NT and it horrifies me that anyone thinks the world is getting worse. _What staggering naivete_. Or just plain ignorance. I hate having to sound like a broken record, but I guess I need to keep a word document of a list of ways this world could suck and has in the past:
> 
> -You can probably read. You probably read quite a bit. You can read basically whatever you want, and there is lot out there to read. Things did not used to be like that.
> -Are you a person of color, a woman, a LGBT, mentally ill, or simply have some unconventional views that you like to promulgate? Enough said.
> ...


You still waiting on the Singularity? lol. That things are "getting better" is important to that futuristic ideology. You EXPECT deliverance. 

Your belief is faith based as anything. Go read Kurzweil. Futurist quack.


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## TheProphetLaLa (Aug 18, 2014)

Based on what time period? Starting from 100,000 years ago? 100 years ago? I would say there's a general upwards trend over time but naturally there are dips here and there. 

If anybody wants to go back to the good ol' days there are still some tribes in the Amazon hunting with spears or Amish communities that would be more than willing to take you in I'm sure. (◡‿◡✿)


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

TheProphetLaLa said:


> Based on what time period? Starting from 100,000 years ago? 100 years ago? I would say there's a general upwards trend over time but naturally there are dips here and there.
> 
> If anybody wants to go back to the good ol' days there are still some tribes in the Amazon hunting with spears or Amish communities that would be more than willing to take you in I'm sure. (◡‿◡✿)


Hey LaLa, did you read my post on the LGBT?


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## Apolo (Aug 15, 2014)

grimoire said:


> This seems like a very biased and extreme generalization to make over such a huge population of people.
> 
> Society has always had a huge issue with overindulging in drugs, alcohol, etc. within the past 70 years. It simply seems worse now due to the insane amount of information we get flooded with daily, and the fact that it's much easier to access these things. Yes, it's true that kids are increasingly peer pressured to experiment with drugs, alcohol and sex at a younger age. However, I wouldn't really use this to damn an entire generation of children. It just seems silly to express so much hatred and vitriol to people who's brains haven't even finished developing yet and who--like all teenagers, past and present--will make a lot of mistakes they'll probably end up regretting just due to the process of growing up. Not to mention the fact that historically every generation before the current one in that time period have always thought that their younger generation is chock full of lazy, entitled heretics. It's nothing new.
> 
> Honestly, it really just seems like you're more bitter than anything. The world isn't really too bad. Kids are annoying but kids are always annoying, due to the ever present curse of puberty. And personally, what's so terrible about striving for a world where we can achieve true equality and get what we want? It's impossible of course, but if society simply shrugged and decided that things are never going to get better we'd never invent or improve on anything. It's through that same idealism, that same "but why do things have to be this terrible?" that any beneficial cultural shift or technological improvement has happened. Every generation is idealistic at heart.


You completely missed my point. Nothing bitter about being honest and truthful. 

I will put it to you this way... The up and coming generations, enable and pay the bills of people like Miley Cyrus.... If that is not an indication of the speed at which we are turning into a cesspool, then you should get your eyesight checked.


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## TheProphetLaLa (Aug 18, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Hey LaLa, did you read my post on the LGBT?


I sure did and you made a very good point. I'm taking a very broad perspective on this. Also, I didn't mention the LGBT in my post. LBGT problems are not the only ones that exist. On the other hand, I'm not sure to what extent homosexual relations in Ancient Greece were permitted. Were these men allowed to marry each other? Apparently the most common relations were between men and pubescent or adolescent boys. 

These are of course many different factors to consider and this question is more complicated than it may superficially seem but in general I would still say there's an upward trend.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

TheProphetLaLa said:


> I sure did and you made a very good point. I'm taking a very broad perspective on this. Also, I didn't mention the LGBT in my post. LBGT problems are not the only ones that exist. On the other hand, I'm not sure to what extent homosexual relations in Ancient Greece were permitted. Were these men allowed to marry each other? Apparently the most common relations were between men and pubescent or adolescent boys.
> 
> These are of course many different factors to consider and this question is more complicated than it may superficially seem but in general I would still say there's an upward trend.


Same sex marriages did occur in ancient Greece and Rome, including officially recognized marriages. Apparently it was more socially normal if one of the males was considerably older than the other for some reason back then, so it was more typical for the couples to be of different ages, but not exclusively.


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## TheProphetLaLa (Aug 18, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Same sex marriages did occur in ancient Greece and Rome, including officially recognized marriages. Apparently it was more socially normal if one of the males was considerably older than the other for some reason back then, so it was more typical for the couples to be of different ages, but not exclusively.


Very cool. I didn't know that. I guess its true that society doesn't evolve in a linear fashion, which is a mentality I get stuck in sometimes. Oversimplifying too. Ironically enough, for some people that very LGBT scenario that you provided as an overall regression may be viewed as progression.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

TheProphetLaLa said:


> Very cool. I didn't know that. I guess its true that society doesn't evolve in a linear fashion, which is a mentality I get stuck in sometimes. Oversimplifying too. Ironically enough, for some people that very LGBT scenario that you provided as an overall regression may be viewed as progression.


