+- CSNbbs (https://csnbbs.com)
+-- Forum: Active Boards (/forum-769.html)
+--- Forum: Lounge (/forum-564.html)
+---- Forum: The Kyra Memorial Spin Room (/forum-540.html)
+---- Thread: We are living in a golden age (/thread-787771.html)
Pages: 1 2
We are living in a golden age - miko33 - 08-19-2016 02:35 PM
Objectively, if you look at humanity from the earliest recorded history - roughly 4000 BCE - thru today, we are living in a golden age of plenty and personal growth as humans. I know it's trendy to believe that the world is sh!t. I still think much or our problems will get sorted, and that our children will be better off than we are.
My pollyanna post of the day.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/why-cant-we-see-that-were-living-in-a-golden-age/
RE: We are living in a golden age - Dasville - 08-19-2016 02:42 PM
(08-19-2016 02:35 PM)miko33 Wrote: Objectively, if you look at humanity from the earliest recorded history - roughly 4000 BCE - thru today, we are living in a golden age of plenty and personal growth as humans. I know it's trendy to believe that the world is sh!t. I still think much or our problems will get sorted, and that our children will be better off than we are.
My pollyanna post of the day.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/why-cant-we-see-that-were-living-in-a-golden-age/
Don't tell that to Al Gore. He is fighting for the "yet to be born" child. Darn thing is....Hillary wants them to be killed. At least the poor non-white ones.
RE: We are living in a golden age - georgia_tech_swagger - 08-19-2016 03:12 PM
While the human condition is unquestionably improving -- thanks largely to liberalization of the economy in India and China -- I'd argue the state of governance is in decay. When you look out at the world what country do you look at and go "Woo now there's a small efficient government concerned only with law, order, contract enforcement, dispute resolution, national defense, and maximizing freedom and individual liberty." Answer: Null set.
RE: We are living in a golden age - Dasville - 08-19-2016 03:18 PM
I have personally observed that the dying get "better" before they die. It is a joy and a curse.
RE: We are living in a golden age - georgia_tech_swagger - 08-19-2016 03:28 PM
(08-19-2016 03:18 PM)Dasville Wrote: I have personally observed that the dying get "better" before they die.
That is very much a real thing. Seen it in pets and humans. You get a huge uptick out of nowhere for a few days and then a rapid spiral to the bottom.
RE: We are living in a golden age - EigenEagle - 08-19-2016 03:31 PM
(08-19-2016 03:12 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: While the human condition is unquestionably improving -- thanks largely to liberalization of the economy in India and China -- I'd argue the state of governance is in decay. When you look out at the world what country do you look at and go "Woo now there's a small efficient government concerned only with law, order, contract enforcement, dispute resolution, national defense, and maximizing freedom and individual liberty." Answer: Null set.
I think Switzerland is doing it well enough.
People tend to lump them in with leviathan governments like Sweden but their government spending as a percentage of GDP is less than ours and they have civil liberties and a good standard of living.
RE: We are living in a golden age - georgia_tech_swagger - 08-19-2016 03:50 PM
(08-19-2016 03:31 PM)EigenEagle Wrote: I think Switzerland is doing it well enough.
People tend to lump them in with leviathan governments like Sweden but their government spending as a percentage of GDP is less than ours and they have civil liberties and a good standard of living.
Pretty much impossible to immigrate into. Also surrounded by the EU Leviathan.
RE: We are living in a golden age - bullet - 08-19-2016 04:21 PM
Well when the superbugs overwhelm our antibiotics and freaks stop GMO agriculture and nuts like Al Gore drive up the price of energy, it will all come crashing down very fast with vast starvation and disease.
The Chinese economic collapse when people revolt against the oppressive government won't help either.
RE: We are living in a golden age - Fo Shizzle - 08-19-2016 09:19 PM
There is no doubt that regardless of the problems we face....It is an awesome time to be alive. We just need to focus our assets correctly and address the problems. The misallocation of the confiscated fruits of our labors is IMO the largest problem we have. We have the assets available to greatly improve our lives now. No further increase in confiscation is necessary. We just need to address the functions of government and its programs in regard to ROI. If it is low?...scrap it. If it is high?...support it and increase it. Pretty simple IMO.
