A Sense Of Hope And Despair Throughout History

Every generation has to face the reality and choose a point of view, hope or despair, to plan for scarcity or to embrace possibilities. All societies, throughout history believed they had hit the borders of human achievement, but in every new era, the ones who trusted the glorious spark of imagination found that vastly greater horizons lay ahead.

While some people think there is hope for the world, others are embraced by a sense despair; there is no doubt that things between the past and the present can be different in many aspects, and patterns of life, changing forms and human civilization development were caused by the same differences. While these differences are seen as positive by some -like newer views about gender equality and responsibility with the environment- others argue that returning to the previous values of society and its customs is necessary because they are lacking in contemporary life. There is certainly no doubt that the world is currently facing a flood of unprecedented uncertainties from climate change, terrorism, unresting political and civil issues, the undeniable struggle for aquiring resources and fear from disruptive technologies. Whether it is likeable or not, regardless of where humanity is, it is living a new world disorder.

In the last few centuries, historically speaking, the levels of literacy for the world population have been rising in a drastic way, in 1820, only 12% of earth’s population could both read and write, and today, the share has reversed almost completely, only 17% of the people in the world has remained illiterate. When it comes to the way we communicate, modern technology has modified the way things are and how they can get to be, but social media isn’t digital technology’s only big achievement, neither it is the only way it has changed humanity, now modern technology is able to give definitions instantly, instead of looking for one on a book, it can teach how to solve an equation without requiring a teacher, it can show how to make a cake with audio and clear instructions, instead of simple illustrations in a cooking book, beyond words, internet can be used to search up anything, and technology not only works to look up videos on the internet, it has changed today’s society, improving it everyday, giving second chances, giving new opportunities, giving hope to all people, it has made an impressive influence on humans.

The world is also becoming a place where it’s easier to access information, however, there are studies of ten countries across Africa, Asia, and South America found that women are almost 40 percent less likely than men to have used the internet, regardless of their age, education, wealth, or location. There is also global warming, the vastness of the world's population certainly is the main cause of this fatal event that is currently happening, more people means more resources consumed, more fuel burned, more people filling the cities and transiting the roads and skies. There’s an alarming opioid crisis the leading cause of death of Americans under 50 is now the drug overdoses that begin in the 1990s in most cases with the prescription drugs. Crimes and violence are still prevalent, for example, riots erupted in Baltimore after Freddie Gray, a young black male, back in 2015, and was killed in custody of the police, 343 homicides were recorded within the city - the highest number recorded yet, of any American city per capita. This constitutes a risk that many cities may be replicating across America in the upcoming decades.