There are several popular business/self-improvement books out there now (“Factfulness” and “Enlightenment Now”) that make the case that the world is objectively a much better place than it has ever been.
The authors don’t base their position on flaccid, positive-thinking mumbo jumbo. If they did, I wouldn’t believe them. I’m not the type who can step in poo and exclaim, “Great! Fertilizer!”
Just not me.
I’m much more of a realist. Yes, there are some bad, awful things going on right now that make we weep for the future. For starters, the polar ice caps are melting, Americans willingly elected a hateful nincompoop, and, of course, the band Nickelback still, inexplicably, roams free.
But as Steven Pinker, the author of “Enlightenment Now” points out, we humans tend to “take the world’s gifts for granted, including “newborns who will live more than eight decades, markets overflowing with food, clean water that appears with a flick of a finger and waste that disappears with another, pills that erase a painful infection, sons who are not sent off to war, daughters who can walk the streets in safety, critics of the powerful who are not jailed or shot, the world’s knowledge and culture available in a shirt pocket.”
You gotta admit, that’s a pretty persuasive list. But I don’t think it’s just at the “macro” level that life on the planet Earth, and in particular in America, is getting better all the time. Small things about life are better than when I was a kid, too.
Here are a few things on my list. I’d love to hear yours.
Movies – Whenever I watch movies made before, say, 1970, I’m stunned at how much the art of movie-making has progressed at every level – from scripting to special effects.
Food – When I was a kid, we always got a jumbo-sized orange or grapefruit in our Christmas stocking. A lot of kids did. I didn’t realize why at the time, but it was because top-notch citrus simply wasn’t as available in stores (particularly in the U.P.) as it is today, and was thus a huge treat, worthy of anchoring the toe of a Christmas stocking. Today’s food distribution system is infinitely better than just a few decades ago. I like grocery shopping just because it still amazes me how different stores are from my youth.
Squeeze ketchup bottles with the dispenser on the bottom not the top – Yeah, it’s a small thing – until you use one of the old-fashioned glass bottles and have to bang and bang on the bottom of the stupid thing until you get annoyed and jam a knife down there to start the flow. Product packaging of all kinds is far better these days.
The Internet – In our house, whenever we have a question about something, we say, “Pull out the miracle machine and find out.” Meaning a cell phone. It’s almost unbelievable that we all have access to the world’s accumulated knowledge in the palm of our hands. Granted, we mostly use that power to swap emojis, but it’s still incredible. Before the web, if you had a question, you looked it up in the Encyclopedia Britannica. (Cue my kids: “The what?)
Post your lists below or email them to me at andrewhellercolumn@gmail.com. I’ll use the best in a future column.
Ask any person of color if life is better today than it was in the “good old days”. I once heard Oprah say that she couldn’t take her eyes off the tv when Sidney Poitier won the Academy Award for best actor because she had NEVER seen a black man honored for ANYTHING. In the same interview, she said she would pour over each new publication of the magazine Ebony because she had never seen anyone who looked like her in a magazine before. Just imagine.
Typo in the third paragraph. You can point out mine.
I used to love perusing through encyclopedias when I was a kid, just to explore the wonderous abundance of topics in the world. Today I love doing the same with the internet.
I remember when the internet first became popular in the mid-1990s. I am fascinated by how much it has changed in just 25 years. Look at all we can do online now compared to then. I wonder what we’ll be doing in ten years.
Yes, the internet is a great source for facts, as were encyclopedias.
But along with information, the internet also offers so much hate and ignorance.
One used to have to go outside and talk with many people to get that before. Now it’s everywhere. Right in the palm of your hand.
My list of things include:
CD’s (and of course the CD player): They are stronger, it really takes some muscle to break one. You can put anything on them, such as reports, letters, homework, graphs, spreadsheets, data, photos, anything on paper that you want to save. You can also use a scanner to “copy” something and put it on a CD for safekeeping. Oh yes–and music, too. You can buy one with music on it-or you can download music that you already have. This category also includes the flash-drive or san-disk. This neat hola-graphic invention covers vinyl records, phonographs and “needles”, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, etc., even though they may have tremendous sentimental value.
