You have your health. You have a great family. You have a house and amenities that few people could have imagined 50 years ago. We are living longer, retire earlier, and suffer less pain throughout our lives. Education is available to all. The masses enjoy unheard of luxuries, like overseas travel. The majority of backbreaking work is now performed by machines. We have endless cheap or free entertainment. The variety of food available to every one of us is astounding, and it is cheap and plentiful. Our children are alive and well despite suffering from an illness or two that would have killed them if they had been around in 1900.I think I am right about this. The present issues are simply roadblocks that we will push out of the way.
The past 10 years have been great for humans compared to any prior period I can think of and things will get even better during the next 10 years.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The worst decade ever
A buddy of mine posted to his Facebook page that the past decade has been the worst ever. Lots of people are feeling down right now, and I understand why. But we all need some perspective. Here is what I wrote back:
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You are absolutely right about this. No question. Unfortunately, people compare their past experience and what they see immediately around them, not their absolute condition, to determine happiness.
To all those who think things are 'terrible', a little perspective is in order.
Not to mention how the last decade, or 100 years, has seen such an expansion of cry-baby whiners. People used to have a little backbone.
P.J. O'Rourke summarizes things in one word when he runs across people who think that things were so much better 100 years ago when we were all peaceful and agrarian: Dentistry.
Preach it baby. So true. It's really important to have some perspective. In fact, it's the feeling that nothing is ever good enough that lead America and the world to this popping bubble. The ever present need to have more because what we had wan't good enough. You gave a good reply.
Hobbes coined the phrase "nasty, brutish, and short" to describe the average man's life a mere 360 years ago. Your friend needs to pick up a freakin' history book.
Overseas travel...
For a decade, I used to jet all around the world for work and pleasure, sitting in business class with a glass of wine (or two) at hand, and I remember my father telling me at the time that both he AND my grandfather also had opportunities for overseas travel as well, but it was a more modest affair...
...in the belly of a troop ship.
He certainly knew good times from bad.
Hello Lou,
Much to your point, you may enjoy this bit by Louis CK. Sums it all up nicely.
http://www.mikerielly.com/2009/03/06/we-live-in-an-amazing-and-nobody-is-happy/
Already 11% unemployment here statewide, and might reach 14% according to some local economists.
Pretty bad if you are one of them.
You might not have to hop a freight to find work, but it remains the most severe post-war downturn, and most agree will worsen throughout this year.
We had a banner year ending last quarter, but our product is still a luxury (though cheaper than our competitors), and I wonder about next year.
The best of times (in recorded history, see dentistry), the worst of times (in our baby boomer memory). My mother tells me about the advent of indoor plumbing in her house IN THE 50's. My grandmother told me what life was like BEFORE KOTEX.
Perspective, it's all perspective.
Rebecca - My family was similar. After living for years on her own, at Age 82 my grandmother became to frail to live alone. So she moved to an assisted living complex ~2002 (she did not want to move in with my parents).
It was the first time in her life she had potable water coming out of the tap.
Maybe it's the worst decade if you spent it in Iraq or Sudan...
Psychologically, the 2000's have probably been the worst decade for many people. It doesn't matter what human life was like in the 17th century -- were any of us around to remember that era?
What matters is what life was like a mere 30 years ago. Can you honestly say the average person has it easier now? For all the technological advances, most seem to have less leisure time than ever before. And with regards to your response, a generation or two ago, people still "had their families, their health, and a house". Education was available at a lower cost per capita. Ditto for housing, food, health insurance, and other necessities.
If you're a baby boomer, you've likely seen over half of your retirement savings wiped out. If you're a 20 or 30-something, it has become an order of magnitude harder to get a foothold in life, relative to your parents/grandparents. Neither of these scenarios have happened since the 1930's (if then!), so most people, having been born post-1930, are fairly justified in claiming the 2000's as the worst decade ever.
We are living in a time of changes, soon our society is going to experience a major change in the planet that it is going to affect all of the life in the planet.
Thanks for the post Lou. It looks like I'm a little late to the discussion but I have to agree with your optimistic portrayal of the past 10 years. I think that people get obsessed with "the idea" of a past golden age that in reality never existed.
On a side note the advent of the internet also helps us witness events that are happening across the world, perhaps this has heightened our fears. But there has always been horrible disasters (e.g. the central china floods of the 30's which is estimated to have killed millions).
That's my two cents. Enjoy your decade.
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