Is it really that bad?

I think we should define pessimism as an actual intellectual pastime, considering how many supposed educated people engage in it. ‘Things were better before’, ‘I remember when things were good’, ‘when I was a lad’ and so forth and so on. It has actually started to annoy me, off late. Are things really that bad? I don’t believe it, to be honest. Especially considering how one of the main constants of our existence as a species has been the doomsayers. They’ve always been there and they will always remain.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that there is a constant tendency to see the past through rose tinted glasses. The bad things are forgotten, while the good things become even better. Most people already do this in their own life time, oh, I remember when I was a child, life was so much better then. Was it? If you ask any child what they think, they generally can’t wait to grow up! They hate the disrespect, they hate not being listened to and they hate not having control over their lives. What we come to view as their innocence and freedom from responsibility in their lives, they see as a ball and chain.

In the same way we now idolize the fifties, sixties and seventies, yet it was those thirty years that spawned the biggest civic rebellion in the western world, in terms of the hippy movement. The hippy movement wasn’t just a rebellion against the war, it was a rebellion against the very norms and values that were held in such high esteem during those years.

I’m convinced that in a few decades from now we will look back at the 0s and say ‘now that was our golden age, I wish life were like it was then, during those years of unbridled expansion and unlimited possibilities’. People will forget restrictions of freedom, they will forget those that didn’t manage to get dragged along and they will forget the uncertainty everybody is now feeling about the future as we move from one system to another. Just like now we’re starting to forget about the racial riots, the cold war and inherent sexism that were all a part of those decades at the end of the 20^th century.

Yes, we’re in the middle of a new revolution. Yes, most of us have no idea about what we’ll be doing and where we’ll be even ten year from now and yes that is very stressful, but I think suggesting that we’re all doomed might be jumping the gun a bit. We seem to thrive when we think we’re at the brink of destruction. I think it’s only at this perceived brink that we can change our society for the better.

That’s why these doom sayers do it, they’re trying to change society, or maybe it’s better to say that they push society to renew itself. That’s a good thing and something that shouldn’t be discouraged. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t let yourself be fooled, most things now are better than they ever were before and getting better. Let’s keep changing, but lets also be proud of what we’ve already accomplished and be happy with where we are.