The great new micro-point writing instruments are fabulous. Even the penmanship looks better.
The fountain pens with the leaky ink cartridges could cause some various types of damage. In elementary school, there were ink wells on our school desks, but they were not in use anymore.
Battery-operated or “electric” toothbrushes. Effortless clean healthy teeth. All we have to do is still use them twice a day.
Yes, what will they think of next? I just hope it’s not something that wrecks the environment just for our convenience.
Good Bread In The USA!
When I was a kid, my dad got good rye bread at the American Bakery in Grand Rapids and at the Davis Bakery in Cleveland. That was it. End of story, in that day. Only alternative was industrial bread.
Now, every little burg has a good bakery that makes great bread. In my own case, I just have to walk downstairs, and make a choice of great fresh bread from the fantastic Nantucket Baking Company.
Your claims about global warming are total bullshit. In the 1970s we were being told of the coming ice age, starting in the late 1980s.
https://youtu.be/L_861us8D9M
Global warming has been proven to be bullshit. Only die hard, liberal, environmental, jihadists adhere to the lies.
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/global-warming-fake-news-from-the-start
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic-ice-sheet-greater-than-loss
According to NASA, The polar ice caps are INCREASING…. That means Andy Heller is a liar.
You are a total asshole dad. Why do you ignore facts? Your ignorance totally shows with that bullshit statement. Jihadist? Holy war against Islam and the environment. Read definitions before you post such bullshit. You just showed how much of an ignorant asshole you are. Get outside, out of your moms basement. Get some fresh air and blow something up like you enjoy. You just showed how much of an idiot you are.
You just showed what you are! I guess “Working Dad” can’t have an opinion about global warming, but everyone else can – – of course only as long they buy into the current liberal thinking. It shows your own ignorance to have to immediately call him names. If you can’t counter an argument without calling people assholes, then keep your opinions to yourself and let others have theirs.
Working dad trolls this blog like an untreated STD. He has earned those kinds of slurs over and over. If you want to call what he said an opinion, it was also profane.
OK, that’s a funny line.
The gloves are off when it comes to working dad. He can call anybody anything and you have no problem with it. He deserves the same.
No one said he couldn’t have an opinion about global warming. He just feels the need to insult and demean along with it. It truly doesn’t bother me – I’ve been yelled at for a living for 35 years. But it does get tiresome.
I won’t dishonor our fallen heroes by wasting one minute of Memorial Day arguing with a couple of unpatriotic trolls with the names Working Dad and ann b.
Oh good, the nastiness is here. I was worried that this nice column would be left unmolested.
Thanks for getting it started Working Dad. Bet you’re that person that people hate to see arrive at a gathering.
Anyways, happy and safe Memorial Day everyone. Thank you to all out past and current veterans.
He can turn anything into anger. I might experiment by writing a column about kittens and grandmas just to see how he turns that.
Computers! When they were first introduced into our office environment (mainframe) I immediately thought that that was what I wanted to do…..25 years later I am still involved! I have used them to connect with family and friends, locate old friends and do many things I have never been able to do before. The Internet is a wonderful thing to keep in touch, educate, find answers, etc., seemingly endless information.
Automatic washers and dryers saving so much time and human energy. My mom used to have to haul water, heat it, do the laundry and then empty all the wash and rinse waters.
Furnaces that you control with a switch on the wall, no going down to load one up with coal….and air conditioning…used to have to go to the only place in town with that..the local moviehouse.
Life is much easier with our appliances and conveniences, but maybe more hectic and stressed.
You have some good ones. My mom also washed clothes like you described and hung them on clotheslines in the basement or in the unfinished upstairs during the winter or on rainy days.
I agree that life is easier, but most of the time we fill the extra time with more stuff, adding to the hectic and stressed lifestyle.
