"The world is changing", "Everything is getting worse", "Things
were easier in the past". Do you ever hear people say any of these?
Do you say them yourself? Do you find yourself looking into the
past and thinking how much better things were?
Is it true? Were things that much better in the past? To be honest,
I would have to say a resounding no. We are remarkable animals, in
that we happily gloss over details and forget the bad times, leaving us with
a memory of incidents that are shiny and wondrous. In fact, our
memories often resemble films, which are themselves glossed and bigger than
life. I have come to the conclusion that not a lot has really changed
for an awfully long time. So what evidence do I have to support this,
I hear you cry. Okay, try this. Have a quick read through the
Bible one day, concentrating on the Gospels. They talk of a time when
things were undergoing great change, where the world was turning bad, and
where the end was coming. Sound familiar? In fact, read any text
about the problems of the world, and you'll see they all sound pretty much
the same. People talk about the fact that we now have the ability to
wipe out everyone on the planet, something we didn't have in the past.
But is this really that big a deal? If you are personally involved
in a violent conflict then the number of other people involved loses most
of its meaning. In the past entire villages were conscripted and sent
in to battle, poorly armed and untrained. A lot of deaths there. I
can't see any of them thinking it's worse now, can you. And a very
interesting statistic is that there were more people killed in World War
1 than World War 2, while our technical ability to kill had increased dramatically.
All right, enough of the doom and gloom, because that's not where I'm really
coming from.... Quite the contrary, actually. What I'm trying to say
is that things were not better in the past, they were just there. Some
days were good, some were bad. The best day of your life hasn't happened
yet. Exciting things keep happening, and each one is better than the
last. Never lose sight of the fact that the world is a wonderful place,
and for every stupid, shitty thing that happens there are hundreds of wonderful
things. And for every asshole that crosses your path and makes you
want to scream, there are scores of wonderful people who make your world
a bright place.
Enjoy today, it'll be good practice for tomorrow......
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