Is this the most dangerous period to be alive??????

Irishguy16

Let's look at all of the conflict and attrocities around the world over the past 12 months......

Isis beheading,burning, slaughtering and cannibalizing anyone that opposes Islam, not actual Islam, but there version of Islam,and even slaughtering innocent humans in more viscous ways on a daily basis in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Boko Haram doing the same in Nigeria, and tiping the neighboring countries, Cameroon and Chad, even using children as suicide bombers, abducting innocent school girls and so on,reports suggest that 2,000 people died in a single attack a few weeks ago!

The Saudis carelessly dropping bombs in Yemen, not understanding that it's making it difficult for foreign aid to arrive, accidentally killing innocent children in the process.

The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

The Ebola outbreak, although it has died down in recent months, wiping through parts of Eastern Africa killing thousands and thousands at an extreme rate.

The Russia and Ukraine conflict, killing in and around 6,000 people within the past few months.

Israel bombings on the Gaza Strip, although not in the news as much anymore.

The Taliban out in force in Pakistan, most notably killing 145 innocent children just before Christmas, another attack happened last weekend, killing 20 innocent construction workers.

The Afgan Taliban also with numerous suicide attacks in Kabul.

The Sudan/South Sudan conflict.

The Malaysian Airline disasters and the recent Germanwings crash.

The missing students in southern Mexico.

And that's just naming a few.

Is the world getting more and more dangerous, and has there been a more recognised period of history, apart from both World Wars, with so many atrocities, diseases and trauma?

Please feel free to add onto some events that I have missed....

TwoShedsJackson

No it's not, it's just a lot easier to hear about all this stuff due to the internet. Try living before public sanitation systems were invented.

jimgoose

Dunno, it's pretty safe where I am. :pac:

efb

No.

The King of Moo

No.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence?language=en

We just live in a time of unprecedented access to news coverage, and in which said news coverage must bow to commercial pressure to gain attention, thus focussing on and exaggerating stories of war, terrorism and violence.

Harry Palmr

I'd say October 1962 beats this hands down. That was all or nothing.

iDave

Life expectancy has never been higher so no.

irelandrover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

more deaths from this. So no, i dont think now is the most dangerous time to be alive.

Spunge

i think this might be the least dangerous time to be alive.

ScumLord

There's been war throughout the world, especially in the middle east and Europe for thousands of years.

Planes are safer now today than they've ever been. How many commercial airlines travel throughout the world every day? The percentage of crashes are tiny.

Women have rights, slaveries been pushed to the edges of civilization.

Medicine works now.


I don't know how people are able to spend their day in peaceful coexistence and then pick a handful of tragic events from around the planet as evidence they're living in a dangerous place and time.

efb

OP needs to stop reading sensationalist rags

Magico Gonzalez

Almost all of the countries or regions referenced by the OP have experienced worse violence during the last century.

Air travel has, statistically speaking, never been safer.

Take a few deep breaths and relax.

Caliden

OP probably think pedophiles never existed until a few years ago.

whisky_galore

Yeah the old days here were great; Magdelene laundries, polio, and detachments of Black and Tans ruining your day.

Macavity.

Depends totally on where you live. I imagine there's never been a safer time to live in Ireland.

Gran Hermano

The Pleistocene was pretty miserable in comparison.
And cold, bloody damn cold.

Riverireland

Pre prepared food always available, Central heating, cheap clothing and foot ware, benefits if unemployed. We are all extremely sheltered and will seriously struggle to survive if this, or probably when this phase ends.

jamesbere

Gran Hermano wrote: »

The Pleistocene was pretty miserable in comparison.
And cold, bloody damn cold.

Don't remind me, higher water charges back then aswell

The Backwards Man

Overuse of erotemes will be the death of us all!!!!!!!

ancapailldorcha

Of course not. Quality of life has never been higher, in the west at least.

DeadHand

The entire death toll caused by armed conflicts throughout the world in 2014 would have been roughly the same as a particularly quiet week during World War Two.

Zamboni

Probably the luckiest humans to have ever lived.
Ever.

ScumLord

This video usually comes up in these threads.

jaykay74

Harry Palmr wrote:

I'd say October 1962 beats this hands down. That was all or nothing.