I think most people see it very linearly, which general does make sense of course, but things don't always go as expected - correlation not equaling causation. This means we need to consider the possibility of digression as well as progression, or even stagnation, depending on the individual issue. Some things have indeed progressed (medicine, technology, etc.), while other things certainly have digressed (treatment of LGBT people, terrorism, etc.), and this should be recognized. Thus this poll isn't really a fair one, as it suggests broadly all things - are all things getting better? No. Are all things getting worse? No. That being said, it would be difficult to make a more inclusive poll with this topic.


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## FearAndTrembling (Jun 5, 2013)

May as well post this here.

What should be added to this song since it was written?






Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it



From Sans Soleil:

_“Who said that time heals all wounds? It would be better to say that time heals everything except wounds. With time, the hurt of separation loses its real limits. With time, the desired body will soon disappear, and if the desiring body has already ceased to exist for the other, then what remains is a wound... disembodied.”

__That's the way the breakers recede. And so predictably that one has to believe in a kind of amnesia of the future that history distributes through mercy or calculation to those whom it recruits: Amilcar murdered by members of his own party, the liberated areas fallen under the yoke of bloody petty tyrants liquidated in their turn by a central power to whose stability everyone paid homage until the military coup._
_
That's how history advances, plugging its memory as one plugs one's ears. Luis exiled to Cuba, Nino discovering in his turn plots woven against him, can be cited reciprocally to appear before the bar of history. She doesn't care, she understands nothing, she has only one friend, the one Brando spoke of in Apocalypse: horror. That has a name and a face._
_
I'm writing you all this from another world, a world of appearances. In a way the two worlds communicate with each other. Memory is to one what history is to the other: an impossibility._
_
Legends are born out of the need to decipher the indecipherable. Memories must make do with their delirium, with their drift. A moment stopped would burn like a frame of film blocked before the furnace of the projector. Madness protects, as fever does.

_
The world is on fire. I like this Buddha story Jung relayed in Psychological Types:

_"All is in flames. The eye and all the senses stand in flames, kindled by "the fire of love, by the fire of hate, by the fire of delusion; through birth, ageing and death, through pain and lamentations, through sorrow, suffering, and despair is the fire kindled. — The whole world standeth in flames; the whole world, is wrapt and shadowed in smoke; the whole world is devoured by fire; the whole world quaketh."_


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## IncoherentBabbler (Oct 21, 2013)

Both. Why is there no option for both?


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## bruh (Oct 27, 2015)

Worse for the environment... better for us.


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## grimoire (Nov 7, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> Things were not always bad for the LGBT - ancient Greece for example, the ancient Celtic regions, pre-Colombian Meso/South America, or ancient Rome. And things are about as bad as they can get for LGBT in huge regions of the world today (Middle East, Africa, Asia, Russia..) - just because things have improved after a significant low in the West doesn't mean things have improved everywhere...Very Western-centric view you posted, considering that LGBT treatment is absolutely terrible is more places than not, and in some places far worse than before (Middle East pre-Islam compared to post-Islam. Meso/South America pre-Colombian compared to post-Colombian). In fact, it's fair to say that more LGBT people suffer discrimination than ever before, despite improvements in select counties - certainly for a fact the last 80 years have been worse than ever before in all other history combined for the LGBT!


Ancient Greece was fairly tolerant of LGBT people, but by no means to any extent most people would consider appropriate today. Ancient Greece wasn't so much okay with same sex people in long term romantic relationships as it was with pederasty; which was generally only socially accepted in younger boys. Girls weren't allowed to be in romantic relationships with other girls (except on the island of ******, which is a different story entirely) and boys were expected to out-grow it. Compared to most other parts of the world in that time period this isn't so bad, but as a gay person myself I wouldn't ever call it good. You're probably right on the Celts, South Americans and Romans, though. I don't know anything about those off the top of my head so I can't argue with you there!

You're right that it has gotten significantly worse in Russia and parts of the Middle East and Africa, but in most countries world wide it has gotten a lot better. Personally, I think this is the best time to be living as an out LGBT person considering the state of the world overall, but I'm not going to deny it has become worse in many places. But it's become much better to a much greater extent than it has become worse. Ultimately it depends on if you'd rather put more weight into many places slowly getting better or a few places quickly getting worse. I, and many other LGBT people, mostly prefer the first. 



Apolo said:


> You completely missed my point. Nothing bitter about being honest and truthful.
> 
> I will put it to you this way... The up and coming generations, enable and pay the bills of people like Miley Cyrus.... If that is not an indication of the speed at which we are turning into a cesspool, then you should get your eyesight checked.


I apologize if I misunderstood you! I'm going to be upfront and honest here that I still don't understand your point too well? It seems silly to deem an entire generation of hundred and thousands of people a cesspool because some of them like a certain celebrity, especially considering shitty people being popular in the public eye is not at all a new concept. I by no means intend to be rude, but I'd appreciate it if you could either be more specific with your argument or less emotion focused, as I'm genuinely curious in your reasoning but from what I've read so far all of your points seem to not have much of a point in them at all as much as an emotion based impression.


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## xraydav (Jan 3, 2013)

Clyme said:


> And if you'd like to answer more, provide your personality type and explain which ways you think the world is getting better or worse.


I just want to praise this question poll. This was really well targeted between the NTs/NFs and the SPs/SJs. 

