Okay. Usually only anti-social/loner types think that way.
If the world had more bad than good then civilization would cease to exist. And, in actuality, 2018 has been one of the best times to live in. It's just that the most peaceful countries are becoming even more peaceful and the most violent countries are becoming even more violent.
Do something about it, help make the world a better place instead of getting high
"countries" are a human construction, and no places are inherently more violent than any others.
it's a matter of resources, economics, politics, culture, history, ideology etc etc.
i think a lot of people in the west have encountered a sense of profound disillusionment because of the political turbulence we've seen in the US (trump) and UK (brexit) and the implications of those things.
a lot of people are finding it hard to eke out a living in the way their parents and grandparents (and so on) were able to, and have a feeling of insecurity that goes along with not having secure employment or stable housing.
add climate change, pollution, deforestation, mass extinctions and a whole lot of dark, depressing ecological shit...and yeah, it's a pretty fucking crazy time to be alive.
humans have been altering the planet's ecological systems since pre-agricultural times, and downright destroying our environment since the industrial revolution.
i don't see greed, corruption or destruction as inherently, unavoidably human traits.
i see them as a result of our societies, the way we organise our resources and labour. basically - capitalism (in our current world) - or feudalism, in earlier times (royalty, aristocracy, serfs and peasants etc) or whatever power structures are based around exploitation. exploitation of other people, animals, the earth and its various resources.
our societies have grown out of these unbalanced power relationships that give influence and agency to greedy, ruthless people - and those that aren't too troubled by trashing the planet.
these societies have become enormous and complicated in the last couple of hundred years, with technology that makes our lives easier (in countless ways) but which also threatens our very survival.
it's becoming more and more apparent that we're a toxic blight on the planet (and often, one another) - but the growth and expansion of our societies (countries, cities, the massive expanses of farmlands, factories, mines etc that make 'modern society' possible) is unstoppable.
it's hard to come to terms with, and it's really difficult to see the damaging impact our societies have on the natural world - but the systems that have made these social and technological advancements possible cannot simply be stopped or changed to be more efficient.
actually - that's not true; they can be made vastly more efficient, but the political will of industry and big business is to maintain the status quo.
the wealthy and powerful are not prepared to give up their positions for the common good, because for the most part, those people are motivated by ambitions which are rather more driven by material concerns and the power/influence that comes along with wealth.
humans havent lived like this for very long, in the scheme of things - and there are plenty of people that don't live in developed societies, and aren't destroying the world.
indigenous australians, for example, lived as hunter-gatherers on the continent for something like 100,000 years before british colonisation.
that's the longest known continual human civilisation - through ice ages and massive continental changes.
because of their population size, and harmonious co-existence with the land, they were able to survive for that amount of time. the arrival of europeans absolutely ravaged their communities, cultures - and many thousands died from foreign disease, alcohol abuse and the various depravities of colonial bondage.
we are pretty fortunate to live in a time where medicine is as advanced as it is - we in the west have high life expectancy, low infant mortality, good food security and clean drinking water and sanitation.
but we are faced with the knowledge that our comforts, security and our social order are directly responsible for some pretty major environmental and human devastation.
for a lot of us, that's a pretty big burden to have been born into. "making the world a better place" is a lot harder than it seems. most of the people i know are pretty environmentally conscious - some of my close friends are extremely so - and i know people who put their bodies and freedom on the line regularly to try to stop ecologically (and socially) destructive things like deforestation or the building of new coal mines.
we all do what we can - but it still weighs on a lot of us. because it's real. we can't just switch off (with drugs, distractions, or denial) all the time. and as tough as that is, it's just a burden we all have to carry. but let's not act like it's a sign of weakness to 'give a shit'...
i think people are amazing -
and utterly fucked. but i try to seek out the good when i can. for the sake of my sanity.
that's life in the modern world; deeply paradoxical.