The state of the world.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Preezy » Wed Jul 10, 2019 8:57 pm

Worry about the stuff you can change, don't let the rest of it darken your day.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by That » Wed Jul 10, 2019 9:27 pm

No, don't look away. Staring into the maelstrom of gooseberry fool that's about to hit the fan is the absolute least you can do. Make yourself sad and angry. Think about the hell the next generation will have to live through. Get radicalised.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Peter Crisp » Wed Jul 10, 2019 9:55 pm

I've never been a fan of social media and I don't use twitter.

I get my news from the BBC and my kindle subscription to The Times and I'm fine with that. As for the planet being in a shitshow then yeah, maybe it is but there's pretty much strawberry float all I can do about it so I vote for the things I can try and change but other than that I tend to just get on with life.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Balladeer » Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:12 pm

Tomous wrote:Well, I certainly feel a lot better having read this thread....

Mostly I’ve taken Polar Bear Café and the Puffin Podcast away from this thread. I’ve done alright!

Granted, tomorrow I’ll wake up saying ‘DOOOOOOOMED’ and bemoaning the state of it all.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Photek » Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:16 pm

As a parent I’m terrified what would will greet my little girl. It’s horrible. I actively avoid reading or hearing/seeing anything about any child dying, Sandy Hook broke me, I’ve never fully recovered, it makes me so angry towards republicans and the right, anger that never manifested in me before.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Sandy » Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:32 pm

Cheeky Devlin wrote:I tend to consider the fact that in the grand, cosmic scale of things none of it matters one jot and that sooner or later the planet will explode, scattering all our atoms across the Universe where we will become part of something else.

I actually find that comforting, because as a species we've built our entire civilisation on the assumption that all our bullshit is somehow important. So whenever the day to day state of the human race gets to me, I reflect on that and I just feel better.

EDIT: I think it's called Optimistic Nihilism. But I may be wrong.


This is pretty much exactly what I do. I just remind myself that we're going to die anyway and everything we ever did or achieved will have been for nothing. No point getting upset about it all.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by That » Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:24 pm



"We don't belong here, Merry. It's too big for us. What can we do in the end? We've got the Shire. Maybe we should go home."

"The fires of Isengard will spread. And the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And... all that was once green and good in this world will be gone. There won't be a Shire, Pippin."

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Garth » Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:28 pm

Think we could send the eagles to grab Trump and throw him into an active volcano?

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by VlaSoul » Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:33 pm

Yo more than all this political gooseberry fool, y'all seen the state of the environment and what trajectory recent studies have shown it's going? gooseberry fool's mad strawberry floated

in response to the OP, I don't think you should look away from it all; it's best to learn about things as well as possible and then use whatever platforms you have available to you to talk about it to spread awareness or to argue with people and persuade them to your side. That's the way I approach it, at least. But it does get tiring, and when you get to that point best thing for it is a cheeky spliff and some netflix

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Tafdolphin » Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:04 am

Photek wrote:As a parent I’m terrified what would will greet my little girl. It’s horrible. I actively avoid reading or hearing/seeing anything about any child dying, Sandy Hook broke me, I’ve never fully recovered, it makes me so angry towards republicans and the right, anger that never manifested in me before.


Me and my wife were never going to have kids but the state of things has just added to our conviction that it's not for us. The state things are, I certainly wouldn't want to introduce a kid to all that.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by OrangeRKN » Thu Jul 11, 2019 10:11 am

Meep wrote:We have the dubious honour to be born into a transitional period in human history. In thirty to forty years capitalism, or at least capitalism as we know it, will have ceased to exist. If we continue growing even at current mediocre rates then the global economy will ballooned to several times the size it is today by the middle of the century. Clearly that is an absurd premise. The planet has reached a point were maintaining an economy that size is physically impossible without collapsing. It would be like saying a fish will grow bigger than the pond it lives in.


We're racing to widen the pond. We're literally on the cusp of a new gold rush into the oceans - the first large scale deep sea mining operation was carried out in 2017, the technology is on our doorstep. 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, and while ecologically we've already impacted it greatly, it remains mostly underexplored and underexploited - except for fishing and as a general waste dump. Deep sea mining will only be the beginning of late-earth ocean exploitation, and while disastrous ecologically it will provide a significant buffer for continued global economic growth.

