Better than it looks?

[imwjl]

Anyone read this new book yet?

It's Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear (Gregg Easterbrook)

My inner cheapskate doesn't see it in my library's Kindle library loan yet. Some interviews and a podcast interviewing the author caught my interest.

Maybe I'm wired or trained an optimist but I have seen a lot of the good stats the author quotes. Maybe it's being involved with kids. The world always has lots of serious problems but in a lot of ways I think we're richer than we're lead to believe, that we are tackling or capable solving problems, and on the whole alright in ways people forget to look at.

Maybe it's being more of a read my papers and not have a TV? Maybe I got more out of an economics degree than I realized. If I think seriously about a time I might want to go back to it might only be thinking I'd have the strength of youth vs some old body parts.

There are worries and problems but I like to think of the ways the world is not that bad. More are getting communication. I see many opportunities in work places I did not see 35-40 years ago. I love all the choices in the grocery store. An entry level rental car has what made a luxury car when I was young - cloth seats, AC, FM radio, electric windows and cruise control. I see great jobs that don't require a traditional college degree. All sorts of stuff things and ideas that were in my 1960s-70s Popular Science magazines and trips to the library are here in reality.

Let's hear your optimism or points of "it's not that bad" or maybe even "it's okay".



P.S. And if you read that book let me know if I should stomp on my inner cheapskate and buy it now.

[jpd]

Let's hear your optimism or points of "it's not that bad" or maybe even "it's okay".

Like you, I use my library for the latest book interest (and movies). I see a lot of homeless people using the bathrooms and computers. The thought that "it's not that bad" or maybe even "it's okay", takes a lot of convincing. The good is to be found in those that have compassion....never stop looking for them.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by jpd

Let's hear your optimism or points of "it's not that bad" or maybe even "it's okay".

Like you, I use my library for the latest book interest (and movies). I see a lot of homeless people using the bathrooms and computers. The thought that "it's not that bad" or maybe even "it's okay", takes a lot of convincing. The good is to be found in those that have compassion....never stop looking for them.

The library branch a mile from home has people who are struggling using the free computers and a lot of mercy for the sort of people that could be in worse places. Their numbers seem lower than some years ago when unemployment was much higher in my area.

With unemployment low I see the place I work at giving people interviews and offers who would probably not be let in the doors long ago. Some are working out well. An out of work friend who's only been in one niche or area since college says he sees the current environment is one where retraining is a more realistic or less risky option.

A few weeks ago the Wall St. Journal had an article that mentioned a large employer in my area has been using prisoners in work release programs and hiring most when they're out as a way to address their shortage of manufacturing labor. That same employer was so picky they were hiring college graduates for same positions during the last recession.

There, I'm saying it's better than it looks.

Sadly, I walk and bike to the library so often and see those homeless or group home people so often that I think they might be in an unfortunate situation no matter what. We can't let that cloud us. Compare the volume of water in a cloud vs a lake.

[808K]

Originally Posted by imwjl

I love all the choices in the grocery store.

Ok, so I picked a single sentence out of a long post. I just have to say, in my opinion, that genetic engineering has ruined fruit. Seedless watermelon? Cardboard compared to the old sweet watermelon of my youth. And not just watermelon. I think you have to go to Georgia for a good peach. And on and on and on.

[buddyhu]

I’d argue against optimism, and I’d argue against pessimism.

The title of the book points to an important truth, however: we do seem to be living in “an age of fear”, and viewing things through the lens of fear and mistrust will make things seem very much worse than they actually are....every grandparent knows this.

It is hard to come up with an overarching generality about “things”/the world. Some things seem better than they’ve ever been. Some things seem to be getting worse than I could have ever imagined them getting.

Day by day, such generalizations are of no importance. I am in favor of adopting a mindset and adopting beliefs that supports kindness, generosity, and gratitude: that is the secret to making each day as good as it can be. IMO.

[fazool]

Forget everything you think you know.

You are willingly deceived.

All this mass hysteria over the dangers and violence of the world are false.

Statistics show that this is the safest and least violent and least dangerous time in American history (per capita).


Children are safer now than they have EVER been. There is more awareness. There are Amber alerts. There are video cameras. They have cell phones. They are safer than they have ever been,

So those of us who grew up in the most violent and dangerous time (per capita) need to stop brainwashing them into hiding from the world.

Regardless of the sensational news stories you hear.

