Anyway, more than one of the questions I received was from far away and it asked, simply, if I thought that there would ever be a time when the people of the world would get along better, and that greedy, power-hungry people would no longer have such a strong influence.
I replied:
I do think that, overall, the world has become more civilized and there is really less torture, fewer huge wars, and more are people getting along better. I don't know if you have a chance to read Steven Pinker's
"Angles of Our Better Nature" but he makes a good case for that.
Yet, it is obvious we are not close to the great wave of human harmony. I think the global climate change has
put pressures on countries to fight for basic resources that are becoming more scarce. That is a lot of what underlies the problems in the Middle East and northern Africa today.
I also think that technology has made life so much more efficient that it is becoming more difficult
for people to find meaningful work, if they can find work at all.
Until those problems are solved in a manner that gives everyone a chance to survive and have a
decent, but not decadent lifestyle, there will be fighting and trouble.
Take good care of yourself.
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