Generally, is the world getting better or worse? Why?

Question

Just want to know what you think. All views would be worth hearing... even those who think that the question is stupid.

Answer 1

I think it's on the brink of both on a daily basis-- could get significantly better or worse any day because of the potential for significant destruction by say a nuclear bomb or the potential for significant discoveries such as for the cure for AIDS. However, generally, I guess it is getting better because of the increased information flow across the planet due to television, radio, and the internet. With the increased information flow and awareness, the potential for better decision-making is hopefully increasing.

Answer 2

I think the world goes through seasons. It is good one period, bad the next. So it gets better then worse then better then etc.....
I do not believe the world is getting any worse because if you think about it, the hysteria during the Black Plague, WWI, the fall of Rome, WWII etc... have been worse to the people back then than today's problems are to the people today.
It is a matter of perspective.
The whole world gains knowledge, the good and the bad. So as society advances, so do the evils of society. But the evils have always been met with the same force. In other words, the world is not getting worse it is getting smarter.

Answer 3

Depends on what you mean by "the world".

From a human perspective, the world is much better than it was. Compare our standard of living today to the standards of living our ancestors of 40,000 years ago, when everybody died not much older than their mid-20s and were utterly vulnerable to nature's cruel whims. Compare it to 4,000 years ago, when almost everyone was either a barbarian still living as described above or a slave of one of mankind's first kingdoms with if anything a shorter and more miserable lifespan. Compare it to 400 years ago, when wars were fought to satisfy personal vandettas, when plagues and famines wracked civilization, and when art was something one could practice only at the capricous funding of nobility and church. Compare it to 40 years ago, when the threat of nuclear annihilation was omnipresent, before racial equality was considered truly viable in the US. We've made some great strides, though we've got a while to go.

If, however, you define the world as the natural world beyond human society, then it's gotten much worse off. The weight of civilization has led to the spread of deserts in the once-Fertile Crescent, human population pushes other species to extinction at a rate exceeded only by the most dire of mass-extinctions of prehistory, and human tehcnology is poisoning the ability of the ecosystem to recover. From this point of view, the earth has gotten much worse and at an increasing rate.

Answer 4

I think the world equalizes itself by getting better in some ways and worse in others. Now that women are working, for example, the downside is the crumbling American family. But is the new and non-traditional family such a bad thing? Children are more independent. Women are not forced to stay in oppressive relationships because they have no other options. It seems that we simply trade one issue for another without really making the world a better or worse place to live in.

Answer 5

In my opinion, the world is getting worse. Before, the only way we could kill eachother were simple rifles or swords. Nowadays, we have nuclear bombs, planes and poison. Also, the crime rate is going up. On the other hand, though, we are getting better at healing sicknesses, though new ones keep coming. The current big disease is HIV/AIDS. We are also using so much oil, that we will run out in 2020 if we continue to use the same amount of oil.

Answer 6

Sorry - the world is dying. Everything that is destroying the planet is continuing to do so, and at an increasing rate, the more people there are. And that's sad, really, because humans on this planet may be the only such thinking creature ever to exist at any time in the whole universe - and we're tossing it away.

Answer 7

Either BOTH or NEITHER, depending on one's viewpoint. I think it
also depends on what you mean by the "world"? - U.S., Earth, material vs spiritual values, and on into infinity, as they say. I think this is a good question and that more people should take the time to ponder such things. I don't think it's "stupid" at all, except perhaps to people who are just having a fun time on this web site(which, of course, is okay according to what I've read about what it's for) I just prefer to take almost everybody's questions as serious, just in case they are. Keep thinking,and maybe try to take a look at the positive things that are and have and maybe in the future will happen. I think, when questioning things, it's very often helpful to try to keep an open mind, in all senses of the word. Thankyou for thinking, I mean it!

Answer 8

I believe that humanity matures over time, and that the human race has progressed through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and is now in adulthood. There are so many superstitions and myths and legends that once ruled mankind that have been consigned to the ash heap of history that we must now be in adulthood.

Think about it: there was a time when most of the people on this planet fervently believed in the divine right of kings. Who believes that now? If any of us professed such a belief, we would be laughed off the stage, out of the room, out of the building, and out of the country. It's easy to overlook how important it was for us to progress from believing it to not believing it.

Try to imagine the women of Salem, Massachusetts being burned at the stake as witches today. It would never happen.

Try to imagine whether the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in 1914 could possibly lead to the Guns of August and the incredible carnage of World War I if it happened today -- whether, like falling dominoes, nations like Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, and Turkey would allow themselves to get pushed into such a war just because of a patchwork of mutual assistance treaties that required each of them to treat an attack on their treaty partner as an attack on themselves, no matter how ridiculous that would be in practice.

Answer 9

I think that the world is getting worse because the family is being attacked in general. We do not have quality time with family members anymore because of the computer, television, etc. We do not have one-parent working anymore to meet the needs of the family. Both parents have to work and leave their children to be raised by others and I don't believe that most of these are truly qualified. Family time is almost nil anymore because we are too busy trying to live. I see all of the world structure falling because of the fall of the family structure. Thank you for your question.

Answer 10

If this world is either getting better or worse, there must be a corresponding minus or plus happening elsewhere. Because the governing principle of the universe is a dynamic balance, where the sum total of all forces is ZERO, that is, equilibrium!!