I have listed below some issues that are threats to (my?) peace. This is the result of the quest for answers for a few questions I asked myself over the past couple of days: "Is the world a safe place to live in?", "Is the world as dangerous as the media portrays it to be?", "What are the areas in which a complete overhaul is necessary to make things right?", and "Is it time to move to Mars?"
My list is given below:
- Greed
- Poverty - e.g. India
- Corruption - e.g. India, South Korea, Brazil
- Consumerism - e.g. McDonald's, Subway, Amazon, Walmart
- Nepotism - e.g. INC, SP, DMK, JDS, TRS, TMC, BJD
- Intolerance - e.g. Kalburgi, Pansare, Dabholkar, Gauri Lankesh
- Unemployment - e.g. Greece, Spain
- IT - Fake News, AI, Monopoly by Tech Giants, Targeted Marketing
- Social Divide - e.g. Casteism, Classism, Racism
- Economic Divide - e.g. Mumbai, Healthcare, Education
- Cultural Divide - e.g. North India vs. South India, East vs. West
- Religious Divide - e.g. Shia vs. Sunni, Hinduism vs. Islam, Christianity vs. Judaism
- Nationalism - e.g. US, Brexit, India, Hungary
- Terrorism - e.g. ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram
- War - e.g. Syria
- Refugee Crisis - e.g. France, Germany
- Cold War - e.g. {US, Saudi, Israel} vs. {Russia, Iran, Syria}, India vs. Pakistan, Greece vs. Turkey
I am yet to reach a conclusion.
However recently I came across a TED talk by Steven Pinker, according to which the world has come a long way in terms of progress: democracy as opposed to theocracy that was the practice in major parts of the world (e.g. Russia, England, Spain, India), freedom for colonies (e.g. India), freedom from slavery (e.g. US), improvement in literacy levels and human rights, modern sanitation facilities (e.g. toilets) and dissemination of information (e.g. WWW). So there are indeed reasons to be happy about. However the extend to which these ideas have been fulfilled in practice is debatable.
However recently I came across a TED talk by Steven Pinker, according to which the world has come a long way in terms of progress: democracy as opposed to theocracy that was the practice in major parts of the world (e.g. Russia, England, Spain, India), freedom for colonies (e.g. India), freedom from slavery (e.g. US), improvement in literacy levels and human rights, modern sanitation facilities (e.g. toilets) and dissemination of information (e.g. WWW). So there are indeed reasons to be happy about. However the extend to which these ideas have been fulfilled in practice is debatable.
