What Do You Expect...?

What do you expect in the coming years - for attitudes and conditions to get better, or worst?

I used to live in a fairly clean district, but now, it's unsightly, since the neighborhood changed.
In fact, the country I live in, has become unsightly, in many many areas... one could say, 'all over the place'.
Rats have become a problem too.


The Garbage Problem is just one problem
Garbage is a big problem all over the world. People buy and use a lot of things nowadays. After a while, they throw them away in the garbage bin. All the garbage is later thrown away or dumped outside the city. These places are called landfill sites. In many cities, landfill sites are now full.

Do you see things getting better, in a few years time, or do you think man's attitudes are getting worst?

Worse: the fascists are getting more power across the globe by the day.

Liberal democracy is in retreat in too many places, including at risk in the US.

It might get better someday but I don't think the pendulum has finished swinging. And, like other times it's swung this hard, it's going to take cultural revolutions, even violent ones, to stop the stick from flying off the pendulum.

Well trash day is tomorrow, so relax.

I think it depends on your perspective. Better to some, worse to others. I think the trap is in valuing things external to ourselves and letting the world around us dictate how we feel.

In my opinion, it's wiser to let go of these notions and take life as it happens, although this is easier said than done. Whatever happens, there will always be people out there looking to help one another. I hope to be one of them.

Ella S. said:

I think it depends on your perspective. Better to some, worse to others. I think the trap is in valuing things external to ourselves and letting the world around us dictate how we feel.

In my opinion, it's wiser to let go of these notions and take life as it happens, although this is easier said than done. Whatever happens, there will always be people out there looking to help one another. I hope to be one of them.

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I'm always out there looking to help, and offering help to people, but the neighborhood still got messy, and is getting messier, along with other places I have to travel.
It's not an internal - subjective - thing.

I think when people's perspective changes to seeing what's worst to others, as better, it's because they just "take life as it happens".

nPeace said:

It's not an internal - subjective - thing.

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The words "better" and "worse" are logically vacuous statements. Their only use is to express praise or condemnation, which are feelings. Confusing them for objective properties is irrational and an example of emotional reasoning.

nPeace said:

I think when people's perspective changes to seeing what's worst to others, as better, it's because they just "take life as it happens".

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I disagree. I think the people who see what's worse for others as better are not taking life as it happens, but actively valuing what's worse for others. Quite contradictory mindsets.

I'd expect the world economy will improve as the Chinese economy recovers from C.O,V.I.D-19 lockdowns,

nPeace said:

What do you expect in the coming years - for attitudes and conditions to get better, or worst?

I used to live in a fairly clean district, but now, it's unsightly, since the neighborhood changed.
In fact, the country I live in, has become unsightly, in many many areas... one could say, 'all over the place'.
Rats have become a problem too.

View attachment 63972
The Garbage Problem is just one problem
Garbage is a big problem all over the world. People buy and use a lot of things nowadays. After a while, they throw them away in the garbage bin. All the garbage is later thrown away or dumped outside the city. These places are called landfill sites. In many cities, landfill sites are now full.

Do you see things getting better, in a few years time, or do you think man's attitudes are getting worst?

Click to expand...

I general developing economies (like India, China, some African nations etc.) will get better while developed economies (USA, Europe, Japan etc.) will get worse in terms of civic facilities. The gap will remain..ie developed countries will still have far better civics and living standards than developing countries.
The ecology and environment will get worse and even more frequent climatic disasters will overall slow development everywhere.
Inequality will continue to rise everywhere.

I am only talking of near term (10-15 year) trends. I think introductions of AI and autonomous robots may significantly disrupt world economic structures in ways that I cannot foresee. I general I believe AI and automation robots may reverse the trend and developed world will benefit more from this.

sayak83 said:

I general developing economies (like India, China, some African nations etc.) will get better while developed economies (USA, Europe, Japan etc.) will get worse in terms of civic facilities. The gap will remain..ie developed countries will still have far better civics and living standards than developing countries.
The ecology and environment will get worse and even more frequent climatic disasters will overall slow development everywhere.
Inequality will continue to rise everywhere.

