Why Your Knee Hurting Isn't Indicative of Progress
In an increasingly segmented population with the unlimited power of individual choice, the personal pain seems tantamount.
In the Good Old Days (recognizing, of course, that those days were never as good as we remember or decide to relate, that those days were good for some but fucking horrible for others, that those days were good only in the most conservative of terms) Americans had a sense of communal connection.
Whether you were wealthy or poor, male or female, white or black, there were only three channels on the tube to watch and everyone watched those three channels. There was a limit of options and the news was almost universally the same. Part of that sameness came from the fact that news was independent of commercial interests and so desperately ginning up sexy headlines was only necessary for promoting ideology rather than the constant drumbeat of fear and loathing presided over today.
Whatever the specifics Americans were, in some strange popular culture way, united. Unified by lack of choice.
In those Good Old Days (which were pretty good for most people except those in extreme poverty and given that no one in America actually suffers from extreme poverty and even our poorest citizens would be considered mid-level economically in most other countries on the globe—so, still pretty good) there were fewer bubbles of thought separating us. Fewer distractions dividing us.
In These Days (which will likely be the Good Old Days to generations in the future as they reflect on the ability to go outside without burning to death or when they had unlimited access to clean water) we have the tyranny of options. We have a million channels of entertainment, news, ideology, information. We have too much so we segment.
Chuck, in Orange County, bumps his knee—hard. While not broken, the leg is now in intense pain and the pain affects his every move. He looks around and sees no one with a similar pain. He goes online and tweets that his knee hurts and wonders in the limited character-count he is allowed, if anyone else ON THE PLANET is having similar knee pain.
Lo and behold, he receives responses from hundreds of people suffering knee pain. He suddenly feels heard and less alone. He joins a Faceborg group centered on people with knee pain. Some of these people in the group are angry. Frustrated that others do not understand their knee pain. That there are fewer accommodations for people suffering in this way. They organize. One member is a lawyer and sets up a Not-For-Profit Foundation for the Rights of Knee Pain Sufferers.
When asked how things are in the world, Chuck responds "My fucking knee hurts, that's how the world is. My fucking knee fucking hurts. What are you doing about that? What's the government doing about it? About my knee?"
When Focusing on Your Knee, You Miss the Forest, Dipshit
While Chuck centers all of his views on the world on his injured leg, the rest of the planet marches forward.
What Chuck misses is that in 1966 50% of the entire world population lived in extreme poverty. We're talking living on one dollar per day, no access to running water or sewage, no vehicles for travel, no phones, no computers, no televisions. He misses that since 1966, global progress has reduced the number of people in the world living in extreme poverty to 9% while increasing the fucking population by 300%.
Chuck is so focused on his knee and those with knee issues, he missed that.
Chuck also missed that progress, while slower than many would like, has almost exclusively progressed in the right direction:
In 1800, 193 countries legally allowed slavery of some form. Today, there are three.
In 1979, there were 636 oil spills in the ocean. Today, there are six.
In 1975, 65% of girls of primary age were allowed to go to school globally. Today, it's 90%.
Chuck also missed things happening right in front of him:
He Lost Nearly Everything To Addiction. Then An Arrest Changed His Life
It was six years ago when CEO Dan Price raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year.
Price slashed his own salary by $1 million to be able to give his employees a pay raise. He was hailed a hero by some and met with predictions of bankruptcy from his critics.
But that has not happened; instead, the company is thriving.
"So you've almost doubled the number of employees?" CBS News' Carter Evans asked.
"Yeah," Price replied.
He said his company has tripled and he is still paying his employees $70,000 a year.
"How much do you make?" asked Evans.
"I make $70,000 a year," Price replied.
In Iceland’s barren landscape, a new container-like structure has risen alongside plumes of steam near the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. Its job is to reverse some of the damage carbon-dioxide emissions are doing to the planet.
The facility, called Orca and built by Swiss startup Climeworks AG, will suck CO₂ out of the air. Icelandic startup Carbfix will then pump it deep into the ground, turning it into stone forever. Of the 16 installations Climeworks has built across Europe, Orca is the only one that permanently disposes of the CO₂ rather than recycling it.
San Antonio-based Whataburger awards employees over $90 million in bonuses
Holy Fuck, Chuck!
The world seems to be doing better all the time. Sure, there are things we can work on but it looks like what we've been doing so far is working. Progress is on the upward swing in most areas of society but we've all been so focused on ourselves we've missed the bigger picture.
Chuck should probably pull his head out of his ass, take some Tylenol for his knee, get out of his bubble of Knee Jockeys, and join the rest of the planet. Celebrate the progress and continue the work for more.