How great or crappy do you think the world is?

I think since 2000 alot of us millenials and other era groups have seen a lot of awful things happen in the last decade or so.With that in mind we also have seen good things like Osama Bin Laden finally being killed.But how crappy or great do you feel the current state of the world.

We've been sliding downhill since 2000. On the other hand, the world is better than it was at any point before 1990.

Get me my big red button. :P

Doing just fine, improving slowly, and still has room for lots of improvement.

Even with all the problems of the world today, the world as a whole has been better in the last 20 years then it has been at any other point in the history of civilization.

It's better then it ever has been. There's room for improvement and challenges which must be faced, but we remain steadfast and on the rise.

Of course, for many, it's still terrible; but they can grow and rise, just other nations have already done.

Technology wise, things are awesome.

Environmentally, politically, and economically, things suck.

How crappy is the world compared to what? There's only one known planet to support life: Earth. That means that this world is the absolutely best world available by default.

edited 30th Jul '11 9:40:51 PM by Grain

For me, personally? It's ok, I guess. The world as a whole? Crapsack World, definitely. Africa, parts of Asia and Central/South America, and everywhere with a high density of poor people rate as Dystopia. Speaking from an American perspective, I would say the greatest decade of the last 200 years was the 1940s, but that would definitely not hold true for everyone. Second place would have to be the 1990s. Currently, though, the world is shit, and it's on the edge of even deeper shit, if that were even possible.

Of all the examples of "good things" you pick the killing of Osama bin Laden? Kind of bloodthirsty, yeah?

On topic: The world is better than ever. Many people are working hard against that progress, though.

edited 30th Jul '11 9:46:03 PM by sketch162000

I'm inclined to say that was the high water mark of the year so far, but I'm American, so I'm biased.

Quite objectively, things are orders of magnitude better now than they ever have been.

I love the whole world

It's such a brilliant place :D

edited 30th Jul '11 9:57:21 PM by SoberIrishman

When you try to improve the world, you also find new ways in which it sucks. In other words, the world ALWAYS sucks, but we are also always improving it. The goalposts of how it sucks simply changes.

Boom de-yadda boom de-yadda boom de-yadda boom de-yadda!

It depends how you choose to see it, really. I'm inclined to post this link.

Well, I'll put it this way— I have absolutely zero nostalgia. I'd rather die than go back in time to live in any other point in the world's history. The world is deeply and inherently flawed, but by my standards, it's less crappy than it's ever been.

Improving, more or less. I'd say its slid back towards the crappy times in the last decade in the West, but everywhere else things are forging on.

I'd say it was ok but I might edit this post next month.

I'm currently taking a medicine that was approved barely more than a decade ago, and that's only prescribed when three other medicines fail to treat my condition (an immune disorder.) I have been told that I might have died without it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a lot better off than I would have been a little over a decade ago.

edited 31st Jul '11 3:19:07 AM by feotakahari

Meh, it could be worst.

Overall the world is improving. Its just sort of a one step forward, two steps back situation because any serious gains politically or culturally tend to be backlashed by paranoid reactionaries.

edited 31st Jul '11 5:31:24 AM by Midgetsnowman

I guess this boils down to three basic questions. “How nice/awful is it,” “what are the chances of awesome stuff happening,” and “how likely are we to blow it up.”

On the former, the number of dictatorships is at an all-time low (the Arab Spring is pretty incredible, but nothing to write home about in my opinion until real gains in public rights and security over the prior status quo materialize and stay for… At least 5 years,) though there's still a shocking number of low-level wars going on in the usual hotspots (Africa, East Asia, and South America to a lesser degree.) The real issue here is prosperity. The industrial economy of the 1st world has been gutted by offshoring, while the 2nd world was basically plundered by cartel capitalism when the iron curtain fell, and the 3rd world's economic growth has come at the price of rampant famine and questionable influence on quality of life. Today is probably the final gasp for white collar jobs before they're all offshored, so it'll be interesting to see what effect that will have on scientific progress and 3rd world politics.

On the middle one, interest in science is at all-time lows, with R&D spending at a pathetic global (private-public combined) average of 1.4% GDP, and spending in “blue sky” areas collapsing. That said, of current science spending, medicine seems to be getting the lion's share, with the US concentrating half of nonmilitary R&D in it.

On the latter, the risks of nuclear war are (mostly) gone, so that's a plus, but now there's the threat of climate change. I feel the related threat of energy exhaustion is often overstated. Fact of the matter is, the main source of energy from fossil fuel has always been coal, and since peak coal isn't projected for centuries (coal exhaustion centuries more) then we'll still have a golden opportunity to do absolutely nothing. And if there's one thing humanity is good at, it's milking a “good enough” solution as long as it can possibly last.

Given peak oil, the way the transport industry has drug its heels on electrification, and the electrical industry on sustainability, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if liquified coal was the dominant fuel in 50 years, but hopefully that won't be the case.

Compared to what?

Anyway, due to sheep numbers of people and interconnected state of present world, it is better - and worse - than it ever been.

Also, this

edited 31st Jul '11 5:44:18 AM by Beholderess

I'm really not sure.