To those of you with more memory or education than I have...

[averygoodun42]

Is it getting worse out there in the world? To me it seems that since the relative stability of the Cold War ended, everything has been going to pot. Everywhere. I don't think the end of the world is coming really (although 2012 is getting close at hand *wiggles fingers eerily and makes ghostly 'wooooo' sound*), because I do have enough education to see that cycles exist wherein the world gets very cranky and the current leaders try to sort everything out in as violent a way as possible. Only difference this round is that fewer people are dying of gangrene. So far as I know.

But, well, are these times more interesting than they have been in a while? Or am I just being over-sensitive?

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

I think that the perspective from Europe is less gloomy. Bosnia and the balkan question is calming down, Poland and the east europeans are joining the EU and gradually being assimilated into the collective. Turkey is a bit of an issue, but one that we will sort out eventually.

Essentially a lot of things we thought were insoluble ten years ago are settling themselves. THe EU provides a model for how to ocnduct business with other nations that involves sorting out your differences.

Iraq was a cock up. Israel is always an issue in the middle east, but there is movement there as well. Slow and very small, but movement.

Constant nonsense from BUsh abtou the War On Terror just escalate things into being an insoluble problem, when ther are lots of little problems, some of which could be sorted out now.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Actually despite a few perpetual problem areas I think things are generally getting better.

Also, apparently we're getting nicer every day (hope that article is still linked, it was interesting). =)

[timestep.livejournal.com]

There are a few things at work, I believe.

First is the need for the news to always have something "groundbreaking" to report. When you are on 24/7, you need to have new and interesting stories. So, little things become big news story in absence of actually big stories.

Another is that Bush has worked hard to keep the storyline of terrorism in the news so that he would continue to have support for the Iraq War. Yes, Iraq is now in a civil war as a result of the United States breaking apart their government, but Iraq has no incentive to take control themselves because we are not forcing them to take control. It's almost like enabling that deadbeat brother who is still sleeping on your parents couch. For a while I thought we needed to clean up the mess we created, but now I worry that we are not allowing/forcing them to take control and that our presence is only delaying the full blown civil war - I don't think we can prevent it any more.

the last is that there have always been things.

http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm

This is an interesting breakdown of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" song.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

You need to read more of Rob Breszny's pronoia. There are lots of things in the world that are better. The question is reportage. We have a lot more ways of accessing information now than we did ten years ago, among other things. Plus, people profit off fear.

However, the problems have shifted a bit. I was thinking about this when G didn't know about the Berlin Wall. (He was four.) Or the fact that everything is pink ribbons now instead of red.

The nice thing about the Cold War was that problems were largely defined and contained. We are having to go through a period of redefinition and the current administration, much enamoured with Cold War policies, (and much encumbered with Cold War politicians) has needed a great enemy in order to push their programs.

Things are different, but they aren't necessarily worse. You need more nice, loveable, things in your life. This week, I make you an honorary Aquarius:

http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/aquarius.html

[vanityfair00.livejournal.com]

I agree with the news media having a lot to do with the perception that the world is coming apart. On one hand they are freer and we get a better picture of what is really going on. Ie. less censorship than ever before - the press never would have been allowed to report the Iraq war the way they do now before Vietnam. The reason there was such an uproar against the war in Vietnam was because for the first time the American public saw what war really meant. What a quagmire fighting communism really could be.

But people also don't know their history or how to place the events in a historical perspective. Terrorism and communism are not the same thing. At least we are invading countries to overthrow dictators these days rather than invading democracies to install dictators (ie. Chile and Guatemala).

[kribu.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much everything Shiv says. In Europe, things are certainly not looking too bad.

Of course, as an Estonian, I somewhat selfishly think things are far, far better now than they were during the Cold War (and I think most of Eastern Europe would agree with me, apart from Russia - at least big parts of Russia and those who are crying about losing the empire).

There has always been something nasty going on in the world - there's been unrest and fighting going on in the Middle East, Africa, Asia or Latin America as long as I've lived, so I can't say there's really anything new happening now. I do think - from the perspective we have from here - that there seems to be more media-caused (and administration-caused) panic (not a good word really - a constant line of attempts to try to keep people worried if not completely scared?) in the US in the recent years.