The race past that point is one outwards into space. We're already living through the transition from state-led space exploration into private, commercial spaceflight, and it's moving quickly (SpaceX was founded in 2002, first reached space in 2008, began surpassing state run efforts in 2015, and is set to start launching people into space this year). In the pursuit of ever increasing mineral wealth, the raw materials that underpin global capitalism, we've stripped the land and are about to ravage the oceans - surely what follows is mining from asteroids and the moon. In thirty to forty years capitalism may well be untenable on Earth alone, exhausted of opportunity. But in that time-frame, it might just have accelerated itself beyond our atmosphere, pushing its inevitable endpoint further out into the future.

Climate change is going to cause huge problems on Earth, impacting hundreds of millions and triggering huge upheavals and instability. Conflict has never been a threat to capitalism itself though. In fact many multinational corporations are set to profit from an increasingly violent world, capable of shielding themselves from most of the negative impacts. A worldwide political descent into fascism is a frightening future, but I don't think one that particularly worries capitalism itself.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Jenuall » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:28 am

I've recommended it before in a previous thread but I think people who are afraid/upset/angry at the current state of the world would do well to read the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

For one thing it is just a really interesting read, but also because it helps to bring some perspective to the current state of the world and how, in many ways, things are not as bad as we think. The 13 fact questions they use at the start of the book are a really good starting point for demonstrating how, for whatever reason, the view of the world that most people have in their head is actually far worse than the reality that surrounds them.

I'm not saying (and the book is also not saying) that we need to ignore the kinds of things that Taf brings up in the OP - these are big, scary situations that we can't ignore or shy away from. But having some wider context and appreciation of the fact that in many hugely important ways the world is marching forward positively is a great comfort, or at least I have found it to be one!

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Peter Crisp » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:33 am

Tafdolphin wrote:
Photek wrote:As a parent I’m terrified what would will greet my little girl. It’s horrible. I actively avoid reading or hearing/seeing anything about any child dying, Sandy Hook broke me, I’ve never fully recovered, it makes me so angry towards republicans and the right, anger that never manifested in me before.


Me and my wife were never going to have kids but the state of things has just added to our conviction that it's not for us. The state things are, I certainly wouldn't want to introduce a kid to all that.


I was going to mention the Star Trek future any kids have to look forward to but then I remembered we have to go through WW3 first where everyone's a drugged up fashion disaster so yeah, maybe not having kids is a good idea.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_III

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Tafdolphin » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:38 am

Jenuall wrote:I've recommended it before in a previous thread but I think people who are afraid/upset/angry at the current state of the world would do well to read the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

For one thing it is just a really interesting read, but also because it helps to bring some perspective to the current state of the world and how, in many ways, things are not as bad as we think. The 13 fact questions they use at the start of the book are a really good starting point for demonstrating how, for whatever reason, the view of the world that most people have in their head is actually far worse than the reality that surrounds them.

I'm not saying (and the book is also not saying) that we need to ignore the kinds of things that Taf brings up in the OP - these are big, scary situations that we can't ignore or shy away from. But having some wider context and appreciation of the fact that in many hugely important ways the world is marching forward positively is a great comfort, or at least I have found it to be one!



Just grabbed Factfulness but this is a rather damning extract from Rosling's wiki article:

In a detailed review-article on Rosling's book Factfulness,[40] titled The One-Sided Worldview of Hans Rosling[41] Christian Berggren, a Swedish professor of industrial management, finds that Factfulness, despite substantial merits, “presents a highly biased sample of statistics as the true perspective on global development, avoids analysis of negative trends, and refrains from discussing difficult issues”


My wife is involved in several think tanks studying and analysing theories on the future state of western society and one of their main findings/points of discussion is that technology is not advancing at a rate that is anywhere near the level needed to prolong our current economic and social state for any significant length of time. So-called advancements, often represented by the electric car, are simply a way of kicking the can down the road whilst the real sources for concern, in this specific case the increasing rarity of precious metals required to create the technology, are dismissed or glossed over. I haven't read Rosling yet, but it looks like he's very much a 'tech will save us' type of guy which, apparently, simply isn't the case.