It is interesting how Sensors, being more the type which identifies with the details before the big picture, see the world as getting worse. While the intuitive types, being more the type which identifies with the big picture than the details, see the world as getting better. 

I was personally divided, much like others, over whether the world is getting better/worse, and I really only considered that the world is probably getting 'better', after really thinking about it in a more wider perspective. Such as first, I considered the world is getting worse, and thought about specific events like terrorist attacks in certain locations in our world right now, and how there is a continuing ignorance by certain sources. This happens, even while most people are being educated on the errors of the past and the most similar errors that humanity itself has committed now, they've probably committed in similar ways before - so that adds to continuing ignorance, which is making the world worse. 

After all that, I thought of how despite all this crap happening, there are still people who are making giant breakthroughs in viral medications and treatments for others suffering from natural-borne disease. Likewise, there are also problems in our world, not actually even just medications but other types of fixes for preexisting conditions of society - these fixes usually also include economic, political and any many other similar advances as well. Scientific and other similar academic advances are also obvious and major indicators of how our world is getting better and also going to become much better in the future. 

Then considering all this, the world is getting better than it is worse because, we can't view advancement in hindsight, and say that it has been done before, or is another factor of continuing ignorance like that of terrorist attacks, etc. By the nature of the events that are happening right now, most of these inventions and treatments have never been done before, and it much more indicative that we are getting better, than we used to be.

So I actually considered, one viewpoint and then another, and then gradually allowed the perception to cover the question in a detail --> global manner. For me, the detail --> global manner, allowed me to see that the world is getting more better than it is worse. Now looking at the higher number of NT/NF people identifying with this, it reveals to me that the process itself, may have allowed them to see the world in a similar light. Not saying that this is always the case and that Sensors are innately pessimistic, However, that iNtuition, when considering the global framework at a time after the detail-framework, would form more of a positive view than if it were to consider detailed-->global framework. Which in this case, would be considering the terrorist attacks, specific events, etc after considering the more global 'advancements', etc. 

Just theorizing, that's all. :kitteh:


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## SquashedBanana (Nov 11, 2015)

Clyme said:


> And if you'd like to answer more, provide your personality type and explain which ways you think the world is getting better or worse.


I keep hearing a lot of people say that they think the end of the world is coming: religious people, non-religious people, it makes no difference. A big Walking Dead fan I know even said that they think a zombie apocalypse is on the horizon.

Personally I'm not sure if the world is getting worse, better, or if we're just hearing about more things happening. 

:hampster:


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## Clyme (Jul 17, 2014)

luthien337 said:


> I keep hearing a lot of people say that they think the end of the world is coming: religious people, non-religious people, it makes no difference. A big Walking Dead fan I know even said that they think a zombie apocalypse is on the horizon.
> 
> Personally I'm not sure if the world is getting worse, better, or if we're just hearing about more things happening.
> 
> :hampster:


Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but I think the world is generally getting better. The world is becoming healthier, wealthier (accounting for inflation), and civil rights are being spread throughout the world (equality for females, for example). Greater awareness is also being generated for things like mental illness, lgbt+ communities, animal rights, and so on and so forth. I think the general trend is positive. There are a few things that are concerning though. Environmental pollution and climate change is a big problem. Despite promises to deal with this, I don't think the world is equipped to handle it. We need more cooperation between states if we're going to solve it. I also think the current neo-liberal anarchist state of the global economy is really negative too, in that it readily exploits developing countries and carries on an imperialist tradition. So, environmental issues and neo-liberal anarchist global economic policies are areas of significant concern in my opinion.

Overall, the world is getting better, but there are still some things to address.

(Oh, and the world is significantly more peaceful than it was ages ago, and this is a continuing trend where the world is progressively becoming more peaceful. The reason we're bombarded with media that showcases violence (which leads us to believe violence is common) is because we have a biological alarmist tendency to pay more attention to threats. So, we flock to skewed media with an affinity for potential risks in the same way that we flock to foods that are high in fats and sugars. Anyway, you get the picture).


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## SquashedBanana (Nov 11, 2015)

Clyme said:


> Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but I think the world is generally getting better. The world is becoming healthier, wealthier (accounting for inflation), and civil rights are being spread throughout the world (equality for females, for example). Greater awareness is also being generated for things like mental illness, lgbt+ communities, animal rights, and so on and so forth. I think the general trend is positive. There are a few things that are concerning though. Environmental pollution and climate change is a big problem. Despite promises to deal with this, I don't think the world is equipped to handle it. We need more cooperation between states if we're going to solve it. I also think the current neo-liberal anarchist state of the global economy is really negative too, in that it readily exploits developing countries and carries on an imperialist tradition. So, environmental issues and neo-liberal anarchist global economic policies are areas of significant concern in my opinion.
> 
> Overall, the world is getting better, but there are still some things to address.
> 
> (Oh, and the world is significantly more peaceful than it was ages ago, and this is a continuing trend where the world is progressively becoming more peaceful. The reason we're bombarded with media that showcases violence (which leads us to believe violence is common) is because we have a biological alarmist tendency to pay more attention to threats. So, we flock to skewed media with an affinity for potential risks in the same way that we flock to foods that are high in fats and sugars. Anyway, you get the picture).


You've raised so many good points!!

