This essay by Steven Pinker is counterintuitive (to me, at least), but illustrates how the combination of fear-based media saturation and a predilection to see the glass as half empty can lead us to fundamentally misperceive reality.
As humans, we have an odd tendency to assume that our world is getting worse every year and that armageddon is just around the corner. But actually, in almost every way it's safer and more fulfilling to be a human being today than it has ever been.
Imagine how much less crazy our lives and our politics might be if we actually understood that.
P.
3 comments:
I keep trying to convince people this is true, but they not only don't see it, they seem to resist seeing it.
I think we tend to judge the arc of human existence by the arc of our lives. Things were fabulous way back in olden times, when we were infants. No cares, no responsibilities. It was paradise. Now, as adults, we have all sorts of crap to deal with. Clearly, things are worse—EVERYTHING is worse. Right? No.
I agree. We all tend to see the past through rose-colored glasses. I think it relates to the fact that we're wired to remember pleasure more than pain.
For me, the past always seems worse. When I was a small child, we couldn't stay in some hotels - the good ones - because we were Jews. When I was in grammar school, people dumped garbage on our front lawn because we were Jews and they didn't want us to move into their town.
When I was in highschool, a girl I went out was beaten by her father because she had defiled her family's name by going out with me.
Sure, some things might not be as good now, but ask any Jew, or black, or homosexual if things were better fifty years ago, I don't expect many will say "Yes". .
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