There is also another concern for convenience: anything that takes the place of a person’s livelihood is not a good thing; they do take jobs away from people. I once called the Michigan Unemployment Security Commission and was greeted by a “computer / robot” that gave me a number of choices for the “next” menu, and so on. Now if any company would seek to give someone a job, you would think it would be the unemployment office!
I need to stay out of the anti-Working Dad comments for a while. But, Dad, you utterly changed the topic. What things do you think are better now, better than they used to be? That is our topic.
Working Dad, please do not use profanity when communicating with Andrew. Using profanity just weakens your arguments. Your presentation facts is accurate, but you must understand that liberals on any site do not want to listen to them. The gods of liberalism have spoken that AGW is real and that, in their minds, there are no facts to present to dispute what is going on.
They will not be satisfied until they destroy the United States. All that Andrew wrote in his 3rd paragraph will disappear under socialism/communism. The only ones that will have a lifestyle with all the items listed in paragraph 3 will be the top 2% liberal elites. That is how socialism/communism has worked since 1917.
Tom says, Fred, Jim says and others think that they will be part of the top 2%. They will find out they were/are useful idiots. They will out the hard way that there is no utopia in socialism/communism.
They refuse to study the history of what happens to nations and the people that end up under socialism/communism.
I’m more worried about fascism under Teflon Don than communism.
Fascism, communism, and socialism basically are the same thing. They are just a degree or two apart. In all of them, the government (state) decides what will happen. None of them allow for human freedom of thought, religion, work and other things we take for granted now.
Hitler and his party were socialists. Stalin was a communist. Mussolini was a fascist.
In all those types of government, the populations were suppressed. If you dared to criticize the leaders, you either ended up in prison or you were executed.
Those of us who voted for President Trump knew he was not a perfect human being. We knew he had flaws.
He just happened to have the flaws, many times over, that republicans said absolutely excluded previous candidates when those candidates were democrats.
Ideology means less than the R or the D. That’s why republicans find themselves in the position of defending a 1.3 trillion dollar spending bill when one smaller than that was called “reckless” when the other party’s guy proposed it. Or why they now support tariffs that are both a tax increase and the government using its power to interfere with business’ buying decisions.
If you don’t know what you support until your guy says it, then you lack both principles and intellect.
Jimiii, read the definition of fascism and then compare it to what Teflon Don and his cronies are doing.
You always have lots to share, until someone asks you to define Constitutional Republic. You just don’t know that one do you? I will be happy to tell you. Just say the word.
Fred, I have listened to liberals like you for over 55 years now. You always spout off that your way is far superior to the way the Republic was meant to be.
I do know that the republic form of government that we started out with has been corrupted by self-serving politicians and the voters that keep on sending back to Washington, D.C…
The writers of the Constitution originally had the idea that someone that ran for office would 1 or 2 terms then go back to their home state and go on with whatever occupation they had before they ran for office.
A few years after the citizens stopped following the Constitution the professional politician was came into being.
A few years after the professional politicians decided that they needed a retirement package and a bunch of other perks. Their main task turned to raising funds (bribes) in order to stay in office. Too many politicians in both parties are corrupt. They both are guilty of taking funds that sometimes are of a questionable nature.
President Trump made the campaign promise that he would drain the swamp.
I do not believe that he cannot keep such a promise. the swamp is deeper and bigger than he, and a lot of Americans, can understand.
Fred, if you and like minded individuals were to write the Bill Of Rights, it would not be a bill of rights.
The following amendments would not exist as they are now. They might/would be written like this: No freedom of speech, No freedom of religion. You will accept the fact that no rights come from God. All rights come from the state.
There would be no 2nd Amendment. The only ones allowed to have guns are the top 2-3% of the elites that would run the country. The deplorables (what hilliary called those that did not vote for her) do not need protection of a gun in their house, the state will “protect” them.
No 5th Amendment. The state will determine if you are guilty before your trial begins. No Miranda rights. I could go on, but, I would really have a long comment. Even too long for me.