Funny thing is that a lot of the opinions regarding the state of the world (is it getting better or worse?) are based on emotional matters. Whenever there's a well-publicized disaster/tragedy and it seems like an out-of-control situation (with many complicated variables), it almost seems as though society gets sort of depressed/fatalistic about where the world is headed.

I feel pretty in tune with how people feel about things, though I can't say that I'm as good with tracking actual events and world changes (such as climate changes, political systems, etc.). Maybe the truth is that the facts are more optimistic than our moods =] haha


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## Dangerose (Sep 30, 2014)

worse imo, but it might start getting better


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## Clyme (Jul 17, 2014)

luthien337 said:


> You've raised so many good points!!
> 
> Funny thing is that a lot of the opinions regarding the state of the world (is it getting better or worse?) are based on emotional matters. Whenever there's a well-publicized disaster/tragedy and it seems like an out-of-control situation (with many complicated variables), it almost seems as though society gets sort of depressed/fatalistic about where the world is headed.
> 
> I feel pretty in tune with how people feel about things, though I can't say that I'm as good with tracking actual events and world changes (such as climate changes, political systems, etc.). Maybe the truth is that the facts are more optimistic than our moods =] haha


Thank you.

Facts do tend to be more optimistic than our moods. What you've said is true. We often are privy to acute situations such as terrorist attacks, armed conflicts, gang violence, and so forth, and so by induction we assume that we're living in a world of violence and terror. It's understandable why so many people feel this way: it's reflected everywhere by the media. These things take advantage of our affinity for such threats and so when news companies release these stories, they're the ones that are most popular. See, media companies aren't giving us the media that's most relevant or most important in the world - they're giving us the media that we can't look away from, or the media that most gets our attention. This is the problem of media within a capitalist system. Anyway, the result is that commonplace stories get drowned out because they're less interesting and can't generate revenues while uncommon alarming stories get spread everywhere because they're very interesting and do generate revenues. That's a major reason why everyone feels like the world is falling to pieces. In addition to this, humans have a strong bias toward things that are more recent (availability heuristic) and things that are unique (I can't recall the name for this one). Either way, that leads to us assuming that the world is falling apart because it's the thing most recent to us and also because it's the most startling (and therefor most memorable) thing to us. This commonly leads people to the incorrect conclusion that the world is getting worse.

The world is generally not getting worse. It's getting better in many, many ways, and it's getting better in more ways than it's getting worse. We have some risks to address for sure, but the future is not a gloomy one like most people thing.


Edit: For the record, this is also why I think having a news-company dedicated to responsible media and not wholly dependent on revenue is incredibly important for the world. It's also why I'm excited about the advancement of technology because it's increasingly empowering the individual. I mean, just look at youtube for example. There are so many content-creators on that that are really creating and cultivating a culture of learning and connectivity. This is what I want to see done with public media, and it's something that I think will only emerge as good media becomes less dependent on generating profits. The other thing to note here is that an awareness on behalf of the consumer about these things is also extremely important in pushing media companies toward responsible media. (Also, on a side but not wholly unrelated note, Donald Trump is popular due to media exposure, and he gains media exposure because his offensive and aggressive attitude draws in more viewers which generates revenues. If nobody tuned in to listen to Donald Trump talk on these evening shows, he wouldn't have the amount of support he does. That's not an exaggeration either).


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

bruh said:


> Worse for the environment... better for us.


Doesn't that ultimately mean worse for us in the long run anyway? If we destroy our environment that's really bad for us.


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## Like Slow Dissapearing (Nov 13, 2015)

I think the world is just as bad as it always has been. I want world peace, but that will never happen. There are way too many angry, mistreated, power hungry, ignorant, racist, xenophobic, transphobic, sexist, etc... people for that to happen...humanity is one of the weirdest and most complex things...i can't even wrap my mind around us


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## blingyeol (Jun 24, 2015)

Worse and there's still potential... to get even worse x"D
I hate living in this society, the only thing I like is the technology, at least on a personal level where I enjoy talking to all of the friends around the world and enjoying my computer-centered hobbies but apart from that, I wish I was born in my mom's generation. Where people were still a tad bit more humble and being assertive and self-confident wasn't the only virtue that was desired for getting a job. And where people were actually interested in each other, and polite whereas now they're oppossite of both. /sighs/ it just all makes me so sad :'(


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## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

The world is generally getting worst.

We have become over populated.
There is not enough food.
People prefer to beg than to get a job.
Living off the hard work of others is an acceptable way of life.
Obesity is larger than ever. 

The sooner Putin nukes us or a meteor crashes into us the better.

#StartWorldWar3RestartCivilisationFresh


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

cybersloth81 said:


> There is not enough food.





> Obesity is larger than ever.


Don't these 2 statements completely contradict each other?


----------



## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

PowerShell said:


> Don't these 2 statements completely contradict each other?


Not really.


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## nO_d3N1AL (Apr 25, 2014)

I think it's getting better due to technological advancements and a more accepting, diverse society. This is of course, for the West mainly. Of course one could argue that depleting natural resources, increasing inequality, overpopulation and climate change are making the world as a whole worse, but if I'm looking at it from the perspective of developed countries, it's getting better.


