IS THE WORLD SITUATION REALLY THAT BAD?

We are living in a very unique world that is flooded with information. Information is neither wisdom nor knowledge and may, in a significant percentage, be a mental pollution of ideas. Most of the time, information is sponsored by interested groups of people and may have a political, financial, or religious motto. Such information may have a hidden agenda. One such agenda is to show the whole world in bad shape, the earth in great danger, and life on it in an imminent threat. Another commonly heard rhetoric is that people are becoming poorer and poorer and hunger prevails across the globe. Furthermore, one more narrative prevalent for centuries is that one dominant religion of geography would cannibalize the other. If we undertake an exhaustive study of information related to pollution in societies, the list could be long but it brings one thing to the surface most of these perceptions lack factfulness. Some dedicated people like Dr. Hans Rosling of Sweden have devoted their lives to finding facts so that myths and misconceptions could be shattered and a real picture emerges. The world is full of worries and problems, misery as well as penury. Environmental degradation, atmospheric pollution, food shortage, human rights violations, and wars are the real issues. There should be no doubt regarding this reality but the extent to which the negativity is being highlighted has to be scrutinized. Factfulness alone should be the basis for finding solutions if we wish to improve the lot of people and planet Earth.

I remember my village in the 1960s. Those were the days of real poverty with 90 percent of all houses being mud houses. People used to have minimum items of clothing and only one proper meal a day. Today, there isn’t a single mud house in a village of 3,300 units with well-dressed people. Every second house has a vehicle in the form of a two or fourwheeler while every home is equipped with electricity, cooking gas, sanitary toilet, and internet connection. Facts indicate that except for some pockets of poverty, most of the global population is living in a much better condition as compared to previous centuries. The human race is continuously developing despite all the negativity being circulated by people with some specific agenda. Any factual study would point out that the majority of the global population lives somewhere in the middle of the income scale.

No doubt, the world faces big challenges yet it is improving year by year and man has made tremendous progress. Historically, millions of years back our ancestors lived in small groups and were hunters and gatherers. They needed gossip and dramatics as their mental food because there were no other options. As a result, both these characteristics are part of our genes, hence, we trust gossip more than facts and dramatize every situation. This is one reason that human predictions are usually not correct except for those based on the use of data and science. Secondly, even the most dedicated and scientific people may dramatize an event. Such happening we frequently witness regarding election results, community conflicts or some object from space falling towards earth. Here, much depends upon your worldview. If it is negative then most of your conclusions will be overdramatic and negative. Don’t blame media and propaganda for this but introspect your behavior where you may find your bias and love for dramatics as real culprit.

Just like a growing baby brain that craves sugar because it requires sugar as fuel for its growth and learning, you usually need dramatic instincts to give some thrill to your world. Life without some drama would be boring, stale, and stagnant. What is important is the degree and amount of drama. If a growing infant consumes excessive sugar, he may develop several health issues. Likewise, excessive gossip and dramatics would certainly lead to a faulty worldview. We know that there is global warming, the climate is changing, human behavior is being reshaped & hunger is prevalent in many parts of the globe. We know that greedy people are felling trees but sensible citizens are planting tree saplings with enthusiasm and making other people aware of the benefits. Thus, a clear fact-based study would clearly show that the degree of suffering is lower when we compare what happened during medieval times or even the recent past. Health care, though expensive, is significantly better & available to a much wider population and so are transportation, communication, electricity, tape water and rail, and road networks. Earth is no heaven and only hard-working, skillful, or well-connected people reach the upper spectrum but the middleincome group has expanded much more than the poorer group. If we know and analyze these facts with proper data, we can plan and do much better for people and places to improve things and situations. Religion or race-based prejudice or politically partisan bias mostly lead to destructive policies and hinder overall progress. So, to keep ourselves from going astray we have to control our gossip and drama to move towards factfulness which would certainly make the world a better place to live.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Dr Ramavtar Sharma The writer is general surgeon and family physician