
Ask HN: Is it just me, or is the world's progress grinding to a halt? - rocgf
I may not be able to articulate my point as clearly as I would like, but knowing the HN community, maybe I can get someone in the comments to do it way better than I ever could.<p>It seems to me that, in the last couple of years, the world has been taking some huge steps back. Not all the problems are new, but some of them have been getting worse or have been made more obvious due to Corona.<p>There are too many to mention, and it would be boring to expand on all of them, but just to name a few:<p>- Climate change. Even with the biggest possible help due to Corona, global emissions haven&#x27;t fallen significantly. The general sentiment I get is that most people are not willing to give up anything from our modern lifestyles in the West, so I get this sinking feeling that we are headed straight for the cliff and, instead of slamming the breaks, we are accelerating. Moreover, it looks like climate change denial is still a thing.<p>- Inequality<p>- Growing nationalism &amp; growing anti-EU sentiment. This is especially happening in Europe - see Hungary, Poland, UK, but it&#x27;s more or less across the board.<p>- Trump. The upcoming election will be between Trump and Biden. This makes me terribly sad.<p>- Mass surveillance<p>- Growing division among generations, countries, ethnicities.<p>- Conspiracy theories seem to be on the rise<p>- We are addicted to smartphones, Facebook and Instagram<p>There are also countries where democracy is going downhill - just look at Turkey, Russia, Hong Kong, Brazil, China. I could even add the USA to this list, things are definitely not getting better.<p>The year is 2020, and we still have so many countries under oppressive regimes, women as second class citizens, ethnic cleansing and so on.<p>Why is the world so crazy? Has it always been like this? Is it better now than 10, 20, 50 years ago? Because it seems to me that the future is bleaker than ever.
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72deluxe
The world is in a mess, yes. It has been for some time. It is not a recent
phenomenon.

I am currently sat looking into my garden listening to the sparrows chirping,
and the sun shining down on it. This is identical to the garden 50, 20, 10
years ago.

Only if I turn my attention to the insanity in the human world does it seem
bleak. Yes, many people do many stupid things and do things I disagree with
but my concern about those issues won't change their behaviour. People will
always do what they want to do, even if it is selfish/stupid. I do not follow
political events.

Perhaps you need to focus on something different for a while, and "detach".
This doesn't mean you don't care anymore, but worrying about the future won't
change the future or stop it from happening - it'll just colour your current
moment and lead to you not enjoying it.

Perhaps it is your awareness of the current affairs that is leading to your
mental preoccupation with the situation. When you were a child you did not
have these concerns because you were unaware of them. Your mind can only be
preoccupied with what reaches it, so perhaps filter what reaches it. You not
knowing about events will not stop them from happening; it'll just mean you
won't need to be caught up in the furore surrounding them because you won't
know about them (and by extension, won't overly worry or be peturbed by them).

Perhaps go find some sparrows to observe and see how happy they are in their
moment.

~~~
andrei-mircea
I understand your sentiment but it also feels like it comes from a position of
sheltered privilege. As an extreme example, I'm reminded of most of Europe's
general detachment during the rise of Nazism.

~~~
72deluxe
I am sorry if it seems like that.

I was trying to emphasise concentration on and learning from the simple things
in life (eg sparrows, sunshine, plant life) whilst controlling what your mind
feeds on.

If I were to go live in a tent in a remote field, the only things I would have
to focus on and enjoy would be these things (wildlife, nature) and would not
be aware of all the other terrible things. I do not see how you could live
more simply.

I do not think appreciation of nature and choosing what to feed your mind on
is a goal exclusive to sheltered privileged individuals, since these skills
are common to all mankind.

------
TechBro8615
You’re responding to the narrative the media is pushing down your throat. My
advice? Read less news and work on something positive. Be the change you want
to see.

I recommend the book _Hate Inc_ by Matt Taibbi for a nice exploration of how
the media profits from dividing us.