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## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

nO_d3N1AL said:


> I think it's getting better due to technological advancements and a more accepting, diverse society. This is of course, for the West mainly. Of course one could argue that depleting natural resources, increasing inequality, overpopulation and climate change are making the world as a whole worse, but if I'm looking at it from the perspective of developed countries, it's getting better.


I would agree technology is evolving, but humans are becoming less needed as technology advances.
Fair one though, if a machine can do work for free, humans are not actually needed.


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## SuperDevastation (Jun 7, 2010)

Inheritance said:


> The attack on France has been given way too much publicity compared to what else is happening around the world. That said I think the world is staying the same, perhaps on the worse side due to the climate change. In time we'll soon run out of resources for that matter as well. I think our oil has for now an estimated lifespan of 38 years.


People like you keep whining about climate change and limited resources but have no evidence to back it up.


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## munku (Nov 16, 2015)

Watching the documentary titled "HOME" will change your perspectives about our earth and is a big blow to the optimism.


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## Frostbite (Nov 18, 2015)

It's right now getting slightly worse, the world is nearing a bad time (2008-2015) and the downward line slowly goes slower down. So right now it gets still worse, but at 2016-2017 it will get better i think  Maybe around 2020 there's a new 1985-2000s period where the world goes better.

Also climate change is not really a fact, oil resources are used less and less frequent. We start to use far more often more natural energy (Nuclear energy, Wind energy and Solar energy), Technology advances at rapid speed, the world will be a good place to life around 2020-2025. At least in my country there are coming more and more jobs (especially in what I'm studying, I'd get nearly instantly hired ). 

tl;dr not right now, right now there are still too many conflicts, but i think time will change it and soon enough, and it will be better soon.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

SuperDevastation said:


> People like you keep whining about climate change and limited resources but have no evidence to back it up.


Are you saying you don't believe in climate change? Or am I reading your post wrong perhaps?


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

cybersloth81 said:


> Not really.


People are starving and eating too much is pretty contradictory.


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## Earworms (Mar 27, 2013)

ENTPness said:


> Obviously the world is not getting better in every conceivable way, and I acknowledged earlier that climate change is indeed a problem. But even so the word "pollution" is vague. At one time the London fog could be deadly. Not anymore. In the US as I mentioned we have the Clean Air Act, EPA, etc. to keep things in check. Levels of many, many toxic chemicals are much lower now than they were several decades ago. But shit, there's more pollution in China so I guess that proves that the whole damn world is going to hell in every way.
> 
> What a fucking idiot.



Another mass killing, this time in San Bernardino, 14 dead. There have already been 57 mass killings in the U.S. this year. Yeah, the world is getting better, better at mass murders.


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## Roland Khan (May 10, 2009)

There, I voted...SP:worse...my cynicism won me over.:dry:


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

PowerShell said:


> People are starving and eating too much is pretty contradictory.


It's ironic, that's for certain. It is sadly true however - in some parts of the world some people are eating too much, while at the same time in other parts of the world people are considered very lucky to be eating only one meal a day, because they are currently enduring famines - and also people are actually starving to death. To make matters even more strange, we have enough food for everybody plus, but access to food is limited, and when people send food over to where it's needed it's the soldiers who get it, and the people still starve.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

There was another video, but I cannot show it because it's raw footage of starvation.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

He's a Superhero! said:


> It's ironic, that's for certain. It is sadly true however - in some parts of the world some people are eating too much, while at the same time in other parts of the world people are considered very lucky to be eating only one meal a day, because they are currently enduring famines - and also people are actually starving to death. To make matters even more strange, we have enough food for everybody plus, but access to food is limited, and when people send food over to where it's needed it's the soldiers who get it, and the people still starve.


But in the whole scheme of things, less people are starving than are in grinding poverty than in the past.


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## MisterPerfect (Nov 20, 2015)

ITs worse than ever


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## Peter (Feb 27, 2010)

Clyme said:


> And if you'd like to answer more, provide your personality type and explain which ways you think the world is getting better or worse.


Neither. In a whole, things are pretty much the same. But all things fluctuate. But hardly ever all at the same time. Except for some rogue waves like a world war, things pretty much are the same.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

PowerShell said:


> But in the whole scheme of things, less people are starving than are in grinding poverty than in the past.


What are your sources for this statement? Not that you are wrong - and I hope you are right - but just want to see the stats.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

Earworms said:


> Another mass killing, this time in San Bernardino, 14 dead. There have already been 57 mass killings in the U.S. this year. Yeah, the world is getting better, better at mass murders.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/how-many-mass-shootings-are-there-really.html



PowerShell said:


> But in the whole scheme of things, less people are starving than are in grinding poverty than in the past.


By far, yes. The numbers could be called miraculous. Hundreds of millions are no longer in poverty.



LittleDicky said:


> ITs worse than ever


What, because there is a war somewhere?

I'm still wondering what the pessimists in this thread have to answer to the rights revolutions, the end of lynching and gruesome public torture, the end of slavery, the end of various diseases (including smallpox, which killed more people in the 1900s alone than 2000 Hiroshimas, and that's a conservative estimate), and the spectacular decline in poverty. It's almost as if they are utterly immune to facts. But who knows, maybe there is some new category of awfulness in this world which I am totally unaware of that is making it worse to live here than all of history..


