Peace and Prosperity In Our Time

Although we won’t read about it in the mainstream media (which is hopelessly and pathologically addicted to bad news and dysfunction), the present time is one of unprecedented peace and prosperity in the world -- with virtually no major hostilities and violence occurring except in those disposed to imagining every slight as an excuse for retaliation. That’s not to say that there are no argumentative persons who thrive on conflict and ambition to give them their sense of being alive -- but luckily, they mostly work in the mainstream media or in politics, where they can easily be identified and isolated from the rest of the population.

Demagoguery isn’t what it used to be -- mainly because it’s been overdone by all the would-be petty despots, so that it is like so much junk (e)mail that merely gets knowingly filtered, deleted and disposed. The most creative minds are not intrigued by what more ingenious scams and cons they can devise, but really, can think of more useful things to do -- rather than just trying to fool everybody else to prove they are smarter than everybody else.

The major reason the mainstream media and politicians won’t point out this peace and prosperity is that they resisted such initiatives to eliminate these possibilities, dismissing them as foolish notions that violence and hostilities could ever be eliminated -- and all humankind could do, was to lament that such atrocities were the inevitable fate of societies.

So it’s good to see people turning their attention to all the wonderful and ingenious products now available to enhance their lives -- while those who don’t, continue to insist that the world and everything in it never changes, and hoard their money rather than exchange them for wonderful products of value and usefulness. These people prefer their misery and complaining -- rather than finding out the joy in the world created by those with the will and initiative to do so.

Of course one can complain that everybody else is still not doing everything one thinks they ought to be doing -- to make that person determined to be dissatisfied and displeased, happy. That is what the joyful conclusion of the year is about -- celebrating the excess and abundance that one accumulated over the year, and regaining that confidence that things might be permanently better -- as a long-term trend, and not just the insecurity of the moment.

Peace and prosperity are not accidents of our times but the whole meaning and purpose of human societies and enterprise -- so it should not be regarded as a random event of wishful-thinking. Good things happen because people make them happen, and not as the random events media reporters will insist are too good to be true and lasting.

Peace and prosperity is well deserved -- and well-earned, by those who act on those intentions, and not merely by those who wish bad things will not happen if they close their eyes and ears hard enough.

Good news is what we’ve worked so hard to achieve -- and deserve to hear about.