The Beatles release Love Me Do?

VinLieger

First and second world Wars were likely a bit worse, not to mention the Spanish flu epidemic in between them as well and thats only the previous century, you might want to read a history book

DeadHand

Irishguy16 wrote: »

Isis beheading,burning, slaughtering and cannibalizing anyone that opposes Islam, not actual Islam, but there version of Islam,and even slaughtering innocent humans in more viscous ways on a daily basis in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Actually, ISIS and Boko Haram (to name but two) have strong doctrinal justification for their actions from Islam. It's a murderous interpretation of Islam, but it is Islam. Who's to say it isn't Islam's true face? The thousands (and rapidly growing) who subscribe to it would certainly claim it is.

The world isn't particularly dangerous now but remove any ongoing conflict in which Islam is a major factor and any terrorist attack for which Islam was the dominant inspiration from the list of recent calamities and the world would seem positively serene.

LDN_Irish

I walked past a chap earlier and asked him a rhetorical "howaya" and he didn't even nod back. Place has gone to sh1te man, I tell ya. They don't even lock up preggo yungwans anymore, it's madness.

daUbiq

ScumLord wrote: »

There's been war throughout the world, especially in the middle east and Europe for thousands of years.

Planes are safer now today than they've ever been. How many commercial airlines travel throughout the world every day? The percentage of crashes are tiny.

Women have rights, slaveries been pushed to the edges of civilization.

Medicine works now.


I don't know how people are able to spend their day in peaceful coexistence and then pick a handful of tragic events from around the planet as evidence they're living in a dangerous place and time.

Slavery still exist and not just at the edges of civilization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_slavery

It's safe in the west and parts of Asia... we tend to have very western based views that forget about large parts of the world.

Irishguy16

ScumLord wrote: »

There's been war throughout the world, especially in the middle east and Europe for thousands of years.

Planes are safer now today than they've ever been. How many commercial airlines travel throughout the world every day? The percentage of crashes are tiny.

Women have rights, slaveries been pushed to the edges of civilization.

Medicine works now.


I don't know how people are able to spend their day in peaceful coexistence and then pick a handful of tragic events from around the planet as evidence they're living in a dangerous place and time.

Medicines works? clearly not, not with the large death toll throughout Africa on a daily basis, Ebola was first declared an epidemic back in the 1970's, although came out in a greater force last year, still no cure, leaving quarantined communities to suffer and die week in week out.Are you forgetting about AIDS?kills more than a million a year, what about Malaria, Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Meningitis,tentanus,measles, and so on...... Most of these diseases are relatively new!!!!

Women have rights? You are clearly looking at the world from a western perspective. In Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive, must cover their faces all of the time, mistreated, beaten, so on and so forth, are you forgetting about Afghanistan? One in eleven women are sentences to death at birth. The Congo is also top of my list, giving women no rights to freedom of speech, and they have no one to address because no one defends their rights. Do you not know about the terrible story about the Fillipino maids in Hong Hong? I can go on and on, but I'd prefer that you educate yourself by doing some research!!!

Slavering has been pushed out? Are you kidding?

Do do a quick google search and you will see that slavery is as visible today as it has been back in America in the 1800's. Look at the Qatar 2022 World Cup construction workers, working for a euro a day in blistering heat, passports confiscated, working long and exhausting days,living in shacks with no running water, just look at some of the BBC documentaries, they report on some very clear issues. Look at the North Koreans, working in the forests of Russia for free, in return for praise from Kim Jong Un. Brainwashed!!!!

What about the slave camps in North Korea? Do you have any idea how many people are tortured on a daily basis.

The world is really fare and advanced today? Why are so many innocent black men being shot to death in America on a weekly basis, causing riots.

You are right war has been around for thousands ond thousands of years, but now we have more wars, more people and more diseases. This is a viscious cycle, people dying at an extreme level. I bet you have never left Ireland before in your life?

Open your eyes mate!!!!

goose2005

daUbiq wrote: »

Slavery still exist and not just at the edges of civilization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_slavery

It's safe in the west and parts of Asia... we tend to have very western based views that forget about large parts of the world.

But are those places worse to live than they were 50 or 100 years ago? Probably not.

