Posted on 05/16/2024 6:17:22 AM PDT by MtnClimber
If you are graduating from college this year, I suspect you’re not too familiar with George Carlin. So before you become inflamed about the (intentionally) harsh title, let me tell you I plagiarized it from Carlin, who was one of the best American comedians of the last 100 years. His show You Are All Diseased is available on YouTube, and it is so good that I was willing to start by alienating you a bit just to plug it here. You’re welcome. It is especially recommended if you’re in any kind of altered state of mind.
Speaking of states of mind: I’m worried about yours.
Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among people your age in the U.S. are skyrocketing. I myself lost a student to suicide a few years ago—an experience I wish on no one. I’m here to tell you that I think it’s partly our (your professors’) fault. We, along with others, have been feeding you a distorted view of the world and your place in it, and I think this has caused a considerable part of the existential angst you all feel.
But I’m not just aiming to point fingers.
I want to lay a vision of the present and future, which I genuinely believe and yet know many of you don’t share. After all, exposing you to unfashionable ideas is a core part of a healthy education. My deeper hope in doing so is to start a conversation on changing this sad state of affairs and to get you on your way to a happy and healthy life. Isn’t that what commencements are all about?
Whenever I speak with my students—I teach at the University of Virginia—they seem deeply pessimistic about the state of the world. We all know the reasons. Climate change is going to kill us all; late-stage capitalism is running amok; inequality is at an all-time high; racism and bigotry are rampant; gender-nonconforming and queer people are under unprecedented attack; economic anxiety has never been worse; AI is coming for our jobs; and on and on and on.
I then pose a simple thought experiment to them: If you were given a time machine that could take you back to any period in the last 12,000 years—since the dawn of civilization—when would you rather live?
You see, I believe we currently live in the golden age of humanity. Things have never been better for human beings. Yet it seems we have never felt worse about our prospects.
If you’re a woman, go back more than about 100 years and you become property (of your father and, later, your husband), with no voting rights and little protection under the law. If you’re a person with above-average melanin levels, like me, the same (and worse) happens to you. Gender-nonconforming minorities would find the past just as terrible.
Based on every objective measure of well-being—safety, health, wealth—if you are a college student in America today you are better off and wealthier than the king of England was 300 years ago. You have better access to education, entertainment, leisure, and healthcare. You have cleaner water and more abundant food. You have a significantly safer and longer life. And you have access to all of the world’s knowledge, including this piece, in the palm of your hand.
And it’s not just you. Throughout recorded history, the vast majority of humans lived in what we would today define as abject, dehumanizing poverty. Income and wealth inequality were measurably worse than they are today by orders of magnitude. Women died during childbirth at staggering rates. Most humans didn’t survive childhood. And various forms of subjugation and slavery were the norm in nearly all societies. On these and a variety of other objective metrics, humanity has made breathtaking progress in the past 300 years.
Which then raises the question: Why? Why is it that “everything is amazing and nobody is happy”?......
I bet that none of the students even had their emotional support pets with them as they graduated.
Because they turned their backs on God?
Hmmm...
“safety, health, wealth”
What matters is the ratio of income vs. essential expenses of individuals.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Whenever anyone says they’d like to live in the past somewhere I always say two words: Modern Dentistry
The free market, guided by the rational self-interest of individuals and businesses, is well-equipped to find solutions to problems like climate change, inequality, and technological disruption. As long as we maintain a system of economic freedom, property rights, and limited government interference, I believe we can be cautiously optimistic about the future. The creative power of the free market, combined with human ingenuity and entrepreneurship, will allow us to overcome the challenges we face.
But now the “free market” makes up problems for them to solve to make money. Climate Change is a perfect example of this.
America’s Fuzzy Muzzie, FREE RIDE, deadbeat class of ‘24. The Domestic Illegal Alien Fuzzy Muzzie Jew Hater Class.
I blame Socialist Democrats, Deep State, Brandon, 0bama and the feckless band of Quisling ‘republicans’ currently in charge for the state of the world these days.
That said, there are still more good, successful, not nuts ‘kids’ out there - we’ve got a boatload of them in our family; employed, patriotic, contributing members of society.
I know we’re not the only family with decent offspring - my neighbor kids are ALL delightful, polite, respectful and helpful. :)
In 1975, new pickup trucks were cheap compared to 2024.
I have an ad someplace for a new 1973 ‘townhouse’ in Fairfax County, Virginia that was on sale for about $33,000.
The disease is cultural.
Human beings were meant to suffer a little bit of hardship. Work! Make things.... fix things.... gather/hunt things....
...and if they do all that, and do it well enough to keep their family and friends (or tribe as it were), they will probably experience a sense of worth and well-being (I’ll refrain from using the loaded pie-in-the-sky word ‘happiness’).
I am not indicting civilization, or western civilization in general. I don’t think we need to go back to being cavemen. I agree with the article and have said something very similar myself previously, about most people in our culture living a more luxurious life than royalty did several century ago. At least in terms of physical health, that is nothing to complain about. But in terms of psychological health, the way we live is a big problem, and the more urban your environment, the less you have to do for yourself. The city and the state is the modern Feudal lord. If you have a purpose or career at all, you likely specialize in one thing (secretly hate it), take a cab home, and if anything in your apartment is broke, you call someone. Then you bury yourself in your phone in tiktok or some game, or your binge on netflix until morning and do it again on limited levels of sleep.
The building code for Florida was decades ago a small book.
Nowadays it would cost over $1,000 to buy the building code books.
The quality of tomatoes 1960s vs. 2024?
The quality of spaghetti sauce 2000 vs. 2024?
Because they are also barraged 24/7/365 with the most sophisticated propoganda the world has ever seen.
vs.
The computing power on a teenager's iPhone in 2024.
America has become a nation who’s sole focus is race and diversity. The greatest country in the world spends all it’s time, resources, and energy focusing on race. Discussing race. Investigating alleged racist incidents. Studying why people are ‘racist’. It’s all so insane.
What a missed opportunity for humanity. The strongest, wealthiest, greatest country in the world could have accomplished so much. But instead, it chose obsession with diversity as it’s sole focus. It will waste all of these resources with nothing to show for it. Except diversity.
And to think they even need emotional support pets. What a bunch of crybabies.
That’s it, right there.
Diversity is like buying an expensive “surprise” box. Upon opening it you find it contains a bunch of fetid garbage.
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