RE: We are living in a golden age - CameramanJ - 08-19-2016 09:45 PM
I agree with miko about the children being better off bit objectively not considering future wars and other social ills that may affect our country. With medical science advancing all the time, the kids being born now will likely live a long time and the rest of us will be strung along as long as our frail bodies and minds will allow. We're all detritus eventually but the higher end of human toil continues to make things interesting. All aboard the existential hype train.
RE: We are living in a golden age - HeartOfDixie - 08-19-2016 09:51 PM
We're in a period of sharp decline for Western civilization. I don't think anybody can deny that.
RE: We are living in a golden age - ericsrevenge76 - 08-19-2016 09:54 PM
Micah 4:1-3
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more
RE: We are living in a golden age - john01992 - 08-19-2016 10:45 PM
(08-19-2016 10:41 PM)CameramanJ Wrote: Almost made it through page one without derailing. Definitely not miko's fault
yeah sorry miko. but holy hell having two posters flip out over BCE in the first page was a pretty telling sign of where this thread was heading.
RE: We are living in a golden age - Fo Shizzle - 08-20-2016 06:29 AM
Without proselytizing....I think we have strayed from the values that made us great for centuries.
RE: We are living in a golden age - DefCONNOne - 08-20-2016 12:41 PM
(08-20-2016 04:55 AM)HarmonOliphantOberlanderDevine Wrote: The stereotyping by John is outrageous.
He doesn't know any other way.
RE: We are living in a golden age - EagleX - 08-20-2016 07:12 PM
I thinks it's, um, odd to celebrate because we discovered fire and aren't all dying from the plague.
RE: We are living in a golden age - miko33 - 08-20-2016 11:01 PM
(08-19-2016 09:45 PM)CameramanJ Wrote: I agree with miko about the children being better off bit objectively not considering future wars and other social ills that may affect our country. With medical science advancing all the time, the kids being born now will likely live a long time and the rest of us will be strung along as long as our frail bodies and minds will allow. We're all detritus eventually but the higher end of human toil continues to make things interesting. All aboard the existential hype train.
The average lifespan for a human was roughly 25 years of age from a few millennia BCE up until the 1800s, after which it started to increase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
The fastest mode of travel between land masses with ocean in between was wooden ship and sail for several millennia until the invention of the airplane. The only effective method to stop disease was quarantine from the beginning of recorded human history through the early 1900s - until antibiotics were discovered. For most people who lived in much of the world, a typical life involved them being serfs/peasants/grist for your rulers for most of recorded human history until the merchant class began to claw their way into existence in the high middle ages. And it took the Age of Enlightenment for people to start seeing people in a whole new light - as people who have rights to determine the course of their own life.
For most of recorded history, human life sucked for the majority of us with the exception of the ruling class. In many parts of the world, that is no longer the case.
RE: We are living in a golden age - Fo Shizzle - 08-20-2016 11:15 PM
I love being alive and prosperous in this time. It is awesome. Could it be better...yes. I complain only because I believe it could if we had leadership with guts,compassion,frugality and vision. We don't.
RE: We are living in a golden age - bearcatmark - 08-22-2016 10:16 AM
(08-19-2016 02:35 PM)miko33 Wrote: Objectively, if you look at humanity from the earliest recorded history - roughly 4000 BCE - thru today, we are living in a golden age of plenty and personal growth as humans. I know it's trendy to believe that the world is sh!t. I still think much or our problems will get sorted, and that our children will be better off than we are.
My pollyanna post of the day.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/why-cant-we-see-that-were-living-in-a-golden-age/
More to the topic at hand and I appreciate the perspective. The world is also safer than ever before. So many lose perspective on how far we have come and how well we are doing. http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-23/world-actually-safer-ever-and-heres-data-prove
RE: We are living in a golden age - QuestionSocratic - 08-22-2016 11:42 AM
The book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" posits that cavemen, or early modern humans, were much happier than the humans that followed the agriculture revolution.
The author suggests that hunter/gatherers spent far less time in subsistence efforts than those who toiled in the later fields of grain. There were far fewer humans and much less conflict over available resources, since the population was easily sustainable given the fauna and flora available.
In what might have be the most contentious suggestion, the author discounts the theory of the warlike early modern human and suggests there was little inter tribal contacts.