>100 years ago, women still couldn't vote in the US and the country was legally segregated instead of just segregated in practice. 100 years ago, child labor was at its peak in the US, food safety was non-existstant, charlatans ran rampant in the practice of medicine, and cities were thick with the pollution of the industrial revolution.
Well, today women can vote but it doesn't matter who you vote anymore, the country is segregated in practice which is as worse as being legally segregated (and hypocritical to top), the labour movement is gone and burried, children are burdened by overprotective parents, money-grabbers ran rampant in the practice of medicine (including Big Pharma), the environment is severely damaged with the pollution of the industrial revolution, we have the capacity to kill everyone several times over with nukes (and bio weapons), neo-colonialism runs rampant, drones and similar technology pretty much ensure a future dictatorship of the most technologically advanced, mass surveillance was never as widespread as now, torture became en vogue again and somehow killing and or adducting citizens of sovereign states is now an acceptable practice even for western democracies, huge corporations control the worldwide food chain (Monsanto) and even invest in the water supply, while others patent DNA.
(I didn't even got into the economic depression that will be long-term, the wars for water of the future, or the possibility of peak oil).
>We live in a better world today than has ever existed for the greatest number of people
No. We just have better technology. Nothing special about our ethics or practices.
I'm on my phone and can't reply to the substance of your post, and for that I apologize, but your comments demonstrate a stark ignorance of history. Overbearing parents (what does that even mean?) is as bad as child labor? Sure.
I don't think it's just technology. We are a more just and humane people than we have ever been. Now, it might be the product of prosperity, it is easier to be fair when you're not at the edge of survival, but I don't think that changes the fact that we are better regardless.
>but your comments demonstrate a stark ignorance of history. Overbearing parents (what does that even mean?) is as bad as child labor? Sure.
Perhaps it's this view that shows a "stark ignorance of history"? Who said "child labor" was widespread in the past?
Child labour with today's sense got widespread only in industrial societies. Working in the fields with your parents, as teenagers used to do in pre-industrial societies, is not "child labour" in the Nike-sweatshop or victorian England way.
I can assure you that even 40-50 years ago, kids used to play far more out in the open, and for far more than they do today, e.g:
>We are a more just and humane people than we have ever been.
The "more just and humane" is just a thin veneer when you have enough money not to care for smaller things. As soon as interests come into play people are even worse than they were.
Nixon got the shaft for Watergate. Today, under Bush and Obama we see far worse crimes, covering the whole of the population, and nobody gets the blame. I see far more hypocrisy and money-grabbing than in the past, and more isolated and a-political existence. Where are mass movements like the civil rights movement, the labour movement, the sixties peace and counter-culture movements, and such today?
Well, today women can vote but it doesn't matter who you vote anymore, the country is segregated in practice which is as worse as being legally segregated (and hypocritical to top), the labour movement is gone and burried, children are burdened by overprotective parents, money-grabbers ran rampant in the practice of medicine (including Big Pharma), the environment is severely damaged with the pollution of the industrial revolution, we have the capacity to kill everyone several times over with nukes (and bio weapons), neo-colonialism runs rampant, drones and similar technology pretty much ensure a future dictatorship of the most technologically advanced, mass surveillance was never as widespread as now, torture became en vogue again and somehow killing and or adducting citizens of sovereign states is now an acceptable practice even for western democracies, huge corporations control the worldwide food chain (Monsanto) and even invest in the water supply, while others patent DNA.
(I didn't even got into the economic depression that will be long-term, the wars for water of the future, or the possibility of peak oil).
>We live in a better world today than has ever existed for the greatest number of people
No. We just have better technology. Nothing special about our ethics or practices.