RE: Something inside, understanding myself better
I do not know if I can fully agree with the fact that we are changing for the better, at least not fast. Life quality and education yes, but how we act towards each other is different, there is still awful amount of poverty, violence and hunger that a lot of people do not notice because they are in the middle of evolving society. It is hard to believe that there are countries full of children living under bridges and without parents. There are countless countries where human rights are not taken seriously. And we, the people in the more developed countries may be living in the middle of a change, but there is always change. We still waste more food than we eat, we still talk behind each others backs and children still laugh of each other not realizing they hurt each other, schools still try to make birds out of fishes. We may say that we take care of our nature, but there is not a real sense of connection with it.
And yet again, more intelligent people are born every day, I like to think that we help each other more, that we do have compassion that will not be extinguished by borders. Races matter less and people are starting to realize that there is no difference between different skin colors. There is hope for less ignorant people and a hope for more open minded persons. Hope that opinions will not be shut down, just because one person does not agree with them.
Its about perspective. If you view it from they 1 year perspective or the "inthenow" perspective then its not fast at all. Its horrible to see how we still treat each other and theres still plenty of inequality in this word such as you describe it. But if we are looking at a bigger perspective and compare it to other timeframes in history it is moving exponentially faster. If you for example take a time period of 1200-1900 it might seem like nothing compared to for example 1920-2017 when it comes to the speed of change for the better.
That is 700 years of history compared to 97 years of history and in those 97 years more has happened for equality then in the other 700 mentioned. This is what I mean with "exponentially faster". This does not mean we should just sit back and watch it happen, it is because more and more ask and work for the change that it is happening. But it is as I said previously also very much due to computing evolving according to an exponential curve doubling in power every second year (Moores law), making technological progress exponentially growing.
I also think that in the west we might not see a revolution like the french back in 1848 again, but rather we might be already taking part in it with blockchain technology and ai/robotics.
Then again, its easier for me to look at the big picture when its external...my own internal world is in turmoil and seeing the big picture there...well thats at times impossible.
I just like discussing existentialism and humanism. :)
Haha, yeah, technologically we have evolved a lot in the last years, I totally agree with that part.
I think there are a lot of things that a lot of people do not do only because we know more and we have access to more info. The society has built a system to detect when somebody does something unethical, so people just hide it better and are afraid to do something, even though some serial killers and pedophiles slip through the cracks once in a while.
Equality is a new thing, but cave-women probably did not care about it as they were happy to be protected from predators and their instincts did not scream that there was something wrong, that happened gradually, the wish for us women to be seen as equals.
I do not think the last hundreds of years have changed our nature that much, though. Education, yes. Hygiene, yes. Societies views of what is good and bad, yes. But not our nature and preferences.
I feel like this is going to turn into an existential discussion :D
Its not just about revealing unethicall behaviour though. New information that promotes progress have a far wider reach today then just 20 years back. Theres a shift going on at a speed previously unimagined.
For example, in approxiamtely around 1950 there was a study ”revealing” that fat was a primary culprit to heart disease, turns out this is not the case and that carbs is one of the main reasons and a decrease in fat consumption can actually be contributing to this. The last 15 years this has come to surface at a rapid speed. Thoose who gains from for example diabetes medication tries to fight this new revelation but the ones advocating fat is gaining grounds due to science backing them empirically but primarily due to the amazing power behind spreading the word online.
The study in the 1950 advocating the fat scare was actually poorly done and would not have held its ground if it hade seen the light today for that long. Theese are some of the positive changes made due to the spread through social medias and the internet being public domain.
Another good example would be the #metoo movement that would not have came out into the light with souch force if it where not for social media/internet.
Just a thought on equality, when I speak of equality I do not mean it just from a feministic standpoint but also when it comes to redistribution of wealth and social security.
There is still emense unequality in the world, at times the cracks are widening, but in the long run I believe the rift between poverty and wealth will be bridged and get much closer then it is today.
As for the change of the human nature, thats a much slover process indeed. For us to catch up to this rapid change happening around us will take time. But due to the technologicall progress thats happening in this time and era it will have a turbo boosted effect on us as well. We are still in its infacy. In a way, social media/internet has brought us both closer and farther away from eachother, but that gap will close when we look up from our screens and embrace the world around us aswell as the world beyond our reach that we interact with online.
I hope it will happen in our lifetime, a visible chance in human nature and the world outlook of humans altogether.
P.S I am a little drained, so I am not so long in my answer, but I agree with most of your arguments on some levels, I just am not swayed towards one opinion more than another, I am going to see it with time and act accordingly, try harder when pushed and even when not. As long as we care, there will be a better future :)