tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post5584600628099252450..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Bad Times For The World Can Be Good Times For Writers - Andrew Crofts Katherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-24140259348191919522018-12-30T10:56:40.837+00:002018-12-30T10:56:40.837+00:00While I agree with the premise -- bad times can be...While I agree with the premise -- bad times can be good for many industries -- I don't really agree that the world is in such bad times right now. Definitely not worse than we have been at other times in our existence. It's a downward spiral of considerations that make it seem worse and worse, rather than making us aware of the truth, which is that the world is getting better and better.<br /><br />e.g. 50% of the world's extreme poverty has been eliminated in the last 20 years! Globally, women and men have almost equal access to education, >80% of the world's children are vaccinated, the global birth rate has stabilized, and we're taking better care of the animals and environment than at any time in the industrial age. Even Trump's 'horrible' policies are exaggerated by the media and, upon analysis, can be seen to have fewer differences to those of Obama or B.Clinton than most people are aware of (many of the policies, including those now called racist, are actually the same as his predecessors).<br /><br />However, because humans are drawn to bad news and because legacy media are facing strong competition from new media, we hear ever worse and worse news. Well, that and the fact that most journalists don't actually know the truth (read Factfulness by the late Hans Rosling of the Gapminder Institute for more information).<br /><br />Personally, I'd love to see a Good News channel created to offset the constant negative news everywhere else and give some perspective.Edwin H Rydberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08013305239021906159noreply@blogger.com