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We l8ve in a goodrn age

Started by Dave, December 27, 2017, 09:41:18 PM

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Dave

Well, he dud not quite ssy thst...

On BBC Radio 4's prime morning news prog, "Today" during the week after xmas they have a guest editor - who can set the tone, pick people to interview etc.

Today the guest editor was Prince William and his chose his dad and Barak Obama as his interviewees.  They talked about the recent past and the future, amongst other things like the foolishness of using social media to set a news aganda and how people interpret this. Obama also made a comment about now being the best time to live.

Thinking about things like civil rights, the rule of law, health, and many other everday things for the majority of the world's population, do you think he was right? We still have unemployment, poverty epidemics, wars, i justices, torture, barbarity etc. But I have been aware, for a long time that as a, basically working class bloke, I live in a style that my father could barely dream about. For the moment we have a huge home-owning and car owning population. The "have" to "have not" ratio is said to be getting larger (possibly due to our financial system), but is it really worse than in Dickens' time?

This is a question that is not really international, matters like the availability of health care alone are important, it is somewhat more "democratic" in some countries...

Due you think that there was ever a time that a person of your social category was better off?  I have left abstract things like nuclear families, community spirit, neighbourliness etc out of this deliberately.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Tank

Prince Harry. You know the ginger one not the bald one.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Dave

Quote from: Tank on December 27, 2017, 10:06:12 PM
Prince Harry. You know the ginger one not the bald one.

Yewh, yesh, just realised my midtake there  :redface:  !!

Here's a link for snyone dufficiently interested

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/world/europe/obama-prince-harry-interview.html
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Sandra Craft

Right now my mind is taken up with the possibility of Harry and Meghan inviting the Obamas to their wedding, but not the Trumps.  Social media seems to think this would be an international incident, but while I can see it would be awkward explaining it politely to the press, I think it would be something that would blow over quickly.  I mean, Harry isn't even the heir after all, he's just the spare.  There are probably a lot of world leaders not getting an invite or even expecting one.  I must say this is one of the reasons I don't envy royalty -- imagine not having a say over your wedding guest list because of protocol.

But to answer the question asked, I do think those of us in the First World have it better than any other time in history. 
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Icarus

I agree with Sandy.  We now have it better than ever before in the history of the human race. 

In the western world we no longer have polio, diphtheria, malaria, or bubonic plague. and not many bed bug infestations.   We have cars that can park themselves in a parallel space, GPS, Pasteurized milk, Peanut butter whose oil does not separate, and Taco Belle too. We have air conditioning and heat without having to chop wood or store ice blocks, When we break a leg or have a coronary incident we can usually be in a hospital in a matter of a few minutes even if we need to use medivac helicopters.  There are a gazillion other advantages that we usually take for granted and we have forums like this one where we can converse with Aussies, Brits, Vikings,  South Africans, and more.  Louis Armstrong had it right....What a Wonderful World. 

On the down side we have Fox news, Breitbart, Limbaugh, Hannity,  New Age religions, kooks like Roy Moore, and a bunch of knothead politicos who must be living under rocks.  We have Little Rocket Man, Trump, nuclear warheads and a bunch of other doomsday hardware. ...and software too. 




Dave

QuoteOn the down side we have Fox news, Breitbart, Limbaugh, Hannity,  New Age religions, kooks like Roy Moore, and a bunch of knothead politicos who must be living under rocks.  We have Little Rocket Man, Trump, nuclear warheads and a bunch of other doomsday hardware. ...and software too. 

Icarus, I reckon about the only one of those that did not have an analogue in the past is the threat of global atomic annihilalation (plus rapid climate change.) We, in some ways unfortunately, do have the means of spreading false views and fake news more quickly to more people.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74