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

I see the NTs are the only group representing "Better" at this point. Hmmmmm!


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## MisterPerfect (Nov 20, 2015)

Amine said:


> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/how-many-mass-shootings-are-there-really.html
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah there is always war. I dont know where you been. If you know anything about history you have seen the slow decline in history in the economy. There was a series of wars that built and maintained America, its income, its economy and its power. The issue now is that we have been peaceful for awhile and since America is built on collecting debt and refunding that money by the power of WAR, you see where it starts to decline. When America declined so did many other countries in fact since a lot of other countries actually depend on America to buy much of its products to survive. People complain America is greedy and buys too much, but if that is true or not all that over spending is funding a lot of different Economy's. So people really cant bitch about us. They just dont like having to have us as a customer. America is a country founded on WAR, and a lot of other countries were auctually doing pretty okay after a few of the wars too. Aside from Germany that totally go screwed over after 1st and end of 2nd financially speaking. So America is now leading to a collapse since right now we have no massive amount of money to offset the massive debt. 

This is Americas set of behavior for the entire history of America 

Create Massive Debt 
Have some War or project that brings in loads of cash to fix debt and than some 
Repeat the process 
America is rich yay! but we will always be in debt 
Without anything else to set off our debt we are pretty screwed 

America always had to fight to survive. We had to fight for our independence, we fought to keep China in World war 2, We fought to back up Vietnam simply since we owed them as their "Buddy". We almost fought Russia but Russia and the US said that if we fight each other we would most likely go on for too long and destroy the entire world in the process so lets not do that. So Russia and the US had a kind of unsettled dislike for each other but know that it would not be very smart if we actually did go to war, and the result would not be worth it. I do not doubt China will one day go to war with America though. China seems to absolutely despise us. I dont hate the Chinese but so many of them seem to despise Americans and even a lot of the ones coming to America will make it known that they think we are shit.

America did in fact upset other countries when it started to lose money. The fact is we are the world best customer, as much as people bitch. When we suffer so do the people we pay.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

LittleDicky said:


> Yeah there is always war. I dont know where you been. If you know anything about history you have seen the slow decline in history in the economy. There was a series of wars that built and maintained America, its income, its economy and its power. The issue now is that we have been peaceful for awhile and since America is built on collecting debt and refunding that money by the power of WAR, you see where it starts to decline. When America declined so did many other countries in fact since a lot of other countries actually depend on America to buy much of its products to survive. People complain America is greedy and buys too much, but if that is true or not all that over spending is funding a lot of different Economy's. So people really cant bitch about us. They just dont like having to have us as a customer. America is a country founded on WAR, and a lot of other countries were auctually doing pretty okay after a few of the wars too. Aside from Germany that totally go screwed over after 1st and end of 2nd financially speaking. So America is now leading to a collapse since right now we have no massive amount of money to offset the massive debt.
> 
> This is Americas set of behavior for the entire history of America
> 
> ...


Even if I grant all of that, it says nothing about the world today being uniquely terrible or "worse than ever", as if the past is a mythical land of peace, cooperation, and economic stability.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

He's a Superhero! said:


> What are your sources for this statement? Not that you are wrong - and I hope you are right - but just want to see the stats.


World Poverty — Our World in Data


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## MisterPerfect (Nov 20, 2015)

Amine said:


> Even if I grant all of that, it says nothing about the world today being uniquely terrible or "worse than ever", as if the past is a mythical land of peace, cooperation, and economic stability.


So you are telling me you dont need economics and you never learned anything about it in school. I would recommend you pick up a book on economics if as it might enlighten you some. Since clearly me laying it out for you was not good enough. Though I dont blame the crap public education for this one and most likely is just your laziness. Since this is the one thing I think schools do a pretty good job at teaching and establishing and I remembered all this from HS.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

LittleDicky said:


> So you are telling me you dont need economics and you never learned anything about it in school. I would recommend you pick up a book on economics if as it might enlighten you some. Since clearly me laying it out for you was not good enough. Though I dont blame the crap public education for this one and most likely is just your laziness. Since this is the one thing I think schools do a pretty good job at teaching and establishing and I remembered all this from HS.


Dunno what you're talking about.


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## grimoire (Nov 7, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> There was another video, but I cannot show it because it's raw footage of starvation.


No offense He's a Superhero, since I really am not trying to diss you, but why are you so invested in proving that the world is getting worse? You've posted on what seems like nearly every single page of this fairly popular thread for weeks straight. I'm genuinely curious; why are you so passionate and adamant in your view?


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

grimoire said:


> No offense He's a Superhero, since I really am not trying to diss you, but why are you so invested in proving that the world is getting worse? You've posted on what seems like nearly every single page of this fairly popular thread for weeks straight. I'm genuinely curious; why are you so passionate and adamant in your view?


I guess it upsets me that people are ignoring certain things, like people starving right at this very moment. If we all understand the situation we are in then we are better equip to deal with it.


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## grimoire (Nov 7, 2015)

He's a Superhero! said:


> I guess it upsets me that people are ignoring certain things, like people starving right at this very moment. If we all understand the situation we are in then we are better equip to deal with it.