Last edited by Tafdolphin on Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PostRe: The state of the world.
by OrangeRKN » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:43 am

I got 12/13 Jen this didn't help at all ;)

Question 11 about endangered species is awful. It seems designed to make you feel better and not worry so much about species going extinct, but it does so by singling out 3 high profile large mammals that have been the poster children of conservation. The trend in those three species does not accurately reflect the overall trend across all species.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by False » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:44 am

well yeah

its literally sold as a book that shows how things arent as bad as they might appear

why would they fill it with grim gooseberry fool that depresses you

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Jenuall » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:48 am

Tafdolphin wrote:
Jenuall wrote:I've recommended it before in a previous thread but I think people who are afraid/upset/angry at the current state of the world would do well to read the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

For one thing it is just a really interesting read, but also because it helps to bring some perspective to the current state of the world and how, in many ways, things are not as bad as we think. The 13 fact questions they use at the start of the book are a really good starting point for demonstrating how, for whatever reason, the view of the world that most people have in their head is actually far worse than the reality that surrounds them.

I'm not saying (and the book is also not saying) that we need to ignore the kinds of things that Taf brings up in the OP - these are big, scary situations that we can't ignore or shy away from. But having some wider context and appreciation of the fact that in many hugely important ways the world is marching forward positively is a great comfort, or at least I have found it to be one!



Just grabbed Factfulness but this is a rather damning extract from Rosling's wiki article:

In a detailed review-article on Rosling's book Factfulness,[40] titled The One-Sided Worldview of Hans Rosling[41] Christian Berggren, a Swedish professor of industrial management, finds that Factfulness, despite substantial merits, “presents a highly biased sample of statistics as the true perspective on global development, avoids analysis of negative trends, and refrains from discussing difficult issues”

Yeah it has had it's fair share of criticism, some more valid than others. The main issue I have is that the book largely ignores climate based issues which is a shame. But that the book doesn't tackle one (admittedly very important!) area shouldn't undermine the areas that it does tackle (it centres more on population and living conditions)

The book uses plenty of reliable sources for its data (UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO etc.), but there may well be other sources out there with conflicting perspectives. I don't think they can be accused of cherry picking or seeking out obscure sources that align with their views but admittedly I haven't put the leg work in to check this out in any great depth.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Tafdolphin » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:48 am

False wrote:well yeah

its literally sold as a book that shows how things arent as bad as they might appear

why would they fill it with grim gooseberry fool that depresses you

Because to those wanting to engage with the state of the world a manufactured sense of wellbeing based on biased facts is useless.

I mean, it's great for those who want to be told everything's going to be ok I suppose.

I'm going to shut up and actually read it now though.

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Jenuall » Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:53 am

OrangeRKN wrote:I got 12/13 Jen this didn't help at all ;)

Question 11 about endangered species is awful. It seems designed to make you feel better and not worry so much about species going extinct, but it does so by singling out 3 high profile large mammals that have been the poster children of conservation. The trend in those three species does not accurately reflect the overall trend across all species.

A valid point, and I would agree that is one of the weaker questions, but the test is about general perception.

I got 11/13 when I first did it myself but the test has been taken by many thousands of people who have demonstrated that in general people believe the world is more gooseberry fool than it actually is, and that things are getting worse when they are actually getting better. Again this is not about absolutes - there will be many things that are getting worse, either as a temporary blip or a more worrying long term decline. But the existence of counter examples does not negate the value in pointing out the initial thesis - that stuff most people think is bad is actually not so bad!

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PostRe: The state of the world.
by Denster » Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:22 pm

I think if you don't want kids that's cool. Many people don't. If your sole reason for not having them is because the world is too evil or bad to raise them in - that's pretty ridiculous. It's a hysterical reaction to a world where so many great things are available now and so many of the doom and gloom scenarios won't affect you or your kids in the slightest.

Last edited by Denster on Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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