Are we better off or worse off today than in the past? How so, when and why?

brianlux

Go Beavers said:

Thanks for posting this topic. I think it's hugely important and it's something I think about often. My take is that things are better now than they ever have been in the past, except for the stress on the planet. I see people take on a negative outlook, or that they see everything on a downward trend, and then they fall into negative emotions/pessimism. They start then looking for things to confirm that outlook, and they don't see things that oppose it. The thing that bothers me on a larger scale is when leaders and politicians use this negative outlook to manipulate people, sell goods, get votes, etc. "Our country is on a path of destruction unless you vote for me!" Of course, people have been predicting our demise for over 200 years, though. The struggle is balancing the dramatic, anecdotal stories with actual facts. What's happening now, vs. measurable trends over time.

This made me think of something my wife said the other day. It was after the Orlando shooting, and she was really trying to see the positive in people. While I ran into Trader Joe's, she waited in the car. In that short time, she saw strangers being nice to each other randomly: one person dropped their credit card and another person picked it up and chased them down to give it back, another stopped a runaway cart from hitting a parked car, and a third person was helping hold someone's hatch up when they loaded their groceries. These things weren't major, but it points out how when you intentionally shift your focus to the good, you end up seeing the good.

My wife is a good balance for me that way. She is much more optimistic to my more critical view of the world (although I would argue both are essential). She once was accused of being "too nice" when working to mediate a dispute in the group that were members of a booksellers co-op we belonged to. I found the disparate view points to both be useful and the dispute eventually was settled. The accuser and my wife remained good friends.