https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1126121
"The 2021/22
Human Development Report (HDR) – which is entitled “Uncertain
Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World” – paints a
picture of a global society lurching from crisis to crisis, and which risks
heading towards increasing deprivation and injustice.
Heading the list of events causing major global disruption are the COVID-19
pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which have come on top of
sweeping social and economic shifts, dangerous planetary changes, and massive
increases in polarization."
Via Wayne Radinsky, who wrote:
"I remember learning in the US, life expectancy has declined every year since
2014, giving at least one piece of objective evidence that life in the US is
getting worse, and it’s not just a subjective impression. But this isn’t about
the US – this is global. Life expectancy, education, and income are the three
components of the Human Development Index, which has declined in 90% of
countries over the last 2 years.
The report is a 320-page document. I didn’t read it but skimmed through the
graphs & charts, and some of them are pretty interesting. There’s a political
polarization chart (p. 9) that shows political polarization is increasing in
most countries around the world. I thought political polarization was
increasing in the “anglosphere” – the US (where I am), the UK, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand – and a few other European countries, e.g. France.
But according to this chart, political polarization is occurring in every major
region of the world – not just the aforementioned “Western Europe and North
America”, but “Eastern Europe and Central Asia”, “Asia and the Pacific”, “The
Middle East and North Africa”, and “Latin America and the Caribbean”. Most
people I talk to in this country seem to think political polarization is
happening because the conservative side of society woke up one day and decided
to become horrible, morally bad people. But if political polarization is really
this pervasive all around the globe, then this can’t possibly be the
explanation. In 2020 we did a Boulder Future Salon discussion on Peter
Turchin’s book Age Of Discord, in which he presents a mathematical model of
society (based on a set of differential equations) which outputs a “political
instability index”. But even his model falls short, because it applies to one
society at a time and can’t explain concurrent increase in political
polarization globally. So the explanation for this phenomena remains a
mystery."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
