Thanksgiving: Should we be thankful for the times we live in?

bywebbsight

391 followers

8 years ago

Thanksgiving is a day we take time to give gratitude for the blessings in our lives. Among those: family, friends, our jobs, livelihoods ect..... However, i feel i would be remiss if I did not add one more thing to that list before i leave this mortal coil .....

Something that has been ruminating in my mind lately is, "am I living in the best of times." Often when i'm going through a "tough time" in my daily walk and things aren't rolling along the way i want them to or at the rate i would like them to, I ask myself, "do I even understand or quantify what tough times are in the context of what others have gone through in there life experience?" That's when I have to take a step back and say "how bad do i really have it."

I realize that in the modern era we, as a species, have our problems. Whether it be disease, domestic issues, violence, wars, corruption, natural disasters ect....and so on. However, as one peers through the looking glass of history dating back thousands of years, It's hard to discount the level of hardship from the events of the past dating back so many centuries and millennia.

Wars: past and present:

It's pretty much a undisputed fact that all wars throughout history wars are never pretty. I think it's worth mentioning that, I myself often mistake the term "casualties" with "lives lost in battle." I have to catch myself on that one. Especially, when blogging on this.

ca·su·al·ty:

(kăzh′o͞o-əl-tē)

n.pl.ca·su·al·ties

a. One who is injured or killed in an accident: a train wreck with many casualties.
b. One who is injured, killed, captured, or missing in action

I thought that would be a good thing to clarify because, in past wars, the casualty count that resulted in death from those participating in those wars, after the fact, was much higher. It was much more pervasive that these warriors died of afflictions such as starvation, lack of medical care(including minor wounds) than in the wars of the modern era. Which is to say, in modern warfare, the deaths associated with the "casualty" count(per capita) is much lower due to modern medical and logistical advances.

I think it's worth mentioning the historical data suggests, that in most of the wars throughout history, where one side had a clear asymmetrical advantage, the the mortality rate is far lower than in battles where the two opposing forces were more evenly matched.

Also, the lives lost in wars worldwide, has significantly tapered off since WW1&2. A well written article on this can be found here: https://www.quora.com/How-has-mortality-rate-per-battle-changed-throughout-history-i-e-how-has-the-number-of-casualties-per-battle-as-a-function-of-total-combatants-in-each-changed-over-the-course-of-history

There is a book titled "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." Written by a Harvard psychologist/linguist named Steven Pinker. In the transcript, he describes how wars and violence have diminished, even over the last few decades. http://bigthink.com/videos/steven-pinker-on-data-and-the-history-of-violence

Disease:

In the mid 6th century there was The plague of Justinian. estimates suggest it claimed the lives of over 100 million world wide(over half of the world population). Which would be the highest body count in human history. http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-worst-epidemics-in-history.html

In the mid 14th century there was The Black Death. This epidemic is considered to be "the greatest catastrophe ever." Estimates suggest it took the lives of 60% of the population of Europe(50 million). http://www.historytoday.com/ole-j-benedictow/black-death-greatest-catastrophe-ever

Then there is the smallpox epidemic that claimed between 300-500 million lives in the 20th century alone according to Wikipedia's data. There are many more of these examples, like the Spanish influenza, throughout history that i won't belabor on.

In Ancient Egypt, most did not survive past the age of 40. The infant mortality rate was especially high due to being introduced to solid foods laden with bacteria and intestinal parasites. According to this source one 1/3 of the burials in many of the cemeteries are that of children. https://isabellasancientegypt.weebly.com/mortality-rates.html

Sanitation was also a big issue in Ancient Egypt. Most of the water was gathered from canals which were also used for disposing of waste. These canals were also bathed in. This, of course, made the water very unsanitary. This provides a very logical explanation as to one of the main reasons why mortality rates were what they were. https://isabellasancientegypt.weebly.com/sanitation-and-nutrition.html

I wrote post about a month ago on my site, giving mention to how in modern times surgeries have saved many lives. However, the success rate wasn't always so high when surgical procedures(at least as we know them today) were first introduced in the late 1800's. It wasn't til 1900's that the survival rate was over 50%. Before the advent of surgical procedures , if someone had a ruptured appendix it was basically a death sentence due to the infection. https://www.verywell.com/the-history-of-surgery-timeline-3157332

In fact, it wasn't until 30 years ago that former presidential candidate "Ben Carson" performed the only successful surgical operation separating 7 month old Siamese twins.

I could go on about tyranny, oppression, genocide, moral decay ect.... Going back through history, the pattern is very similar.

Conclusion:

As touched on before, we as species are still facing many of these issues in the world today. There are still tyrannical dictators, violence, famine and disease in 3rd world countries and to a smaller extent 1st world countries. But it is my impression that the level of hardship and human suffering in the world today, in the overall aggregate, and in particular the last 30 years, have diminished at least some and considerably in the last 100 years.

It is true that we as sentient beings should continue to strive to improve upon the quality of the human condition as a whole. In fact, that is likely a large reason why we've made it to this point. Without getting into my own spiritual/religious orientation, i do believe there is a divine supernatural source that has been there all along offering his or it's(pick your word) comfort and protection as well. How you interpret that source depends, of course, on your particular belief system.

To conclude, I'll just reiterate that there is (in my mind) not much to refute that we are more than likely living in the best of times of human history. Although, this is a personal observation, the thanksgiving holiday is around the corner and with all the things we the take time to give thanks for, i believe that one would be good one to add to the list.

Just my thoughts. What are yours?