Tuesday, June 28, 2022

What's wrong with the world?

"At least 15 dead after Russian strike on shopping mall." (source)
Are we growing calloused towards news of brutal civilian killings?

Ten interconnected things that are wrong with America and the world:

  1. Hunger worldwide. Global food insecurity and even famine are bad and growing worse for many reasons, especially because of war, also because of climate change and economic instability.
  2. War in Ukraine. The struggle drags on, causing unimaginable suffering there. One international consequence is the threat to global food supplies because Ukraine is a major food producer, as is Russia, and agriculture and shipping capabilities there are disrupted, especially that of Ukraine.
  3. More war coming. Russia is also threatening to confront or even to attack other countries on its borders, leading to more and more unstable situations and fears. Other European powers may be retreating from confrontation, emboldening the Russians. Other hot spots exist and may flare up.
  4. Human Rights Violations. In he US, the now fully right-wing Supreme Court, drunk with power, has cancelled one established right (a woman's right to make her own health decisions) and threatens a whole list of other rights, especially for women and minorities, including religious, racial, and gender minorities. For a few years recently in the US people seemed to care about these rights, but a sense of futility is setting in, reducing the will to improve the situation. In many other countries, basic rights are also endangered. In some countries, human rights have never existed.
  5. Guns. Possession of guns is out of control in the US and the situation is likely to get worse. Laws controlling guns are one of the Supreme Court's targets, and with one damaging decision already this session. Death at the hands of a crazy gun user is a constantly increasing risk for all citizens, especially children.
  6. Unjust law enforcement. In the US, public trust in the police has deteriorated -- for good reasons. Police malpractice affects minority rights, gun control, and many other areas of civic life. Good policing exists at times, but the injustices of police actions are too frequent and too much targeted at minorities.
  7. The economy in trouble. In the US, rising prices of essential products and services lead to insecurity in many families, Poverty, hunger, job losses, homelessness, and inequality are increasing. Worldwide, economic disruptions are also causing much suffering, and economic refugees are numerous. This is complicated. 
  8. Threats to Democracy. In the US, voters seek irrational solutions to the country's economic insecurity and other real or imagined problems, thus increasing the danger of democracy's demise and the takeover by demagogues or worse. This is combined with the rampant disrespect for majority values by the Supreme Court. The Electoral College and the disproportionate representation of underpopulated states makes this even more of a threat. Gullible and vulnerable people don't make sensible voters, they cling to religion, guns, and republicans. Globally, in several other democratic or formerly democratic countries, democratic political systems have been undermined or even totally destroyed, replaced by repressive tyrants. Totalitarian governments, meanwhile seem to be increasingly powerful and unlikely to change.
  9. Emerging Diseases and Pandemics. We aren't done with covid, and there may be other epidemics yet to come. 
  10. Climate change: the biggest! Climate disruption is the root of many other problems throughout the world. Fires, crop failures, rivers tearing out of their banks, hurricanes, and other disasters are more and more clearly due to climate change. As the world warms measurably and undeniably there are many consequences. Flooding overwhelms some areas while others are destroyed by drought. Previously hospitable areas have become uninhabitable. Global warming might mean that some of the other things on the list won't look so bad.
Sometimes the thought of all that's wrong makes me feel really depressed and hopeless. Will the world really become worse and worse as this century progresses? I'll try to keep these thoughts away from my blog, and try to be more upbeat. 



Blog post by mae sander for mae food dot blog spot dot com. © 2022.

12 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Such sad times ahead, I can only see things getting worse. I wish it wasn't true. I try to stay positive, post more happy things. But, I am not the type to keep my head in the sand, I like knowing what is happening in the world.

DVArtist said...

I hope you don't stay away from these subjects. You have a beautiful way with words and we all much keep taking and expressing our feeling about the wrongs in the world. If we don't they will just go on like it's OK. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

My name is Erika. said...

I know exactly what you mean. Here in the US we are moving backwards in time-sadly. And all these other issues in the world-like Putin, don't help anything. I do want to hope here in the US the mid-term elections change the feel of things, but I am worried about that.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

The problems in Ukraine aside, we can talk, write bullet statements, or shout our heads off until we are blue in the face. However, the only way to change what is happening in the STATES is to get to the polls. If anyone needs a reason, you have pointed out several and I will add one, too: women's rights, gun control, birth control, and the January 6 Committee. We MUST vote FOR people who will protect our rights and vote OUT people who wish to take them away.

Divers and Sundry said...

I am pessimistic about the future and don't see things (any of these things except maybe Ukraine might get more military assistance) changing. The wingnut fundamentalist/dominionist right has a stranglehold on the GOP and the SCOTUS. I believe it's important to speak out, and I thank you for doing it. It helps to see others out there who share our views.

kwarkito said...

je partage comme vous le savez vos perplexités et je souscris à cet état des lieux. J'aime beaucoup le dessin. il reflète assez bien où j'en suis :-) Je n'arrive pas à comprendre comment on en est arrivé là. Quand je pense que dans le programme électoral de Bob Kennedy, il y avait des propositions écologiques... Je suis souvent pris de vertige devant le tropisme suicidaire de l'humanité. Aucune autre espèce animale n'a un tel goût pour le saccage et la destruction ni une telle volonté de puissance

Jenn Jilks said...

It really is awful, isn't it? I've been quite down thinking about it all.
Today we spent the day watching tennis. It was a break.
Hugs!

Cloudia said...

I commend you for caring as do I. And we will certainly stay aware and do what we can. Only want to remind you that things never continue on the same trajectory for long. Like billiard balls. Unexpected bounces happen. The kids growing up now are a huge factor. I think that more people needed to care about our democracy. And that has happened which is a good thing. We never thought we'd see the Berlin Wall come down without a shot fired. But the unexpected happened and it did. Pendulums swing. The supreme Court has reversed itself in the past. Just look at some news from 30 years ago. All of the things look kind of small now. Reduced. When we look at this moment 50 years from now and we know how it all turned out. Okay, this will seem like manageable history too. Anyway, thanks for your visit. It reminds me to come here, which I enjoy very much

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

The overturning of Roe v Wade is just awful. America could be heading for a civil war of sorts if more freedoms are taken away.

Iris Flavia said...

Rich German politicians, who drive in fat cars or fly everywhere, tell us to save.
Believing they "hurt" Russia by not buying their energy etc, etc.
Whom do they hurt, Putin? No, the small people.
Putin likely rides a horse being half-naked again.
Food gets incredibly expensive, jobs down the drain. They blame it on Covid and the war in Ukraine.
And keep on partying. And let reporter film them doing so.
It´s not only America...

Jeanie said...

Great cartoon. I think you and I are thinking in the same place -- I just finished drafting a post that reflects some of the same.

Literary Feline said...

It's hard not to feel weighed down by all that is going on in the world right now, and especially in the U.S (since it directly impacts me). Add to that personal stuff and I sometimes wonder how some of us get out of bad each day. The local indie bookstore is opening their doors on Sundays starting this month and will have letter writing days in which people can come in and write letters to their representatives and the judges or whoever to demand change. I don't know how effective it will be, but I am sure it will help a lot of people feel like they are doing something as opposed to feeling so helpless. It's something, even if a small thing.