Also, obligatory Aaron Swartz:
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews)

~~~
blaser-waffle
Hate Inc. is a decent read.

I'm reminded of the statistic about crime on the local news channels: crime
across the US has dropped, consistently, since the 1960s, but reporting of
crime has gone up 400%.

As a result, people are more alarmed and afraid than ever even though this is
one of the, if not the, safest time in history.

"Perception is reality"

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gumby
I see a lot of the craziness as a sign that the good guys are actually
winning. Sounds counterintuitive, but the “progress of history” is never as
smooth as portrayed in popular history.

The Arab spring uprisings were, imho, spurred by people complaining that
things weren’t as good for them as they clearly were for people you could now
see on the internet and cable tv.

The reactionary movement in the US is a combination of some people complaining
about rights being extended to others (extending rights is a _good_ thing) and
people complaining “hey, the system isn’t working for me when it seems to be
working for others”. Do I like the form this reaction has taken? Not in the
slightest! But I recognize that it’s a reaction to good things.

In the 1960s and 1970s the US was subject to waves of assassinations and
bombings. And in the 1870s they had an actual civil war! Things could be
worse.

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onion2k
_Why is the world so crazy? Has it always been like this?_

Mostly, yes. Crazy is easy to profit from. The media paints a bleak picture
because it keeps them in business. Businesses keep crazy going because people
spend money to escape from it. Wall Street keeps it going because complex
financial instruments are a good earner.

Rich people are getting richer at the moment. They're the only ones with the
power to change things but they have no will to do so.

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gitgud
1\. More technology pushes news into people than ever before.

2\. Bad news sells and makes you keep watching.

3\. Humanity has never been smarter or more advanced than right now. Therefore
we are more likely to be right in our predictions. Even if this isn't true, it
still scares people.

4\. We're only just starting to track and measure problems. Even ones we can't
feasibly fix (climate change), which is scary.

------
lucozade
My prediction is that COVID-19 may have killed any chance of serious action on
climate change.

I saw an estimate a few weeks ago that said that we'd need to be in the
equivalent of a COVID-19 lockdown for 7-8 full years to get the temp increase
to a manageable level.

It's one thing to discuss action in the abstract. But now we've all had a
taste of what is needed, I can't see any electorate voluntarily agreeing to
that. I could be wrong but I doubt it.

Also, if by inequality you mean economic inequality, the global situation is a
lot better than it was 10 years ago and vastly better than it was 50 years
ago. This is primarily due to China and SE Asia generally catching up.

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keiferski
The media is incentivized to make you think this way. Turn it off and you'll
realize that the problems of world are basically the same as they've ever
been. If anything, the doomsday scenarios of 2020 are pretty tame compared to
the reality of the Middle Ages. Pretty much every generation before you
(possibly with the exception of your parents) had a rougher time.

My theory is that these sorts of feelings come directly from feeling
_overwhelmed_ , moreso than any particular _facts_ about the world itself.
Ergo, avoid the sensationalist media and you'll avoid feeling pessimistic.

~~~
greatwhitenorth
This. Think of this kind of connectivity during world war II. Media would
juice it to the maximum. We live in some of the best times ever. Pity most
people don't see it.

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greatwhitenorth
Don't watch too much news/read twitter. Look at some of the studies published
on how much poverty levels, violence, and child mortality rates haves reduced
over the decades. We live in some of the most peaceful times. This is as good
as it gets.

Don't fall for the media narrative. They relish in making you angry, anxious,
and fearful that drives more clicks.

------
Nextgrid
We're too busy watching ads or working to make other people watch ads to care
about anything else.

~~~
rocgf
Indeed, well said. That's another huge pet peeve of mine and a source of great
disappointment with the current state of the world.

There are just so many brilliant people working on things that are only meant
to lead to more ads or more views, directly or indirectly.

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notanaverageman
Each generation has its own problems. Today's problems may seem scary to us,
but world has seen worse days.

From Billy Joel:

    
    
      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
      It will still burn on and on and on and on

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matt_s
A thought/theory: US baby-boomers (born around/after WWII) grew up in a time
where nationalism and scandalous mass surveillance happened (J. Edgar Hoover,
communism, lists of people, etc.) Many people in authoritative positions in
government and large corporations today are baby-boomers.

There is a phrase of history repeating itself right. I wonder if that happens
in the cycle when our elders (not elderly) remember "how things used to be"
and because they are in now positions of power, behave in ways that bring back
the past?

I'm not stating _all_ baby boomers are like this, just suggesting that maybe
there is something about people in power and their behaviors reflecting their
beliefs from their upbringing in various ways.

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brudgers
Reversion to the mean.

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thinkingemote
One misapprehension is that progress is inevitable and one way.

Progress is also linked into liberalism.

gray, the philosopher has written quite a lot about this. His summary is that
the benefits of progress are to be continually fought for, it's not just
something that happens .

