These are the good old days

You may recognize the title of this entry from some old song. It’s not mine, that’s for sure, and I don’t claim it. But there are a couple of point of view on the type of world we live in now – either things are better than ever, worse than ever, or the same as ever. I’ll try to present

a couple if these sides and we’ll see. I’ll keep in format for this entry, but my next entry will just be an expansion of this topic in the form of a response to an email I received.

Things are better than ever – You only have to look at statistics to see that we are better off (in the western world) than ever before. We live longer, have more wealth and material things, are in better overall health, infant mortality is down, we are more educated; the list goes on. In every category, we are better off, in leaps and bounds, than our parents; our parents were better off than our grandparents, and so on. Science and society has made us better off than ever before.

Not only in those categories, but we also have instant communication; we have shrunk the world so we can get to pretty much anywhere in 24 hours maximum. We are a global society – there is no more cold war threatening to destroy the world. We have better access now to cultures from all over the world, and we are friends with people that even 30 years ago we never would have considered sharing a bus with. Women rights have advanced tremendously, as have minority right. There are virtually no lynchings, sexual harassment, or anything like that anymore. Sure , we can be better – things like racism and sexism still exist – but generally, things are miles better than before.

Things now really suck – Maybe we live longer, but the quality of life is horrible. We never have a free minute – our work can always get a hold of us. We are also getting obese, much fatter than the previous generations were. Maybe we have more wealth, but everything is so much more expensive than it ever has been before. I remember when a freezie cost 5 cents. And

what’s going on with all these kidnappings, murders, pedophiles – they were never around when we were young. We don’t even feel safe letting our kids walk to school. The internet just brings all the perverts out and makes them feel normal.

And people now are so rude! The streets are noisy, no one ever says please or thank you, no one helps anyone anymore. Plus the language that people use! There is no such thing as obscenity, and people spit in the streets. Clerks at stores don’t even get off their cell phones to ring in your order. And drivers will cut you off and then give you the finger.

Maybe we have better communication, but we don’t communicate! 

What I think: I think that - surprise – the answer is somewhere in the middle. A lot of what people think about good or bad times is based on faulty perception. I think that we are better off in terms of health and education, but in terms of quality of life – I think we suffer a bit. Crime I know is down, but I don’t think that people are any ruder than before. I don’t really think that society is better or worse; we live in a more complex world, but that is all. Most importantly, though, is that the western world is better off in terms of life and health.

How I relate: I hear a lot of people complaining about how great things used to be, and I think that they are just suffering from selective memory. They are usually talking about rudeness, I find. When people complain about rudeness – most famously in Lynne Truss’s book, “Talk to the Hand” I don’t think that they consider how society has changed with the shapes of cities.

For example, when you only had your corner store to go to, of course the shopkeeper was polite to you, because you knew him/her and they knew you.  But when you move to an urban environment and you do your shopping at a massive supermarket where you’ll likely never see any of the staff again, they have no reason to be polite to you – and you to them. Another

important thing to consider is that we had institutionalized rudeness – in such forms as Jim Crow laws, segregation of neighbourhoods, and gendered division of labour. It wouldn’t have been “rude” 50 years ago to not acknowledge a person of a different race in your store, for example.