My Favorite Blog Post(s)

Here are my two personal favorite posts but please check out the others too...



Sunday, October 23, 2011

Everything is getting better, and people fear for the worst


I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher today with my family, and one of the guests, Penn Jillette, made a fantastic point. He claimed that, "Everything is getting better, but everyone thinks it's getting worse." Although Jillette is a comedian, he is completely correct.



Now, take a look at the graph below from the Millenium Project, which takes and analyzes data from the past century and tries to predict future statistics. In every single category, you see a noticeable improvement currently and even educated predictions of upcoming improvements. From literacy to infant mortality, it's obvious that we are on the right track. So why is it that everyone thinks the apocalypse is coming?

So, other than debt way to go world leaders
The reason we think this way is because of all the nonsense we see when we turn on the television: unrest in the middle-east, debts and deficits, huge disagreements between Republicans and Democrats nearly polarizing the nation, famine, natural disasters, murders, you name it- everything awful that is going on in the world is surely going to be documented and force-fed to the public. Americans have a secret obsession with fear and hate. It's not interesting to them to find out the improved population growth worldwide. Americans would rather watch Tsunamis strike terror, and hear about the deficit so they can bark about Obama's job. In order to make money, news channels seek and broadcast these thing to make money, as opposed to accurately documenting the world's condition as a whole.

To me, it's what news doesn't show us that matters the most. Sure, you can always point out terrifying and awful things happening in 2011; but compare present day to 2 centuries ago. 2 centuries ago we had no reliable form of birth control, 1% of the medicine we have today, an extremely low literacy rate, among countless other categories. The world is becoming a better place, slowly but surely and I'm glad we live in this time. Here's some Beatles to lighten the mood.--------->
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 24, 2011 at 7:48 AM

    Nice post - very true. And don't forget about what Louis C.K. says - everything is amazing and no one is happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

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  2. OCOctober 30, 2011 at 10:32 AM

    Casey, Good job blogging in general this quarter. (Though why don't you have a post count? And why didn't you label a favorite post? And why are there so many bears looking at me right now?)

    Here's a link to the best sportswriter in the world. You might be interested in his take on race and hoops: okay, link not working. Type in Buzz Bissinger and The Daily Beast. His article White Men Can't Root offers a new angle on the lockout.

    Now, to your blog: This post is thoughtful and I like the way you extend Penn's observation withyour own research. (Check out Stephen Pinker's new book on the decrease in violence). Your Beatles video is a witty touch. To find the cloud behind this silver lining, however, I'd urge to stick to America, and to warn you that this Panglossian optimism can lead people to disregard serious issues (the widening gap between rich and poor, e.g.). In other words, heed John Lennon's sotto voce insertions in your song: In some ways, "It can't get no worse."

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  3. Casey B.October 30, 2011 at 5:12 PM

    Thanks, Doc OC. First off, I do have a favorite posts tab labeled (it may be faint, bit it's at the top of my blog and it exists!). Also thank you for the criticism of my post, I like to know what I can improve on so that each of my blogs are increasingly better. Oh, and Buzz is a genius.

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