How do you see our collective moral and ethical cup? Half full or overflowing wi

[Greatest I am]

How do you see our collective moral and ethical cup? Half full or overflowing with goodness?

Not to be a bean counter that ignores the evil that is still with us, but if I look strictly at the statistics for what I call the evil markers, crime, death by violence including war, poverty, poor health and
education; I see them all at the best levels we have ever enjoyed.

This is in spite of the few places where the stats are backsliding, which ironically includes the U.S., a Christian nation; whose
education level is going down, along with its moral sense.

I will let you find whatever stats you might be interested in and will only offer the stats spoken of, at the end of this link.

 Richard Dawkins - Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLulcfyqrc0

I see our cup running over in spite of the vile and immoral mainstream religions that we are maintaining, for God only knows why. We can thank all the gods that the religious are not walking their talk and are following more moral ways.

How do you see our collective moral and ethical cup? Half full; or overflowing with goodness?

Regards
DL

[Mopsus]

I don't think the argument that the world is getting more peaceful stands up to scrutiny. More peaceful as compared to when? Pre-industrial society? Sure, if you ignore the twentieth century, which... why would you do that? More peaceful since the end of the Cold War? Granted, but that's a really arbitrary date, especially considering that that wasn't that long ago. The West was pretty peaceful between 1871 and 1914, after all...

[Greatest I am]

I don't think the argument that the world is getting more peaceful stands up to scrutiny. More peaceful as compared to when? Pre-industrial society? Sure, if you ignore the twentieth century, which... why would you do that? More peaceful since the end of the Cold War? Granted, but that's a really arbitrary date, especially considering that that wasn't that long ago. The West was pretty peaceful between 1871 and 1914, after all...

You would have to as Pinker as to what data he is looking at.

He has a site as well as a number of links that you might have a look at.

Poverty is a big deal as far as longevity and education are concerned and we are well on our way to having all over the poverty line.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/06/01/towards-the-end-of-poverty

Regards
DL

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Even if we accept the arguments of Pinker and others that we've never had it so good, it's difficult to see how that's going to continue when the consequences of climate change and (in particular, and this is underdiscussed) habitat loss for insects really kick in. Not to sound like some sort of militant vegan, but human misery isn't the only kind of misery on this planet, and even if it were, the last twenty or even forty years is a really short timescale to extrapolate from when predicting how much of it there will be in the future.

I also trust the good people at the Economist to have a useful understanding of what constitutes poverty roughly as much as I trust the Amish to redo the copper wiring in my house. If capitalism and free trade are so good at getting people above the $1.25/day mark, why are they so complacent about how many of us still can't afford insulin or clean apartments or marriage?

[Greatest I am]

Even if we accept the arguments of Pinker and others that we've never had it so good, it's difficult to see how that's going to continue when the consequences of climate change and (in particular, and this is underdiscussed) habitat loss for insects really kick in. Not to sound like some sort of militant vegan, but human misery isn't the only kind of misery on this planet, and even if it were, the last twenty or even forty years is a really short timescale to extrapolate from when predicting how much of it there will be in the future.

I also trust the good people at the Economist to have a useful understanding of what constitutes poverty roughly as much as I trust the Amish to redo the copper wiring in my house. If capitalism and free trade are so good at getting people above the $1.25/day mark, why are they so complacent about how many of us still can't afford insulin or clean apartments or marriage?

You are nit picking.

You might agree that any problem can be solved by throwing cash and research into it, finding a solution, and fixing it.

You might also agree that pollution wise, the greatest threat and worst pollution maker are cows and that all we would have to collectively do is stop growing that tasty beast. If you did not know this, find the documentary Cowspiracy and check the stats on how they pollute more than all the cars and industries combined, and how even the environmentalist are afraid to talk of it as they would lose their funding and audience/support.

If you do agree that money will solve most problems, just look at all the wealth available to us as shown at the right side of this graph.

https://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact-2

The world view is just as horribly one sided as the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWSxzjyMNpU

Regards
DL

[RFayette]

I don't think the argument that the world is getting more peaceful stands up to scrutiny. More peaceful as compared to when? Pre-industrial society? Sure, if you ignore the twentieth century, which... why would you do that? More peaceful since the end of the Cold War? Granted, but that's a really arbitrary date, especially considering that that wasn't that long ago. The West was pretty peaceful between 1871 and 1914, after all...

Pinker was arguing that the chance of someone dying a violent death has fallen precipitously over time (including deaths by homicide/fighting as well as larger-scale wars).  This doesn't necessitate a decrease in war/conflict between groups, just that a smaller percentage of society would need to fight as you have a bigger, more specialized population.