Thoughts near Thanksgiving
It’s a saddening feeling, when suddenly reminded by the words of Friedrich W. Nietzsche, most likely. Summarily: We may acquire more knowledge, but do we get wiser and live more happily ? After the Nazis, fascists, and other dictatorial regimes, by the early 80’s , about one third of the world was dominated by the communists, with all their steel-handed policies, oppression, suppression, repression, all their gulag archipelagos, prisons, and forms of defamation, arrest, interrogation, torture , punishment etc., did life ever get really happier for the peoples of the world, not only for the poor or under-privileged, than life in the past, say from the Age of Enlightenment from the 17-18th cent., or even further ? And now, there are more than 1.5 billions people , who still suffer greatly in Communist China, Vietnam, N. Korea, and Cuba. According to the “Black Book of Communism”, the victims of Communists are at least 4 times that of the Nazis’. Are we getting any wiser and living more happily with all the technical advances? It is a strange feeling, when we look at so many scientific advances and improved standards of living in many corners of the globe, but at the same time, other considerations and ponderings reveal, for some, that we are not too sure we ‘re on the right track to become more relaxed, tranquil, content, or happier. [ Better learn how to breathe , here. Seriously :-) ] Even in many parts of the free world. We may live longer, have better, bigger houses/homes, much better medical care, better education, but are we happier? A couple of the “main”culprits here, which create more problems and unfulfilled feelings for us : Greed, Want and the machines of advertising to create more wants, longings for more material stuffs, fancy gadgets and toys, to name a few. On another hand: just like histories of nations may repeat the same human mistakes, we and our kids may repeat similar personal mistakes as their parents did ? Ever think of that ? Is it a human predicament ?
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