You tune into almost any international news channel and its a 24-hour news cycle of constant negative news, and as such it is easy to feel as though we are living through the "end times." We are basically bombarded with headlines about climate change, politicas, economic instability, stocks crashing, Donald trump and the uncertainty of artificial intelligence. However, even with all this happening I sometimes reflect on what was or used to be when we look at human history, and a sort of different story emerges.
While the modern era certainly has its share of deep-seated problems and systemic inequalities, by almost every objective metric the average person living today is more secure, healthier, and better off than the some of even the kings of the ancient eras. Perhaps the most profound achievement of this era is that we have largely solved the problem of dying young. For the vast majority of human history, from the Paleolithic era through the Medieval Ages and even into the early 19th century, global life expectancy was between 30 and 40 years. It is a common misconception that people simply dropped dead at 35. Rather, this low average was driven by a staggering child mortality rate. In 1800, roughly 43% of all children died before their fifth birthday. The chances that a newborn survives childhood have increased from 50% to 96% globally. Ref : https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality-in-the-past. To be a parent in the past was to expect, almost with certainty, that you would bury at least one of your children. Because of improvements in nutrition, and medicine, the average global life expectancy has surged to over 70 years. Ref: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/wld/world/life-expectancy#:~:text=World%20life%20expectancy%20for%202022,a%202.46%25%20increase%20from%202021.
We have added more years to the human lifespan in the last two centuries than in the previous twenty thousand years combined. Our ancestors lived in a world where a simple scratch could be a death sentence, what we now term simple diseases, that require simple cures had no cures back then, or the cures were simply outrageous when we think of them now. Operations were crazy also back then, they re-used equipments and their was nothing like anaesthesia or antiseptics back then. Now we have Vaccination for diseases like Smallpox, a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone, has been completely eradicated. Even the recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while socially taxing, demonstrated a level of scientific prowess that would have seemed like magic to past generations.
Now of course there is the widening of wealth gap and it is a valid concern for modern policy. However, we must distinguish between relative inequality and absolute poverty. In the ancient era poverty a lot of people lived below poverty line , this was synonymous across all societies. This is not to downplay the struggles of the millions of people still living in those conditions, but it highlights an unprecedented shift. Beyond even just survival, the modern era has expanded and “ate” to an extent when it came to human rights, at least you can fight for your rights now. Decades or centuries ago some human rights were not even considered a thing. We no longer have the absolute monarchs who could execute subjects on a whim.
Consider literacy. In the ancient world education was only reserved for the elites or the ruling class but if we are being absolutely honest again. It would be dishonest to paint the modern era as a utopia. This is the great paradox of our age, we have the tools to solve most human problems, yet we still see people suffering from preventable diseases and displacement by war. The mental health crisis of the 21st century is a real phenomenon. However, the fact that we can even prioritize mental health is a testament to our progress.
Our ancestors didn't have the "luxury" of burnout, they were too busy trying not to starve or die of dysentery and so Yes, the modern era is messy and can be frightening. We are the first generation to deal with the consequences of our own industrial success, from plastics to carbon emissions but if you were offered a blind draw to be born into any time period in history without knowing if you’d be born a king or a peasant, a man or a woman, in the East or the West, im sorry to say that you would be foolish to choose any year other than today. We live in an age where what would have been impossible or even considered magic has become routine. We have lowered the ceiling of human suffering and raised the floor of human potential.