20th century was pretty bad. Not that there were any really good centuries throughout human history, but as Mandus acknowledges, the 20th century was pretty horrific globally. Two world wars, mass crimes against humanity, rise of totalitarian regimes, threat of nuclear war, etc.
These elements are still visibly present in today's society but on the whole, western society has it pretty well compared to last century. There has been an increase lately, however, of stories from all media that hypothesis a collapse of western civilization and a terrifying post apocalyptic world. Examples include The Road, Last of Us, World War Z, Oryx and Crake, etc.
Do you think the 21st century will overall be a time of global progress? Or will there be no progress at all? Or will the opposite happen - global catastrophe? Is there any evidence that this century can be better than the last?
Unfortunately, I can't predict the future, but I know that this century (and the others that follow) is/are crucial for humanity. Humanity is approaching a weird situation, but it's us who will decide their fate. We are in danger of self-extinction* due to enviromental damage,pollution, global warming, nuclear war or world war, etc. On the other hand if we manage NOT to kill ourselves, which is not easy (history has proved it to some extent), then we have good prospects for a bright future. So whether 21st century will be bad is up to us.
*Self-extinction is not a threat for this century only. From now on, unless we are cautious, we are in great danger.
•I have found the answer to the universe and everything, but this sign is too small to contain it.
I'm not really looking forward to the development behaviour of the next generation of people when they get to my age (17), perhaps younger. It seems all we have done lately is absorb more drugs, attempt more suicides, commit more crimes and lose virginity at younger levels. Of course, that's on a smaller scale.
I can really only answer on a grand scale with a quote and a video.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
- Albert Einstein
Yes, we are quite demonstrably making significant progress. Here are just a few:
Arab spring - In a few decades I predict the entire Arab world and maybe even Sub-Saharan Africa as well will become functional democracies. As soon as "the winds of change" so to speak start blowing, it's quite difficult to stop them.
European Union - Currently has 28/50 member states and everything points toward eventually every country becoming a member, it has basically guaranteed that the European nations will never wage war against each other again.
United Nations - Call it corrupt or inept if you want, I think you could make a convincing argument for that, it has done wonders for world peace and human rights. In my opinion it is profoundly fucked up that North Korea has been a member for over 20 years even though everybody knows it is the most repressive police state in the world, where human rights are freely disregarded, and I am quite disappointed that the UN seems to be doing nothing at all. Yeah, you could argue they would just start firing nukes at everyone if they felt threatened because they are fucking crazy but are they seriously going to do nothing?
WTO - It's been criticized as favoring rich nations and being undemocratic, and it very well may be, but its pros far outweigh the cons in my opinion. Evidence has continually shown protectionism to be highly damaging to economy and that free trade is better for everybody in the long run. The world GDP has been skyrocketing since 1950, right around the time GATT was established. Also, according to the CIA World Factbook economic growth in the developing countries is higher than in many of the "developed" nations. You can interpret this however you wish, but what it tells me is that everybody is getting richer, and especially with economic phenomena like BRIC, I think by the 22nd century things will be quite different from how they are now, and definitely for the better.
Don't really have patience for any more, this is taking quite a long time. But if you want you can look it up yourself. Colonialism is basically gone, even though it is quite capable of being a positive thing, slavery has been abolished and equality issues like sexism and racism have made some significant progress. Not quite gone yet, but they are fading out. I don't think we will see a repeat of the 20th century any time soon. And to say we are on the verge of a catastrophe is to me absurd. We've never been better.
Along with the things Bridge mentioned, technological advancement usually correlates quite neatly with increases in human well-being. Life expectancy has increased drastically in the last 150 years, modern medicine has saved more people than have died in all of the world's major conflicts, greater stability and quality of commodity production improves health, lifestyle and general social cohesion, etc. For every nefarious application of science there are 100,000 beneficial ones. With that in mind, ALL HAIL GRAPHENE!
Also, if you go by Stephen Pinker's analysis, violence in all its forms has drastically and steadily decreased over the entire span of human history. It's hard to believe, I know, but we're in the best situation that's ever existed for our species and it will likely only get better, if the trend of the last 100,000 years is anything to go by.
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2013, 01:58 PM by Paddy™.)
Technologically and scientifically speaking, we have and continue to make great strides. However, there are major issues still facing humanity before we can pat ourselves on the back for being superior to our ancestors. Human trafficking comes to mind, which is a major problem the world over. The distribution of wealth continues to become more and more skewed as poorer countries are still being deprived of their own natural resources to feed more wealthy counties.
In many countries, women continue to be treated as garbage. Even in wealthy countries, there is still much work to be done. Even more so for non-binary genders.
Slavery may have been abolished in it's more primitive sense in western communities, but it's still alive and well in differentforms in these same countries that pride themselves on being 'above' others.
And still slavery exists in the world:link
And let's not forget that our environment also needs our help.
Have we come a long way? Yes. Are we headed into a utopian society any time soon? Not without exhaustive, pointed efforts to confront these issues.
We have much work to do, and it's best not be get complacent.
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Reasons why 21st century won't be that bad?
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