Europe’s experiencing the longest hot war since World War II. The war in the Gulf seems to be escalating as we speak. Extremism has been on the rise for years now. Is it actually getting worse or is it simply the fact that we can access information from all four corners of the world so easily as never before?
In recent memory, there was a brief gap of calm in most of the world between the fall of the USSR and 9/11 where it looked like we could go a different, more positive direction. For the rest, every generation thought they lived in the most volatile times. I’m not trying to say it’s delusional necessarily but we have a strong recency bias.
Most folks can’t take this perspective. Despite everything, we’re still in probably the most peaceful time in history. We have the best medicines ever, most caste systems have been done away with in the west. Fucking helicopters.
We’re clearly in the process of bringing caste systems back in the west, it’s getting increasingly hard to access health care or housing even in countries that used to have strong social welfare systems.