The Diabolical Monocle

Can't blame OP for thinking so, it does seem to have gone acutely mental in the last few years.
Maybe a re-wording of the question to focus in on recent decades would be appropriate - post crash seems more uncertain than any time in the 90's or 00's.
The economy and various fighting factions seem to have become much more indirect and hard to clarify.

Penn

"Two things have always been true about human beings; One, the world is always getting better. Two, the people living at that time think it's getting worse." - Penn Jillette

kneemos

60 million killed in WWII,still within living memory.

Galwayguy35

No.

Wouldn't have liked to have been around when the Mongols were killing everything that moved, I'd say their level of slaughter left ISIS in the ha'penny place.

Dying from the Black Death wouldn't have been great either.

Irishguy16

kneemos wrote: »

60 million killed in WWII,still within living memory.

I said in my origin message, not including both World Wars!!

galljga1

Irishguy16 wrote: »

Medicines works? clearly not, not with the large death toll throughout Africa on a daily basis, Ebola was first declared an epidemic back in the 1970's, although came out in a greater force last year, still no cure, leaving quarantined communities to suffer and die week in week out.Are you forgetting about AIDS?kills more than a million a year, what about Malaria, Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Meningitis,tentanus,measles, and so on...... Most of these diseases are relatively new!!!!

Women have rights? You are clearly looking at the world from a western perspective. In Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive, must cover their faces all of the time, mistreated, beaten, so on and so forth, are you forgetting about Afghanistan? One in eleven women are sentences to death at birth. The Congo is also top of my list, giving women no rights to freedom of speech, and they have no one to address because no one defends their rights. Do you not know about the terrible story about the Fillipino maids in Hong Hong? I can go on and on, but I'd prefer that you educate yourself by doing some research!!!

Slavering has been pushed out? Are you kidding?

Do do a quick google search and you will see that slavery is as visible today as it has been back in America in the 1800's. Look at the Qatar 2022 World Cup construction workers, working for a euro a day in blistering heat, passports confiscated, working long and exhausting days,living in shacks with no running water, just look at some of the BBC documentaries, they report on some very clear issues. Look at the North Koreans, working in the forests of Russia for free, in return for praise from Kim Jong Un. Brainwashed!!!!

What about the slave camps in North Korea? Do you have any idea how many people are tortured on a daily basis.

The world is really fare and advanced today? Why are so many innocent black men being shot to death in America on a weekly basis, causing riots.

You are right war has been around for thousands ond thousands of years, but now we have more wars, more people and more diseases. This is a viscious cycle, people dying at an extreme level. I bet you have never left Ireland before in your life?

Open your eyes mate!!!!

Still the safest era ever in most parts of the world.

Irishguy16

DeadHand wrote: »

The entire death toll caused by armed conflicts throughout the world in 2014 would have been roughly the same as a particularly quiet week during World War Two.

Not looking for any World War comparisons, mentioned in my original posting!

galljga1

galljga1 wrote: »

Still the safest era ever in most parts of the world.

I will however add that we have the most sophisticated arsenal ever, capable of killing practically all life on this planet (some will survive regardless of what we as a race do). A bit scary but personally, I am not heading for the hills anytime soon.

Sam Kade

Tv3 just reported a shooting in a house in the US, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for news. Not so long ago it would never make irish news.

ScumLord

Irishguy16 wrote: »

Medicines works? clearly not, not with the large death toll throughout Africa on a daily basis, Ebola was first declared an epidemic back in the 1970's, although came out in a greater force last year, still no cure, leaving quarantined communities to suffer and die week in week out.Are you forgetting about AIDS?kills more than a million a year, what about Malaria, Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Meningitis,tentanus,measles, and so on...... Most of these diseases are relatively new!!!!

Ebola only affected Africa like that because they don't have good medical systems or the infrastructure (modern sewage) needed to combat the spread to stop these things. It was stopped in it's tracks by western countries. The fact poor countries were badly effected while western countries weren't shows medicine works when people have access to it. New diseases are obviously going to cause problems until we study them and find out how to combat them.

