by Open mind 31 Replies latest social current
I believe we are. I am very disturbed about the destruction of the planet. I don't even need to go into detail about green house effect and climate change, overpopulation, deforestation, toxins, disease, etc.
I won't even get into politics and religion.
The human race is in trouble and I hope we can get a handle on it.
LHG
Not too long ago I heard the Dalai Lama speak. I was very impressed by his optimism (and realism- but thats another thread). He took questions from the audience and one was- Do you think that the world is getting better or worse? He said without hesitation- better. And he said that in speaking to other world leaders (he mentioned the Queen of England) they felt similarly. His reason for thinking this was that in his life experience there seemed to be less and less tolerance for violence as a way of solving problems. He mentioned Iraq as an example. Rarely, he said, do you see over 50% of a country against the policies of the president and a groundswell against violence. But that seems to happen more and more often.
I was impressed, because religious leaders usually have a vested interest in making things look worse and worse. (If your life doesn't suck, you dont need religion.) This is similar to the profit motive that cable news channels have for making the world seem more and more dangerous (if you're scared, you'll keep watching, and they can keep billing the advertisers.)
Regarding the last days- if these are then mankind should have figured out how to get here sooner, because the last days are the best mankind has ever had. Advances in medical knowledge make us live longer and better than ever before (100 years ago many women and children died in childbirth- just one example). We have so many comforts that we can focus on ideas for most of our lives. The main new industries of developed countries are "idea based" (websites, software, hedge funds, securities, etc.). Science has progressed to the point that we can predict the next global disaster (climate change) and work on preventing it. We can predict the next "Spanish Flu" and start working on a vaccine now. And- everyone's favorite- advanced worldwide communications have made it difficult or impossible to continue enslaving people with backwards, totalitarian belief systems.
My 2 cents.
