this ain't no golden age (was RE: [thechat] Judge throws out hype rlink lawsuit)

[Joel Canfield]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> > >>Sometimes, I wonder which century we live in...
> > > the optimist (and cynic) in me says an early one...
> > >
> > > the pessimist says one of our last...
> > >
> > > the realist says it doesn't matter...
> >
> > I question whether it *is* worse ( or better), or whether
> it *seems*
> > worse ( or better) because we know so much more of the world.
[ . . . ]
> I'm firmly of the
> opinion that shit has always happened with only small degrees
> of variation - there never was a true golden age. These days,
> we know about it better, so it's perceived to be worse than
> it ever was.

Well, if 'golden age' means 'nothing ever went wrong', true enough. But
'small degrees of variation'? I think not.

Life *was* different in the past. Yes, there were certainly eras and areas
where things were pretty nasty, but according to historians, never anything
like the deterioration we've seen in human society since the beginning of
WWI in 1914. It's an area in which I've done just a bit of research:

H. G. Wells (1931, commenting on life since 1914): "Gladly would the prophet
prophesy pleasant things. But his duty is to tell what he sees. He sees a
world still firmly controlled by soldiers, patriots, usurers, and financial
adventurers; a world surrendered to suspicion and hatred, losing what is
left of private liberties very rapidly, blundering toward bitter class
conflicts, and preparing for new wars."

Bertrand Russell (1953): "Ever since 1914, everybody conscious of trends in
the world has been deeply troubled by what has seemed like a fated and
predetermined march toward ever greater disaster. . . . They see the human
race, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, driven on by angry gods and no
longer the master of fate."

Harold Macmillan (1980): "Everything would get better and better. This was
the world I was born in. . . . Suddenly, unexpectedly, one morning in 1914
the whole thing came to an end."

Maurice Genevoix, member of the Académie Française, quoted in the book
Promise of Greatness (1968): "Everyone agrees in recognizing that in the
whole history of mankind, few dates have had the importance of August 2,
1914. First Europe and soon after almost all humanity found themselves
plunged into a dreadful event. Conventions, agreements, moral laws, all the
foundations shook; from one day to the next, everything was called into
question. The event was to exceed both instinctive forebodings and
reasonable anticipations. Enormous, chaotic, monstrous, it still drags us in
its wake."

Dr. Walker Percy, American Medical News, November 21, 1977: "The whole world
really blew up about World War I and we still don't know why. Before then,
men thought that utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then
everything blew up. We've been in a state of suspended animation ever since
. . . More people have been killed in this century than in all of history."

Konrad Adenauer, in 'The West Parker', Cleveland, Ohio, January 20, 1966:
"Security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914."

No, it's *not* just that communication is better so we hear about the bad
stuff more. Talk to a couple dozen people over the age of 60 or 70. You'll
get a consistently different picture of life; rural, city,  whatever country
you're in. An interesting comparison of two surveys taken in US schools, one
in 1940, the other in 1982, regarding the top disciplinary problems:

1940:
(1) talking, (2) chewing gum, (3) making noise, (4) running in the halls,
(5) getting out of turn in line, (6) wearing improper clothing, and (7) not
putting paper in wastebaskets.

1982:
(1) rape, (2) robbery, (3) assault, (4) burglary, (5) arson, (6) bombings,
(7) murder, (8) suicide, (9) absenteeism, (10) vandalism, (11) extortion,
(12) drug abuse, (13) alcohol abuse, (14) gang warfare, (15) pregnancy, (16)
abortion, and (17) venereal disease.

No, things haven't always been this way, and they *are* getting worse.

joel