1st Amendment would
Rant and rave about anything and everything, but still can’t tell us what a Constitutional Republic is.
Teddy Lubba, under communism, socialism, and fascism all manufacturing industries and other businesses are not owned by individuals, they are owned by the state. The state determines what is produced/manufactured.
I have not read anything that suggests that President rump is going to nationalize businesses.
I watched a video clip that lasts about 1minute and 23 seconds of a talk given by Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan has called all white people devils for years, among other names. He has said nasty things about every white American president. I do not recall him saying nasty thing about obama.
In this talk session, Louis Farrakhan says the following: “President Trump has done more for black people than any other president in history. President Trump is destroying every enemy that was the enemy of ou rise.
Is it the Department of Justice where we get none? Is it Congress where make a law that favors us and you turn around and destroy it? Is it the media that has destroyed every black leader that stood up for us?.”
It is online unless Facebook has removed it because it does not follow the liberal democratic line.
Great! Now, what is a Constitutional Republic? You know, our own system of government?
I am not going to try to define the Constitutional Republic for you. No matter what I say you will attack it. You would bring up endless arguments. You would never be satisfied with whatever answer I give.
The only answers you want are those that fit your definition. Liberals like you think that your way of thinking is the only correct way of thinking. You believe that you are mentally and intellectually superior to everyone else on the planet earth.
I have dealt with liberals/socialists like you for years and all of them think that they are superior to everyone else.
They look down their noses at everyone else.
Hilliary called everyone who did support her a basket of deplorables, Obama whined that those of us in flyover country were bitterly clinging to The Bible, God, their religion and other things that he did not like. Not an exact quote from him, but it is close enough.
Listening to the lamestream media omitting and changing the words of President Trump when he was asked his view of ms-13 gang members. His answer was meant only for the ms-13 gang members, not every illegal immigrant or legal immigrant.
The lamestream liberal media immediately changed his definition to mean all immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Listening to Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats whine that he was slandering every immigrant quite revealing about their goals for America.
They sounded like they were in support of ms-13 gang members.
Why not? You define everything else.
Come on. Admit it. You just don’t know.
Teflon Don is working on that. It starts with tariffs.
Well Roseanne just got her show cancelled. I would like to take this moment to thank her for showing the world what a Trump supporter is.
Fred, I saw a shirt yesterday that a twenty or so year old was wearing and it said Build That F (picture of the American flag) ing Wall Now. This was on memorial day. What a disgrace,
but I’m sure Teflon Don would approve because it backs his beliefs
No doubt. Their fake patriotism supports Cadet Bonespurs while condemning real American heroes who devoted their lives to serving our nation. Disgrace indeed.
You moronic ignorant fool. Do you not understand/ comprehend that you just insulted a whole lot of active duty Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Navy, and Coast Guard personnel that support President Trump? Of course, you do not. President Trump has more support from the Armed Forces than obamma ever had.
You have no military experience, you never served in any of the Armed services. The same can be said of most of the liberal writers on this page.
LOL……What? I have read some moronic things from you, but this one takes the cake.
JimIII, Let me help you out here. You and Donald Trump are an insult to the country, it’s founders and most of it’s people. And on top of that, you don’t even know what a Constitutional Republic is. However, you sure have lot’s “knowledge” about communism and dictators, like what the former USSR was, and Putin is. Don’t you think that is a little interesting? I sure do.
Back on Topic: Cars! Our cars now are MUCH better than our old cars. Are any of you old enough to remember when it was utterly normal for your car not to start on a cold morning? My friend and neighbor George used to put a burning charcoal grill under his cars on winter mornings, just to warm the oil, just so the cars would start.
I have a cousin who lives in North Pole, Alaska. He says he can’t even turn his newer truck off in the winter, or he won’t get it started again. Our cars are certainly stronger for Michigan, but apparently not always strong enough for North Pole, Alaska.
The muffler on the car. When is the last time you replaced your muffler. It used to be about every three years. I had a car for ten years and never had to replace it.