It is easily possible to think that the world is a messy and violent place with people killing each other, people dying of hunger, water pollution, malnutrition and many other diseases. One might think things are getting worse day-by-day and there might be less hope for future generations. But in reality, we are much better. Not perfect but much better.
I love burritos. You might be thinking what kind of a f'ing transition is that ? Jeez Sandy talks in too many tangents. How the hell did he go from talking about world and it's problems to burritos.
Yes I love burritos, they are one of the greatest inventions of the world. Mission burritos are the best. Before I discovered mission burritos I was a frequent visitor to Chipotle. I still love Chipotle burritos.
One day as I was enjoying my delicious burrito I happened to pay attention to their to-go bag which had an essay written on them. As part of "Cultivating Thought", Steve Pinker wrote an excellent piece.
A TWO-MINUTE CASE FOR OPTIMISM
by STEVEN PINKER
It’s easy to get discouraged by the ceaseless news of violence, poverty, and disease. But the news presents a distorted view of the world. News is about things that happen, not things that don’t happen. You never see a TV crew reporting that a country isn’t at war, or that a city hasn’t had a mass shooting that day, or that millions of 80-year-olds are alive and well.
The only way to appreciate that state of the world is to count. How many incidents of violence, or starvation, or disease are there as a proportion of the number of people in the world? And the only way to know whether things are getting better or worse is to compare those numbers at different times: over the centuries and decades, do the trend lines go up or down?
We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naïve to work toward a better one.
As it happens, the numbers tell a surprisingly happy story. Violent crime has fallen by half since 1992, and fiftyfold since the Middle Ages. Over the past 60 years the number of wars and number of people killed in wars have plummeted. Worldwide, fewer babies die, more children go to school, more people live in democracies, more can afford simple luxuries, fewer get sick, and more live to old age.
“Better” does not mean “perfect.” Too many people still live in misery and die prematurely, and new challenges, such as climate change, confront us. But measuring the progress we’ve made in the past emboldens us to strive for more in the future. Problems that look hopeless may not be; human ingenuity can chip away at them. We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naïve to work toward a better one.
Some more good information with facts http://edge.org/conversation/mc2011-history-violence-pinker
Don't let traditional and attention and TRP ratings seeking media influence you into thinking, things are getting worse. The world is becoming violent day-by-day. It's a matter of perspective. With the 24/7 and real time access to information there might be lot of noise some times but it is our responsibility to be informed and listen to the music out of all the chaos and noise. May be sometimes it's not a bad idea to get out of that noisy place and just go have a burrito :)
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