I completely agree with you, and I think that's very reasonable, but I don't think anyone who is saying that the world is getting better is necessarily denying that there are many awful things still currently happening all the time. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but I firmly believe that there must be a way to be positive about the big picture (which is very, very big and almost blinding on a global perspective such as this conversation) and still be critical and aware of the many tragedies that commonly occur. But I suppose it all comes down to how you weigh and value events and how you interpret them into a global narrative, which is very hard for anyone to do in such an expansive topic as this.

Thank you for not getting mad at me however, as I really don't mean any harm! :tongue:


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

grimoire said:


> I completely agree with you, and I think that's very reasonable, but I don't think anyone who is saying that the world is getting better is necessarily denying that there are many awful things still currently happening all the time. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but I firmly believe that there must be a way to be positive about the big picture (which is very, very big and almost blinding on a global perspective such as this conversation) and still be critical and aware of the many tragedies that commonly occur. But I suppose it all comes down to how you weigh and value events and how you interpret them into a global narrative, which is very hard for anyone to do in such an expansive topic as this.
> 
> Thank you for not getting mad at me however, as I really don't mean any harm! :tongue:


Why would I get mad at you? Nothing wrong with asking questions.


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

Seeing that our efforts have been successful actually, I think, is more likely to encourage people to further try to help and rid the world of the problem once and for all. If people think the world is only getting worse, this breeds more fatalism IMO.

Plus a lot of Christians think the world needs to get worse because that's what the Bible says will happen before the end times ("there will be wars and rumors of war" -- classic!), so they try to make the case despite all evidence so their worldview isn't contradicted.


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## JR CreativeGenius (Dec 2, 2015)

Are you guys seriously all this pessimistic almost to the point of delusion. The world is clearly getting better in basically every way! Think through history!

Sacrifices.
Which hunts.
Black Plague.
Torture.
Slavery.
Women did not have rights.
The world used to be so horrible and bad to live in.



Now if we are talking past 100 years or even past 25 years I'd say the same thing. 

Now if by "world" you mean the actual planet Earth and not humanity in general, than the "world is getting worse with pollution and such.

I can't believe everyone is so negative! It's so annoying that everyone has such a terrible view on humanity, when we are getting better every generation. People are more connected now, and even if all the negative stuff you guys are saying is true, it would be the tinyiest most insignifance dip on a graph that is skyrocketing.


I'd much rather be living now than any other time in the past even if its just 5 years ago. Or 10 years ago. Or 15. Or even 20. I wouldn't even be a filmmaker if I were born 5 years ago because the editing and video quality on the phones were not good enough for me to enjoy it. Technology opens new possibilies for more choices in life, medicine is better, traditional living which is horribly boring is less important, and the world seems to be more accepting.

Everything keeps getting better and it will forever.

ENFP OUT!


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## Hurricane (Dec 6, 2015)

I wanted to check "neither." Uh right now the online tests are showing me as ISTP, but yet to say that's for sure.


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## CasusBelli (Feb 25, 2015)

Genra said:


> _Have you seen how many girls below 18 getting pregnant and doing drugs? The best way to judge an entire society as a whole is by its main product which is the children_
> 
> *INTJ*


As opposed to the world a couple of centuries ago, when women were debased, got pregnant in their teens, worked hard in manual labor all their lives and died at the ripe age of 40. Some perspective, please...


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## 1000BugsNightSky (May 8, 2014)

I want to say about the same, which is not an option. We just have different types of problems. 

For example, back then, survival was a huge problem: high death rates, diseases, finding food, possibly more voilence on an individual/ group level


Now, we have most of the necessities (in developed worlds): food, water, shelter, security, medicine, all types of services... very easy to get. It's just the types of difficulties have changed. These new problems are more complex and didnt even exist/ be possible back then.


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## Philipthestone (Jun 6, 2015)

Things are getting worse. I don't think society has ever been this insane. There is no purpose for living and life is just a random pattern of boredom and work with a bunch of so called smart asses that think they know everything and you end up feeling like the worst guy ever. I know that was a long run on sentence but I don't care right now.


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## FinesseCity (Dec 15, 2015)

through my lense it seems better


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## 1000BugsNightSky (May 8, 2014)

Theneptunepenguin said:


> There is no purpose for living and life is just a random pattern of boredom and work with a bunch of so called smart asses that think they know everything and you end up feeling like the worst guy ever.


How do you know this wasn't there before (or the équivalant in other forms)?


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## Amine (Feb 23, 2014)

The pessimists have _no_ argument: https://medium.com/@angushervey/11-...eat-year-for-humanity-70db584db748#.x5pkrc2oi

Copy/past of the list:



> 1) We got a whole lot closer to global, universal education
> 2) More people are connected to the internet than ever before
> 3) Access to finance increased
> 4) Extreme poverty dropped below 10% — the lowest rate ever
> ...


But I'd read the details.


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## November Rose (Jan 16, 2017)

*ISFP. It's getting worse. To much hate and fighting.*


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

November Rose said:


> *ISFP. It's getting worse. To much hate and fighting.*


The way things are going with the Trump Administration, I'd have to agree with that specific sentiment.


----------



## Shiver (Nov 10, 2016)

Oh, is this not the worst of all possible worlds? 8)


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## Westy365 (Jun 21, 2012)

Both. In some ways it's better, and in other ways, it's worse.


----------



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

SP and I think it's getting better. It's totally natural that it evolves.


