I can see where you're coming from with your race comment. There is still a lot of racism in the United States and in Canada as well, and there probably will be for a long time, and I'm sure that it will keep finding subtle ways to operate in societies that claim to have rejected it, but there are a lot of defensive people who love to feel like a victim even when they aren't. There's a sort of self-righteous vindication that comes with being treated unfairly, because that way you feel confident that you deserve better, and sometimes that's all people have. Sometimes people are just opportunistic and dishonest, too.
The underlying problem is that a lot of people are getting cheated out of jobs, are being treated like sh*t by others, and are having to struggle through enormous adversity in an unfair environment - whether or not racism has anything to do with it. If we don't fix these fundamental problems then there will always be people to wave the race flag, rightly or wrongly. Besides, racism is cultivated best when people are desperate and angry; when people feel the need someone to blame for something. That's really the root of racism, and I think we spend too much time worrying about the branches.
I think that the biggest problem in regards to dealing with post traumatic stress disorder is just the sheer quantity of veterans returning from Iraq with psychological problems. These people are always gonna have problems in their lives, but they can be helped. Therapy, time off work for them and their families, vacations at special resorts, etc. It's expensive, however, and the government isn't willing to spend money on people in large numbers. Maybe some guy can get a new robotic arm, but he has to appear on television with George Bush.
Maybe I was too vague talking about progress in psychology/sociology/philosophy. This progress hasn't really manifested itself in a useful way yet. I just remain hopeful and optimistic that it can and it will. I think we understand better than ever how to be healthy, physically (nutrition and exercise), mentally (education and critical thinking) and spiritually (meditation and friendship)... though we've created a world in which it's much easier and essentially automatic to be extremely unhealthy.
Medicine... that's a mixed blessing, isn't it? We're able to cure and treat so many diseases now, but we're swimming in imperfect drugs that create more problems than they solve. I really have an objection to the abuse of anti-depressants, I think that they make people crazy and dumb and, even if they do work somewhat, it's still a bandaid on a gaping wound. Medicine has improved a lot but I think societies ought to take a more preventive approach than a reactive approach.
So we are technologically better but socially...well we have some things to work on.
Do you think that being technologically better might be directly connected to being socially worse? You mentioned internet porn, that might be an example of how.
The thing with the mouse and the elephant, that was about people-power, confidence, and the underdog. The little mouse got his cheese in the end. That's like citizens. Except for that citizens need to act in groups, and have to be prepared to cope with short-term failures if they are ever going to achieve long-term success.
One of the ways America has gotten better is in its political activism. The Iraq war was the first war
in history to be protested against
before it was launched.
BEFORE! Normally the public just reacts against things that it doesn't like once it discovers that it doesn't like them: Vietnam wasn't even protested against in a big way until it became a big problem and bad media attention accumulated. But, in 2003, a lot of people in the US already knew what they wanted and didn't want, what they thought was right and what was wrong, and they were already connected with one another and with people from all over the world, ready to organize! (The internet comes back again, but more positively now) That's something incredible, I think, and that connects to both technological
and social improvement.
For some, the most beautiful places in the world are the corners and crevices where enlightenment hides, calmly chuckling away at the rest of humanity from a safe distance.