I am only talking of near term (10-15 year) trends. I think introductions of AI and autonomous robots may significantly disrupt world economic structures in ways that I cannot foresee. I general I believe AI and automation robots may reverse the trend and developed world will benefit more from this.

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Sadly climate change will get worse for many years even if we stop using fossil fuels now. Of course using more will only make it worse. I am not advocating doing nothing. There are some radical ideas on how we can geoengineer the climate, but those scare me almost as much as AGW.

nPeace said:

What do you expect in the coming years - for attitudes and conditions to get better, or worst?

I used to live in a fairly clean district, but now, it's unsightly, since the neighborhood changed.
In fact, the country I live in, has become unsightly, in many many areas... one could say, 'all over the place'.
Rats have become a problem too.

View attachment 63972
The Garbage Problem is just one problem
Garbage is a big problem all over the world. People buy and use a lot of things nowadays. After a while, they throw them away in the garbage bin. All the garbage is later thrown away or dumped outside the city. These places are called landfill sites. In many cities, landfill sites are now full.

Do you see things getting better, in a few years time, or do you think man's attitudes are getting worst?

Click to expand...

I expect things to get better since I mostly depend on myself.
If you're mostly depending on others to make things better, you might not have such a optimistic outlook.

Since you didn't specify how far ahead in the coming years, I voted better. Either the human race will learn to live within the limits of their resources, or they will become extinct. In either case, it will get better.

Salix,
Ever the optimist

Neither better nor worse, I am sure (not unsure) that things will generally remain more or less the same.

Ella S. said:

The words "better" and "worse" are logically vacuous statements.

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And that bit of dismal sophistry is as inane as it is worthless.

People can and do evaluate their quality of life, and better/worse is a perfectly legitimate evaluation.

To answer the question: I don't know (although I find post #2 compelling). In terms of the U.S., ask me after our next election.

At the same time, I am cognizant of the fact that the Civil Rights Movement came on the heels of the McCarthy era.

Jayhawker Soule said:

And that bit of dismal sophistry is as inane as it is worthless.

People can and do evaluate their quality of life, and better/worse is a perfectly legitimate evaluation.

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Then perhaps the OP ought to have offered some idea of what metric they are using for better or worse? Better how, or worse how, and how are we measuring this? Otherwise I'm inclined to agree, they seem to have little objective meaning in the context of the OP, at best they are pretty facile as presented, and will simply invite endless subjective assertions. However this is a debate forum, so I see no harm, just a not very clear notion of what the thread OP is asking.

Sheldon said:

Then perhaps the OP ought to have offered some idea of what metric they are using for better or worse?

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How very Socratic.

I guess I just had to vote 'unsure,' unfortunately. I want things to get better. Who wants garbage overflowing, or pandemics, or threats of nuclear war? But in the past few years, I have nearly given myself an ear infection, listening to podcasts on all these things. I am not exactly sure 'what' needs to change, or what can change, but I guess I do sense that something does need to. Some kind of setting in the circuit board of our species needs an upgrade, or a repair, or something.

As for garbage and pollution, that's certainly something that I've heard about the whole time I've been on the planet. There are islands full of garbage, there's the 'pacific garbage patch,' and I wonder how much lead we are all consuming. Radiation from all the nuclear testing, the questions about fukushima, and the ukraine power plants. Ongoing debates on if fracking or new drilling sites should be created. Every couple years, a major oil leak into our ocean

I contribute to it myself as a factory worker, and I don't feel that good about it. But I am not educated, so I don't really know what else I can do

I don't really think there is much I can do, and maybe it's best that I stop thinking about it, and just stop looking at world problems. I mean really, what can I possibly do about any of it. I am just a factory worker. The rest of the people I grew up with who came from well-off families, and went to really fancy schools, should be dealing with it

The coldest hour is the hour before the dawn.

Jayhawker Soule said:

How very Socratic.

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Not a bad thing I would have thought, especially in a debate forum.