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by eowln 42 days ago
Practically all the ills we suffer currently are depressing manifestations of an aging society.

That, and the lack of real issues to solve.

2 comments

Without thinking too hard I can name a few?

The rise of authoritarianism? Inequality? Revival of geopolitical "realism"? Decrease in empathy and holistic thinking? Increasing willingness of the general population to engage in political adventurism? Accelerating resource consumption (and decelerating resource stocks).

And if you consider none of those "real" problems, I know some people seem to have forgotten about it, but what about climate change? Given the half-life of CO2 and methane, that's a problem as "real" as they get.

There's also a worrying trend of education getting less effective across the first world.
If only we were all privileged enough to believe that the problems in the world today weren't real.
There are real problems and they are huge but the solutions to them are very unpopular. So that's why political parties resort to this kind of distraction politics. Blaming immigrants, LGBT people etc. Or simply causing other problems by bombing random countries for no reason.

Because nobody wants to limit the big corporations polluting the world and exploiting the population, tackle climate change with more than some hollow measures. Because people will be annoyed when it affects them and that means political suicide.

So they manufacture other problems, ones they can control and point the blame to groups that have little voting power.

I was talking about the first world. And yes, I think most if not all of the problems in the first world are gratuitously self-inflicted.
Even if that were true (it isn't) you would want to consider the systemic issues that background self-sabotage.
Where is the cushy insulated bubble you're living? Can I join?