And if you read anti-science people, the world is a scarier place than it was when we were huddled in caves, starving. We have to ban Big Gulps and goldfish and golf and genetically modified food and vaccines; everything but triclosan, which actually may be bad for you. In their world, everyone in science is out to kill us, despite the fact that they have allowed more of us to live better and longer than ever.
Likewise, not everyone can be free. President Obama would love to do some nation-building and impose democracy in various sovereign nations who are no threat to anyone outside their own borders but we determined that was bad when George W. Bush did it, so it can't be good when a Democrat does it, that would be hypocrisy, right? Sorry Egypt, Libya and Syria, you'll have to wait until a Republican gets back in office and then we'll kick you in the ass and get you a real vote.
Fraser Nelson at The Telegraph is downright giddy with nationalism these days too. Before the Olympics, he was probably like everyone else in England - pissed off, sarcastic, critical, skeptical. All it took was Mitt Romney saying what everyone in London was saying about how unprepared they were and they were suddenly all patriotic. That's the way it is, right? We can criticize ourselves, and each other, but you'd better not do it. I mean, I can make fun of a psychologist who runs around claiming that white people are implicitly racist, but when a bunch of skinheads try to do it, I have to defend the guy.
It took the Olympics to help Fraser realize that the world is a pretty good place and Britain is part of the reason why. He's not alone, it's been a tradition to wish fondly for the good old days since we first painted on cave walls - those savages were not painting about the future, they were painting about an animal they killed when they were kids.
The idea that the world is going to hell has been hard-wired into the psyche of most political leaders throughout recorded history. Archbishop Wulfstan of York declared in 1014 that “the world is in a rush and is now getting close to its end”.52 years after he wrote that England got really weird but does anyone now contend King Harald should have won that war instead of William? No, but complaining about how bad the world has gotten is big business and William the Conqueror never had to contend with that; environmental activism is a $7 billion a year industry in the United States, and they exist to tell you how much you suck and are a cancer on the planet.
Fraser notes one thing smelly protesters have also complained about a lot; money. Yes, more of it is bad, to the world's 1% who live in developed nations and can afford to spend their time protesting, that is. The Millennium Development Goals of 2000 set out a bold vision for the world to get better - it wanted to see the proportion of the world’s population living on a dollar a day cut in half by 2015. Well, it happened - 7 years early.
What do self-loathing types in western countries complain about in the face of such good news? Globalization, of course.
It's a good piece. Give it a read: Ignore the prophets of doom – this is a golden age for the world by Fraser Nelson, The Telegraph
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