The world is so much better than it used to be, and it’s worth defending

In the 1800s and early 1900s, the world was a much more brutal and violent place. Slavery was a thing, the treatment of workers was deplorable, there were many more wars, people had much less access to clean water and sanitation, diseases like tuberculosis and cholera were much more prevalent, there were no laws or protections for children, and so on.<br><br>In the 1960s, things were still very different than they are now. Women were mostly limited to being stay-at-home wives and mothers, there was a war in Vietnam that was very unpopular, the civil rights movement was still a relatively new thing, the US was in the middle of the Cold War, and so on.<br><br>Fast forward to the present day. It’s 2023 and I’m typing this on a phone that can access pretty much all of human knowledge in seconds, while also being able to communicate with anyone in the world essentially instantly. I can get anything I need delivered right to my doorstep in a couple of days, I can eat a wide variety of foods from all over the world, I have access to clean running water, a bed, and a roof over my head, I can see any movie or TV show ever made on my phone, and so on. Plus, women can do any job they want, the US has been at peace for decades, there’s a diverse array of ethnicities and races all around me, LGBTQ+ people have widespread acceptance, and so on.<br><br>Despite all of this, I still see a lot of navel-gazing and complaining about the state of the world. People talk about how the world is ending, how society is crumbling, how things are getting worse all the time, etc.<br><br>I just don’t see it. The world is so much better than it used to be, and it’s worth defending. We’ve made a ton of progress, we’ve learned so much about how to be better to each other, and we still have a long way to go but we’re moving in the right direction. There will always be challenges and problems, but that’s true of anything in life.<br><br>So, fellow chambersors, what are your thoughts? Do you think the world is generally a good place or a bad place? Do you think things are getting better or worse? Do you think we should focus on the problems or celebrate the successes?