Is the world getting crazier?

[Quintessence]

It's going to seem "worse" in spite of it not being "worse" because we live in the information age. The information age, coupled with the perchance for "news" organizations (to add, "social media" algorithms aimplify this even more) to blast the strange and abnormal in your face all the time tricks the human animal brain into thinking something that is abnormal is normal (or becoming more normal or common).

"Worse" in quotes because "worse" is subjective, value-laden assessment. Which basically means it is "worse" if you define things in such a way that reality inevitably meets that criteria. It's all about the story you tell yourself in the end. So what story do you want to tell? What story do you want to empower?

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I suspect that 'meaning,' in the traditional sense that humans understood it, is sort of getting harder to find. Very broad statement, and not something I can explain in a paragraph, but we are becoming more detached from each other, and from our work, than at any other point in history. Increasingly, meaning has to be sought, when it was initially more intrinsic to your life

 

[amorphous_constellation]

"Worse" in quotes because "worse" is subjective, value-laden assessment.

But is taking that idea into consideration not de-humanizing? If you deteher humans to concrete values that either affect them positively or negatively, they eventually just become points in space that things happen to.

 

[SomeRandom]

Didn’t Plato ask basically the same thing?

 

[Stevicus]

Is the world getting crazier, or are we simply hearing more about crazy people? And by crazy I mean mad, irrational behavior.
It's hard to tell without irrefutable evidence, but I think it's getting worse. Since I can't prove that, it's only my opinion.
Any thoughts?

I don't know about others, but I don't think I'm as crazy as I used to be. But that's not really saying much.

I remember when the phrase "going postal" came about, after there had been numerous shooting incidents involving disgruntled postal workers. Some people just snap. Of course, it doesn't always involve shooting. I saw a video where a woman got mad and started going berserk in a McDonald's because they ran out of Chicken McNuggets.

I guess everyone has their breaking point.

Overall, there does appear to be a rise in instability, although that is also hard to gauge. Fear of pandemic, fear of the future - a lot of people are, no doubt, stressed by fear and anxiety. Confidence in the government's ability to resolve our problems seems shaky at best.

 

[Thief]

Is the world getting crazier, or are we simply hearing more about crazy people? And by crazy I mean mad, irrational behavior.
It's hard to tell without irrefutable evidence, but I think it's getting worse. Since I can't prove that, it's only my opinion.
Any thoughts?

most assuredly

it's a collective problem and most of it revolves around the many things we have given our children

in hindsight I say.....anything with a screen should have been forbidden

far too much stimulation and very little substance

 

[Quintessence]

But is taking that idea into consideration not de-humanizing? If you deteher humans to concrete values that either affect them positively or negatively, they eventually just become points in space that things happen to.

I don't see how that follows, personally, but if recognizing values are subjective somehow dehumanizes things for you, then you can adhere to some other way of telling the story that suits you better.

If anything, recognizing that it is humans telling the story inevitably puts humans at the center of the narrative. That's kind of the opposite of "just become points in space things happen to" unless by "point" we basically mean the axis around which everything else spins. All meaning and narrative is authored by us. We're in charge of it. That is a very, very significant power that many seem to take for granted. Hell, taking it for granted is part of why we have this issue with questionable stories being spread around without heed to their impact. Stories become more and more true in the telling. The more we tell ourselves "the world is getting crazier" the more we convince ourselves it is true.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

A virus affects the respiratory system and people buy al the toilet paper they can find, a supermarket reduces the price of Nutella and people fight over the jars, obesity increases the risks of every disease I can think about but people are getting donuts as a reward for taking a vaccine, etc, etc, etc.

There is a reason for the toilet paper thing. Early in the pandemic we thought there might be a digestive symtpom component to covid, similar to how the flu is a respiratory disease but induces digestive symptoms, too. That, coupled with the idea that people would be stuck at home for weeks, induced a grab for tp. Same thing happens in places with infrequent weather events.
Over time, we figured out there wasn't a digestive component, but now there was artificial scarcity driving the market. 'Tp is disappearing so I better stock up while I can.'

There's also a lot of reasons why obesity is increasing that has to do with everything from class warfare (I could do an essay) to global climate change (seriously. Shifting climate zones radically alter soil composition which changes nutrient to sugar ratio in natural foods.)

This is a novel growing problem that has to do with globalization, but there's been problems a plenty throughout history.
At least be glad nobody needs to cut open pus wounds and stick that stuff in an open cut to immunize you.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Even after subtracting the media's highlighting craziness, the answer is that there is some proof based on some statistics. For example: List of mass shootings in the United States - Wikipedia shows that in the 1920's-1950's there were only a few in a decade. Now? View attachment 48849

The thread title said "the world," though, not "the U.S." Even then, compare the U.S. now to how widely racist and homophobic it used to be several decades ago, for just one example, and I think it probably won't look crazier at all.

Sometimes I feel like our technological and medical advances, increasing amount of comfort, and ability to communicate with people from all over the world so easily may sometimes cause us to take our boons for granted. A lot of people seem to forget how inhumane and harsh life used to be in many prior points in history.

Compared to burning people at the stake, widespread racial supremacism, harmful and ineffective "medical" practices, and routine public executions--among other things--I think today's world isn't any crazier than previous points in human history. In fact, if given the choice to live now or at any other point in history, I would most likely choose to live now rather than through a period where any of these things were a lot more common or rather than through a period where a world war was raging on.

Yes, there are still many challenges facing the world today, such as poverty in a lot of parts of the world, but most of those challenges aren't novel issues. At least we now have more tools to mostly stay informed about global issues than we used to have.

 

[Twilight Hue]

It kinda reminds me of the experiments with rats living in a utopian setting. It seems we tend to exhibit the same behaviours. Even if life is comfortable and all our needs are met.

