Are you hopeful for the future?

[Lumnaya]

On the one hand, it's incredible to see how far humanity has come from the early days and the progress we're still making in science, medicine and technology. — , , more and more people have access to food and water (I'm not sure about shelter?), in industrialized countries we have now access to virtually endless information, art and entertainment, opportunities to travel, express oneself, generally good levels of freedom and safety… Earlier eras are great sources of inspiration, but I would never want to live in the past. There's so much we now take for granted that would amaze past civilizations.

On the other hand, it's easy to feel that this could all come tumbling down like a house of cards. The , we know that climate change will have serious, long-lasting, probably disastrous results, obscurantism is on the rise again, , … this may all be just be a bad series of bumps along the way, but still, it is worrying.

Are you worried or hopeful for the future? Maybe both? Any predictions?

P.S. I know my point of view is very Western-centric too, I have no idea how someone living in Nigeria or China sees things.

[PLA]

Some problems are self-correcting, in the long run. But rather than an evenly spread decline in standards of living, I'd expect a shrinking number of people to maintain high standards at the expense of a growing underclass.
Feuds over resources might do more damage overall than scarcity itself.

[noodles]

In America, ultimately, we are in a period of severe realignment (towards the left I think) and the hateful on the other side have been unmasked in their effort to totally deny the left at all costs. People who were always racists or hypocrites but basically kept it politely under wraps are emboldened to be that way openly by a president that does so. Things are going to be painful for a long time, especially if he gets another supreme court pick. In the mean time, world relations have been damaged. Even if we had a person in the next election who tried to totally fix everything, other countries would rightfully have pause before committing to any long term deals with us, if the world order is going to shift every four years as long as we have power. Ultimately, we are losing influence globally because of haphazard foreign policy, and that's going to hinder our ability to benefit from positive changes in the world.

Now, elsewhere in the world, a lot of things ARE good, and getting better. "Developing" countries in the global South are taking positive strides towards things like providing clean drinking water and vaccinations to their people.

Meanwhile, here in bizarro world, people still wrongly claim vaccines cause autism and have even started drinking untreated water for its "health benefits". That's definitely shit from scifi novels about weird, dying societies that live strange backward lives in otherwise fantastic cities.

It's true Europe has seen an uptick in what is basically racist demagoguery, from UKIP in Britain actual openly fascist movements in places like Italy. Socialist and Antifa movements are happening at the same time to counter this, and people who never gave a shit are suddenly given the idea that the world is dangerous and they don't know who to trust, which makes them vulnerable and more likely to fall in line with whoever shows the most force. There's even an imperialist movement growing in Japan that deifies the emperor, decries foreign influence, and of course, denies the Nanking Massacre as having happened.

And yeah, Russia is aggressive again and NK seems poised to nuke the world.

But....

Think about the movement right now about equal representation, and sexual harassment, and labor rights, etc etc. A lot of those things make it sound like all this terrible stuff is happening, but really its just the data getting better and people finally being heard about injustices they've been enduring.

I read an article today about how Disneyland employees are overworked, undervalued, and many had recently experienced homelessness. When I worked there, things were tough, but it seemed normal. Collectively we're all realizing that certain shit is not ok. The bastions of conservatism are going to fight to the death against whatever change this suggests...but those policies will die with them. I think those really smart and articulate child shooting survivors in Florida prove that. The next generation is gonna be good, and will make better choices. So, even if it seems like my country is one weird news story away from slipping uncontrollably into catastrophic decline, I know that it will be in better hands.

Now if we can just get UBI...

[SteelCrow]

Ah, some competition for the crickets.

I see humankind as an extension of the organizing forces of Nature. Nature is entirely subsumed by the need to grow constantly, in any of its forms. If an organism emerges that lives or grows better than the others, the older ones must either war against the newcomer, or become part of its new paradigm. Things that fail die off, while things that succeed persist and endure, to be built upon by the next generations. Thus Nature, and humankind, tends toward advancement.

In the world now, new facets of an old struggle are emerging. Facts are, China is doing something that works. Lifting its populace out of poverty and continuing to prosper, and now looking to spread their development model to the countries around them through the Belt and Road Initiative. Also facts are, USA is still in massive debt, the gap between its rich and poor increase, and seeks to punish and destabilize the nations in the world it views as threats. This is a generalization of the average trend these nations are doing, not the whole picture.

In the USA, we're constantly being told that Russia and now China are our enemies. We don't need to foster such divisions in the world; through human development and research, we can surpass such problems.

So I am hopeful for the future. As for my future, I feel like a purposeless slave, no opportunities to break out and do anything amazing. Too inadequate to make any opportunities. If there were anything being built in my country USA, I'd want to go to college and be an engineer.

@Lumnaya:
How is France doing?

[Lumnaya]