Women have rights? You are clearly looking at the world from a western perspective. In Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive, must cover their faces all of the time, mistreated, beaten, so on and so forth, are you forgetting about Afghanistan? One in eleven women are sentences to death at birth. The Congo is also top of my list, giving women no rights to freedom of speech, and they have no one to address because no one defends their rights. Do you not know about the terrible story about the Fillipino maids in Hong Hong? I can go on and on, but I'd prefer that you educate yourself by doing some research!!!

While things are still bad in some parts of the world the western influence is overpowering. Even countries in Africa and the middle east are changing, their late to the change and have to go through all the same problems we did but it is happening.

Slavering has been pushed out? Are you kidding?

I never said pushed out, I said pushed to the edges of civilization. Slave traders hide in the fringes of western society or have to operate in corrupt countries that ignore their own laws on the subject. there is the fringe of borderline slave labour which we're all responsible for with our purchases. Over all though, even in places like China things are improving for workers, the goal for any industrializing nation is to turn the country into something more in line with the west and to have a large tax paying middle class.

What about the slave camps in North Korea? Do you have any idea how many people are tortured on a daily basis.

The most odd ball billy no mates country in the world. They're not a good example of how the world is today.

The world is really fare and advanced today? Why are so many innocent black men being shot to death in America on a weekly basis, causing riots.

How many innocent black men are being shot? The problem in America is police resorting to maximum force. And as bad as it is, it's a hell of a lot better for black men in America today than it was even 50 years ago.

You are right war has been around for thousands ond thousands of years, but now we have more wars, more people and more diseases. This is a viscious cycle, people dying at an extreme level. I bet you have never left Ireland before in your life?

Well you can add that to your list of extreme assumptions that are wrong about.

What makes you think there are more wars? There were more independent cultures in the past, annual wars were part and parcel of ancient greek diplomacy. France and Britain went through a 100 year war, Do you really think there was less wars during the age of empires??

What makes you think there are more diseases today? None of these living organisms just popped into existence, they've been around for a long time they've just been hidden in inaccessible jungles.

desertcircus

I don't remember the source, but I recall a statistical analysis that indicated that a randomly selected person's chance of dying violently, dying as an infant, dying in childbirth or dying from a preventable disease are lower in the modern world than at any point in history.

galljga1

Gran Hermano wrote: »

The Pleistocene was pretty miserable in comparison.
And cold, bloody damn cold.

Ah come on, we would not have had Morph, Wallace and Gromit, Shaun The Sheep... the list goes on.
You shouldn't let it go cold. Bang it in the microwave for 30 seconds: perfect.
Try working with marla, that is a pain in the ar$e.

super_furry

We live in mankind's most peaceful era.

eeguy

Hard to think only 100 years ago that 37 million died in WW1, then 50 million died in the years after from Spanish flu.

So no.

This is probably the best time to be alive.

VinLieger

Irishguy16 wrote: »

Not looking for any World War comparisons, mentioned in my original posting!

You arent looking for world war comparisons yet you quote active and recent conflicts in your OP as your reasons for making the suggestion its the most dangerous time to be alive?????

eeguy

VinLieger wrote: »

You arent looking for world war comparisons yet you quote active and recent conflicts in your OP as your reasons for making the suggestion its the most dangerous time to be alive?????

Pretty much this.

Here's a mental exercise:

Think of all your facebook friends. How many have died from unnatural causes in the past 5 years?
Most likely none, though you may have a car accident or suicide in there.

If that was 100 years ago, then maybe 5% or more of your facebook friends will have died, most likely from diseases, infections or violence.

BobMcBob

Remember a radio report suggesting that this is the safest time to be alive, you are less likely to die a violent death now than at any previous point in history

catallus

super_furry wrote: »

We live in mankind's most peaceful era.

Because the dinosaurs are extinct? It must have been tough surviving when they were around.

And yes, I know most of them were herbivores, before anyone tries to point that out.

Adamantium

Isla Nubar, circa 1993.

Bad times.

Read somewhere before that the murder rate in medieval times was over 30 times what it is now.

You had regular famines, Black Death, disease, very short life expectancy etc. etc.

TwoShedsJackson

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

No it's not, it's just a lot easier to hear about all this stuff due to the internet. Try living before public sanitation systems were invented.

Exactly, just look at all the health & safety features (too many to mention) that are in existence today.