2016: A Damnable Year

I mean in general; not just in this thread, because there's been a fair bit of it in the US Politics thread too. Though even here, it's less due to what the news actually is, and moreso how some of us react to it, and I think we could all watch ourselves a bit on that front.

edited 31st Jul '16 5:33:58 PM by kkhohoho

@khokoho: My outlook is not disimilar to that of various experts when in comes to the likelihood of human extinction over the course of the 21st century, about 10-20%. Not inevitable or even a likely outcome, but sufficiently concerning that the existential risk advanced technology poses if misused cannot be ignored, and given a failure to properly convey the (long term) urgency of some such issues (climate change being chief among them) is likely to increase the danger such issues pose considerably, it is prudent to take whatever precautions are feasible at this time to avoid the worst eventualities.

Insofar as that relates to 2016, while nuclear war still seems fairly remote, it would take very little for tensions to return to the peak of the cold war, and at that point, a renewed arms race is all but inevitable. That's something that absolutely could happen in the relatively near future; the catalyst for such tensions in fact could happen at any moment, during this particular year even.

edited 31st Jul '16 5:36:46 PM by CaptainCapsase

Most likely in the Korean sea.

It's most likely that Russia and China would fight against each other than the rest of the countries of the world, the economy has become such a cornerstone of modern society that any act that would destabilse it would be a big no-no. Of course, that carries the sad implication that now war will always come from the poorer countries rather than the richer ones since they have little to lose compared to the neighbours ,which is, in a sense, what is happening in the Middle East.

Just because you've got a point doesn't mean you have to reiterate it 24/7. Not all of us want to hear about how the world could end, especially ad nauseum. After a while, it just becomes more annoying than insightful, no offense.

edited 31st Jul '16 5:47:45 PM by kkhohoho

I think the issue is more that very few people take such a long view as I tend to do. To be completely honest, I don't really care about any particular nation (my own included) except insofar as it effects the greater human species.

I've taken the long view. Maybe not as much as you seem to, but I have. I know of the potential outcomes that could threaten not just mankind but all of existence, and I'm aware of what a regressive or even apocalyptic direction our world could take. But I do my best not to dwell on it or reiterate it, and do you know why? Because it's fricking depressing, that's why, and doing so doesn't get anything done. Instead, I keep it in the back of my mind, being vaguely aware of it while not letting it become a daily part of my life, and also looking ahead to a hopeful future rather than a dismal one. But people like you make that mute, because when keep you on stating the obvious, then there's not much anyone can do but focus on it.

I don't want to feel depressed. I don't want to feel like everything we do is hopeless. I want to believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But when someone continues to doomsay, that becomes a mite harder to do.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:20:37 PM by kkhohoho

That's called denial. Then again, it's what keeps mankind as a whole alive. If we all realized the truth we'd have blown ourselves long ago. So keep it up, then.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:18:46 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Thanks.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:21:54 PM by kkhohoho

Ironically, when I *do* feel depressed, which is fairly often especially lately, trying to cheer me up just makes me feel worse since it almost never fails to ring hollow and foolish, while going deeper down eventually cheers me up, if only because it makes me see things in perspective again.

@Napolean: Denial isn't the only way to cope with the unpleasant realities of the world. Acceptance of our own insignificant place in the cosmos and the fleeting nature of life is, in my opinion far healthier.

Of course, if we truly are insignificant, meaningless and thus pointless, so are concepts as 'healthy' and 'unhealthy'.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:37:38 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Pointless for you if you consider them to be pointless; existentialism is in that sense liberating since, although nothing matters except as we value it, the converse is also true: what we value is all that matters.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:55:35 PM by CaptainCapsase

Oh, I've accepted it. But just because I've accepted it doesn't mean I want to think about it, and just because I've come to terms with the dark underbelly of our existence doesn't mean I'm at peace. If anything, it just makes me even more depressed. So if being able to put all of that aside and just get one with my life means that I'm in denial, then so be it.

edited 31st Jul '16 6:56:04 PM by kkhohoho

I'd say being able to discuss such dark matters without becoming unduly distressed is the real mark of acceptance in my eyes,.

Alright; I'm aware of them, if nothing else. But again, I'd still like to go on as if I weren't.

Pointless for you if you consider them to be pointless; existentialism is in that sense liberating since, although nothing matters except as we value it, the converse is also true: what we value is all that matters.

What a pointless thing to say.

edited 31st Jul '16 7:09:49 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

I think about the long view all the time. But that is not for this thread. You want to talk about that, make your own thread to discuss it.

I say we just close this topic altogether.

No. There is an actual discussion going on here, that keeps getting sidelined. I'll get it going again.

Where is the next military hotspot, as in within the next few years?

If it isn't still Iraq and Syria, probably West Africa or Pakistan.

edited 31st Jul '16 8:15:36 PM by Bat178

Why? And yes I meant places not already on fire.

How is Central Asia looking these days, aside from Afghanistan? Always thought we might have a flare up there at some point..

There is still big Islamist problems in West Africa, and tensions in Kashmir have been flaring.

Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary there at the moment. There was a attack in Kazakhstan a few weeks ago, but that's been the only news of anything there recently besides 2 of the Istanbul airport attackers being from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan respectively. Also, Afghanistan is part of South Asia (Which does have a lot of problems right now, like the above Kashmir tensions), not Central Asia (Though it could also be considered part of it).

edited 1st Aug '16 12:31:57 AM by Bat178

Kashmir is always flaring. Pakistan is also too distracted for a war with India. India, for its part, never starts it. Simply finishes it.

As for Central Asia, Tajikistan should be paid attention to. The president there is grooming is son to succeed him, and unlike the other former Soviet stans, they aren't doing too good in terms of stability.

As stated in Brad Bird's Tomorrowland (not a great film, but it has a good point to make) humanity's efforts to avert catastrophe and actually improve it's lot don't get a lot of media coverage. Thus we don't hear much about the fact that they've discovered methods of producing petroleum from algae, or of embedding solar cells into glass that can be used as road paving, thus using a parking lot to generate electricity for the building it's attached to.

As to politics...well, got nothing there. Wars and rumors of wars. But that's the way it's always been, and, as has been stated, there have been worse years. We live in a 24 hour news cycle, though, and good news doesn't make a lot of money. Despite fears about the rise of violent crime in the US that gets blasted all over the news, what Americans don't realize, and certainly don't get told, is that violent crime, even with the recent spate of mass shootings, has actually gone down over the last decade. What we do get is just more dramatic.

We're in no more real danger than we've been for most of the last 80 years or so. We're just more keenly aware of what danger we ARE in.

edited 1st Aug '16 9:55:47 AM by Robbery