While I agree almost totally with you on PROGRESS and OPTIMISM , please indulge me as I have to take issue with you on these two points :
"But do not blame the media alone." I don't blame the "media" ALONE but they are the primary distributors and amplifiers of ALL and ANY bad news ! If nothing "sufficiently bad to be news-worthy" has occurred today then they will dredge up horrendous stories from the past OR they will import stories from elsewhere on the planet and report it as though it were totally relevant to the communities in which it is NOT occurring ! The continuous exposure to terrible human behaviour and to ghastly catastrophes tends to skew public opinion AWAY from the pleasant reality that MOST people enjoy each day ; and I am sure that this negativity causes our sensitive younger people to believe that THEIR WORLD is in crisis and is deteriorating and becoming WORSE and possibly it induces the increase in fear , anxiety and mental illness that so many seem to be exhibiting ! AND IT IS SO INACCURATE and SO UNNECESSARY !
Regrettably , I attribute the MAIN CAUSE for this pessimism to the [ so called] education system and the CURRICULA which do little or nothing to educate or portray REALITY and which seems to be more intent on producing miserable , unhappy , ungrateful and incompetent "activists" than the well-rounded , competent , optimistic employable graduates of previous generations !
"Humans evolved to prioritize bad news " Um.......no.......not exactly ! Humans evolved to detect threats and react to them , not bad news per se , although if the threat was not perceived and acted upon successfully then the "bad news" would probably follow ! Splitting-hairs you may say , but I think there is an important distinction between the two ! Avoiding a threat or successfully countering a threat SHOULD result in "good news" ........and in continuing life and liberty , but "running away and hiding" or "narrowly escaping from a threat" does not carry the same weight as " man devoured by tiger" in the HEADLINES.......but it should ! Why should failure get rated higher than success? Why ? Because that is the twisted logic that SELLS NEWSPAPERS !
All those traditional "fairy stories" and "children's nursery rhymes" were ways of portraying means of overcoming adversity and reinforcing resilience and promoting success which have now been mostly "quashed" as 'politically incorrect' and now children are rendered weak and vulnerable and sadly , portrayed as victims more often than not ! No more fictional heroes like "Biggles" and real-life heroes like "George S Patton"........because they are not "perfect" ......like their virtuous critics !!!
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Apart from that , YES ! The world has NEVER BEEN BETTER , and , it keeps improving DESPITE THE DESTRUCTIVE INDOCTRINATION and the FALSE , LOUSY MEDIA DEPICTIONS of it !
You "optimists" have a lot to answer for Marian ............thank goodness ! Regards , Trevor.
Marian , and another HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO !
While I agree almost totally with you on PROGRESS and OPTIMISM , please indulge me as I have to take issue with you on these two points :
"But do not blame the media alone." I don't blame the "media" ALONE but they are the primary distributors and amplifiers of ALL and ANY bad news ! If nothing "sufficiently bad to be news-worthy" has occurred today then they will dredge up horrendous stories from the past OR they will import stories from elsewhere on the planet and report it as though it were totally relevant to the communities in which it is NOT occurring ! The continuous exposure to terrible human behaviour and to ghastly catastrophes tends to skew public opinion AWAY from the pleasant reality that MOST people enjoy each day ; and I am sure that this negativity causes our sensitive younger people to believe that THEIR WORLD is in crisis and is deteriorating and becoming WORSE and possibly it induces the increase in fear , anxiety and mental illness that so many seem to be exhibiting ! AND IT IS SO INACCURATE and SO UNNECESSARY !
Regrettably , I attribute the MAIN CAUSE for this pessimism to the [ so called] education system and the CURRICULA which do little or nothing to educate or portray REALITY and which seems to be more intent on producing miserable , unhappy , ungrateful and incompetent "activists" than the well-rounded , competent , optimistic employable graduates of previous generations !
"Humans evolved to prioritize bad news " Um.......no.......not exactly ! Humans evolved to detect threats and react to them , not bad news per se , although if the threat was not perceived and acted upon successfully then the "bad news" would probably follow ! Splitting-hairs you may say , but I think there is an important distinction between the two ! Avoiding a threat or successfully countering a threat SHOULD result in "good news" ........and in continuing life and liberty , but "running away and hiding" or "narrowly escaping from a threat" does not carry the same weight as " man devoured by tiger" in the HEADLINES.......but it should ! Why should failure get rated higher than success? Why ? Because that is the twisted logic that SELLS NEWSPAPERS !
All those traditional "fairy stories" and "children's nursery rhymes" were ways of portraying means of overcoming adversity and reinforcing resilience and promoting success which have now been mostly "quashed" as 'politically incorrect' and now children are rendered weak and vulnerable and sadly , portrayed as victims more often than not ! No more fictional heroes like "Biggles" and real-life heroes like "George S Patton"........because they are not "perfect" ......like their virtuous critics !!!
.
Apart from that , YES ! The world has NEVER BEEN BETTER , and , it keeps improving DESPITE THE DESTRUCTIVE INDOCTRINATION and the FALSE , LOUSY MEDIA DEPICTIONS of it !
You "optimists" have a lot to answer for Marian ............thank goodness ! Regards , Trevor.
Marian, a wonderful thing to be "the Cato Institute’s resident optimist"
As you know, optimism is realism!
Time for Fleetwood Mac? Don't stop thinking about tomorrow?
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! Keep up the good and optimistic work! :-)
Will buy the book, hard cover, please.