It's like a plane crash. It's horrible and awful and smattered all over the news non-stop. But that doesn't make air-travel statistically unsafe. The media frenzy makes us think the world is dangerous and "everyone" is convinced of this as a core belief, down to their very soul.

But, the data shows that it is completely untrue.

Regardless of what is on the news. Even counting bad news story data (even WITH that) the world is the safest and least violent it has ever been in history.

[Nyghthawk]

News media (of ALL stripes) are in the business of selling fear and sensationalism. The old "If it bleeds, it leads" mentality. Don't be suckered into it.

No matter who they portray as the bad guy, no matter how ugly they tell you it is, they are wrong.

Read history. This is a virtual utopia in comparison.

[valleyguy]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Read history. This is a virtual utopia in comparison.

This says it all, not to say things can't improve and there aren't problems.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by 808K

Ok, so I picked a single sentence out of a long post. I just have to say, in my opinion, that genetic engineering has ruined fruit. Seedless watermelon? Cardboard compared to the old sweet watermelon of my youth. And not just watermelon. I think you have to go to Georgia for a good peach. And on and on and on.

Here's what comes to mind. I'm IT director group of food makers and retailers so know a bit about it.

We've been engineering what we eat many many generations before Agracetus (now Monsanto). We have less than ideal items on the shelf at times of year when we used to have nothing like it on the shelf. Depending on your age, the grocery stores you shop in have all sorts of choices the didn't have in the past.

There's also a very strong trend for local food. When I travel I see others grocers do what our stores do concentrating on local food vendors. For us that's products, farmers, items where the stuff hasn't travelled more than 250 miles to get there. That makes for a whole lot of great stuff in the stores when the season is right. In some cases when the Amish farmers' drivers routes arrive.

[imwjl]

I caught an interview of Steven Pinker so looked and his new book is also not in Kindle loan. With a few hours of passenger in a car coming up I just might make a purchase.

My late octogenarian mother chimed in on this better than it looks topic and that was concerning. While she's very concerned about a few topics and made a funny assessment of national and world affairs, she also pointed out a lot of reasons for optimism and ways people don't see how things are not that bad. She is very aware of how easily people are manipulated to see a glass 1/2 empty whether it's in a simple conversation or the way public figures make noise.

More and more my kids have me thinking positive. It grows when I know their peers and look into and at kids in some programs I'm around.

[jpd]

Originally Posted by imwjl

More and more my kids have me thinking positive. It grows when I know their peers and look into and at kids in some programs I'm around.

Consider yourself very fortunate.

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by imwjl

I caught an interview of Steven Pinker so looked and his new book is also not in Kindle loan. With a few hours of passenger in a car coming up I just might make a purchase.

My late octogenarian mother chimed in on this better than it looks topic and that was concerning. While she's very concerned about a few topics and made a funny assessment of national and world affairs, she also pointed out a lot of reasons for optimism and ways people don't see how things are not that bad. She is very aware of how easily people are manipulated to see a glass 1/2 empty whether it's in a simple conversation or the way public figures make noise.

More and more my kids have me thinking positive. It grows when I know their peers and look into and at kids in some programs I'm around.

Here's an interesting article that recounts some of the data that Pinker relies upon, along with David Brooks opinion about what Pinker fails to include (and which, in Brooks' opinion, matters significantly).

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/o...e-iphone-share

[rokdog49]

The OP's title is so appropriate. I would add that it depends on where and how or even "if" you look.
When I was a young boy living in a small midwestern town, our knowledge of anything outside our little world was so limited. We had little exposure to much of anything beyond the city limits and we were very secure and happy.
Today the media, if one allows it to, invades our lives with hyperbole and fear-mongering. It's all in the name of information but it's really in the name of money.
So, I don't listen to the news, watch it or read it.
I haven't been so at peace since I was a boy and I know exactly why.
Please don't chastise me for my choice of living. No argument you can make will make one iota of difference to the way I choose to live.

[frazervalley]

I am moving in the direction of less news myself. I will likely give up the six o'clock news and read the daily paper instead of relying on both as I do now. If I feel frugal, I may give up the newspaper which is getting expensive and watch the TV news instead. Decisions, decisions.

[Mbroady]

I have not read the book (though I will now) but I will take a guess that comparing the past (European colonization of the Americas, the dark ages, Yellow Turban Rebellion, Jewish Roman wars, etc..) we are better off.

Then again, we have nuclear power now