There is craziness, a dark side,, even in paradise.

 

[Vee]

At least we now have more tools to mostly stay informed about global issues than we used to have.

True, and I agree with you, I would rather be alive now than in any other period in past history, but there is one huge point we can't forget about: planet earth is now in danger, and that never happened before.
In the past whatever was going on was local. Since the 20th century things start in one place and the consequences spread.

 

[oldbadger]

Is the world getting crazier, or are we simply hearing more about crazy people? And by crazy I mean mad, irrational behavior.
It's hard to tell without irrefutable evidence, but I think it's getting worse. Since I can't prove that, it's only my opinion.
Any thoughts?

It's always been crazy, Vee, at least I think so.

Look at how the German people raised up Hitler in adoration and what happened to so many of them.
And the Japanese people, what happened to them.
And the Cambodians....
And on.......

I used to wonder why Elizabethan paintings of fine ladies showed them with very very wide 'ruffs' around their necks, and men with huge cod pieces which they sported, and I think about this when i see young men who now follow the fashion allowing their jeans to droop down on to their hips, so low that some of them sew their jeans to their under pants! Fashions! Crazy stuff!

I wonder what Neanderthals did to keep ahead of the mob...?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I suspect if we had lived through WWl, WWII or the Great Depression we would feel differently. There appears to be good evidence of much less international conflict between nations during the twenty first century as opposed to the twentieth century. Part of that is better international cooperation and conflict resolution.

Besides that people are living longer and there is much less of the world’s population in dire poverty compared to a few decades ago.

That’s not to say there are huge challenges and risks for humanity as we face environmental disasters, global warming, the risks of pandemic and international conflict erupting at any stage. However the crisis through the twentieth century seems to have prepared us somewhat to our current crisis.

Yup. We're getting to see way more frequently what happens to us as we age, get old, and our bodies wear down. Largely not only because of medications and improved sterilization, but because for so much of the world we have never known greater odds of not dying in some act of violence, conflict, war, or what have you. We die of cancer, heart disease, and dementia when aren't looking for an "honorable death" in battle. We find accidents can be quite deadly when entire settlements aren't put to the sword. Our brains will fail and lung function diminishes when a bird flying over your house when someone dies doesn't get you executed as a witch.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Is the world getting crazier, or are we simply hearing more about crazy people? And by crazy I mean mad, irrational behavior.
It's hard to tell without irrefutable evidence, but I think it's getting worse. Since I can't prove that, it's only my opinion.
Any thoughts?

I doubt humans as individuals are getting any crazier, but I suspect we have problems due to the sizes of our groups becoming less manageable - so a population issue. When we were mostly living in small tribes, we no doubt formed leaderships, had respect for such if competent, and we fared as well as the leadership and the clan made the best of what they had. As our groups became bigger our voices seemed to be less important, more conflict arose (due to many different motivations and drives), and the style of leadership probably changed - some of which worked and some that didn't. We seem to be in a position now where our leaders are often stymied by the processes and controls we put in place - left/right in politics, for example, and where any subsequent change of government often tries to undo that previously put in place. Apart from the fact that we have just as many different, and oppositional, forms of power structures - ranging from democracies of many types to dictatorships in many forms. And none of which now seem capable of addressing the larger problems we face as humans and coming from our population growth - our success. If we can't pull together as a species then we will fail as one.

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

A virus affects the respiratory system and people buy al the toilet paper they can find, a supermarket reduces the price of Nutella and people fight over the jars, obesity increases the risks of every disease I can think about but people are getting donuts as a reward for taking a vaccine, etc, etc, etc.

Oh okay, that clarifies your question.

I think, no; in that sense, the world has probably always been as “crazy”.

In many other ways however, perhaps it is going a bit mad. Faster changes (technological for example), leading to access to huge amounts of information, constant reevaluation of self and others, confusion, upheavals, big uncertainties, panic, etc.

He who cannot find and maintain his inner zen within all the turbulence, suffers.


Humbly
Hermit

 

[Thief]

There is craziness, a dark side,, even in paradise.

repost as an op.....please

 

[sun rise]

The thread title said "the world," though, not "the U.S." Even then, compare the U.S. now to how widely racist and homophobic it used to be several decades ago, for just one example, and I think it probably won't look crazier at all.

True about my answer being US-centric. And it's fair to distinguish between getting crazier and acting crazier. The barriers to acting crazy are very low now.

 

[crossfire]

There is almost always a moment of "craziness" just before a raising of consciousness. (Your repressed psychological hang-ups have to manifest so you can become aware of them. Then you can examine them and work out the problem in an intelligent manner.) Some may make the realization and the needed adjustments right away. Others will take longer.

 

[Twilight Hue]

There is almost always a moment of "craziness" just before a raising of consciousness. (Your repressed psychological hang-ups have to manifest so you can become aware of them. Then you can examine them and work out the problem in an intelligent manner.) Some may make the realization and the needed adjustments right away. Others will take longer.

 

[Neuropteron]

Is the world getting crazier, or are we simply hearing more about crazy people? And by crazy I mean mad, irrational behavior.
It's hard to tell without irrefutable evidence, but I think it's getting worse. Since I can't prove that, it's only my opinion.
Any thoughts?

2 Timothy 3: 1-5 is a gauge with which it is possible to gauge world conditions.

An informal comparison of these human traits manifested across news media, literature, art, music and film in the 19th and early 20th century with that of present time shows an observable decline in sound and wholesome human behaviour which harmonizes with the rather comprehensive Bible description at 2 Timothy 3:15:

“Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.”

When these conditions occur the Bible’s instruction is to ‘seek God [Yaweh] while he may be found’ and to ‘seek meekness’ and ‘seek God’s righteousness’. (Zephenia 2:3; 3:8)