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## leictreon (Jan 4, 2016)

Better... but only oh so slightly.


----------



## Asmodaeus (Feb 15, 2015)

Scientific and technological progress have made some improvements (IT, lengthier lifespans, modern medicine, etc.) but, analysing things from a long-range perspective, it’s clear human nature is essentially the same since the time of the Pharaohs.


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## Miss Nightingale (Aug 10, 2013)

Better


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## Schizoid (Jan 31, 2015)

The world is getting better. If you look at this website below, the homicide rates is actually declining over the years. 

https://ourworldindata.org/homicides/


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Schizoid said:


> The world is getting better. If you look at this website below, the homicide rates is actually declining over the years.
> 
> https://ourworldindata.org/homicides/


Don't tell Trump that.


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## OP (Oct 22, 2016)

Worse. Sure, we have longer lifespans, but living costs are sky-high where I live, and most of us won't get to retire until we physically can't work. Then many of us will end up in retirement homes, some of which look unpleasant to live in (at least the ones I've been into; it could be different in other countries). My parents are planning to retire and travel around the world in a couple of years, when I start college. They're really lucky - they'll only be 50 by then. Years from now, other people born in 2000 won't believe me when I say that my parents retired at 50. In fact, 50 will probably be right in the middle of our working lives.

Sorry for the rant; this is what's been going through my mind since I saw the question.


----------



## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Bismuth said:


> Worse. Sure, we have longer lifespans, but living costs are sky-high where I live, and most of us won't get to retire until we physically can't work. Then many of us will end up in retirement homes, some of which look unpleasant to live in (at least the ones I've been into; it could be different in other countries). My parents are planning to retire and travel around the world in a couple of years, when I start college. They're really lucky - they'll only be 50 by then. Years from now, other people born in 2000 won't believe me when I say that my parents retired at 50. In fact, 50 will probably be right in the middle of our working lives.
> 
> Sorry for the rant; this is what's been going through my mind since I saw the question.


If I continued with my current job, I could retire in my early 50's. I know my grandparents did also.


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## OP (Oct 22, 2016)

PowerShell said:


> If I continued with my current job, I could retire in my early 50's. I know my grandparents did also.


Hopefully it's an interesting, fulfilling job. :happy:


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## platorepublic (Dec 27, 2012)

Compared to when exactly?

In general, I would say better. Not because I am an optimist. But my subjective way of what I think better means objectively. Yes I used subjective and objective in the same sentence.

If you don't know already, INTP's are subjectively objective all the time.


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## Mange (Jan 9, 2011)

poll doesn't really give me a lot of room to work with tbh


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Bismuth said:


> Hopefully it's an interesting, fulfilling job. :happy:


Hell no. It's actually an ENTP's worst nightmare, government. The only good thing about it is I get a lot of time off. I get comp time for working overtime so I literally takes 2-3 months off a year. Otherwise, it's pretty boring working with lazy and/or incompetent people. I am literally the only person who shows up on time and my review my boss literally said I was a role model employee. Sadly they don't enforce anything there, so anything goes.


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## OP (Oct 22, 2016)

PowerShell said:


> Hell no. It's actually an ENTP's worst nightmare, government. The only good thing about it is I get a lot of time off. I get comp time for working overtime so I literally takes 2-3 months off a year. Otherwise, it's pretty boring working with lazy and/or incompetent people. I am literally the only person who shows up on time and my review my boss literally said I was a role model employee. Sadly they don't enforce anything there, so anything goes.


Well, if anything goes, I suppose you could use that to your advantage. Just try to stay out of trouble.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Bismuth said:


> Well, if anything goes, I suppose you could use that to your advantage. Just try to stay out of trouble.


I mean I have learned to pace myself, but I have more integrity than my coworkers. The biggest thing that drains me is the fact that nothing is getting done. I need to be in a motivated environment. The lack of motivation of anything happening is like sitting in a room doing nothing. It really kind of puts me to sleep.


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## Endologic (Feb 14, 2015)

From a red perspective, it's getting better.

From a green perspective, it's getting worse.


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## Marshy (Apr 10, 2016)

It depends on your values. If it were war then it would be getting better. If it were the connection between religious morals and societal law in first world countries. then it would be getting worse.


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## Aridela (Mar 14, 2015)

Definitely worse. 

It was getting better for a while after the world wars, but now we seem to be at square one again. 

What with hate crimes on the rise, police being the new untouchables, zero hour contracts, no hope of ever retiring for the young... Even if technology is getting better and we live longer, it is the life of the serf most of us can look forward to.


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## Boricua (Feb 11, 2017)

@Genra The age of first-time mothers has actually risen. In the U.S. and most "developed" countries.

EDIT: Whoops, newbie here, just seeing how old some posts in this thread are.


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## Boricua (Feb 11, 2017)

I find it interesting that people think the world is getting worse. From a human rights perspective, the world has improved so much over time. Slavery abolished, homosexual marriages legalized, voting rights for all, anti-discrimination laws being created every day...For minority communities, the U.S. specifically is definitely a safer place to live in now than the 1950s. I would say the most disenfranchised group is Native Americans though. :/ Their struggle is more often than not, overlooked.

From an environmental perspective though, the world is certainly worse off.


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