[Closed] Was the 20th century a blip?

No, compared to the 20th century so far the 21st has been less violent, no millions being squandered by Royal Familys feuding for a start.

The night is young.

Blip.

There's a line in the Matrix about how they chose the late 20th century for the fake world because it represented the peak of human civilisation. Okay it's a bit of a cheesy film but it might have a point.

We had a scarce few years of relative peace and harmony - between the end of the Cold War and the troubles and the start of the religious war 1991 to 2001. The world is more scary now than the end of the Cold War, the gap between rich and well the rest of us bigger and there are few indications of anything improving soon.

We stand before a precipice globally.

Doomsday clock is advancing....

[i]...I wonder...[/i]

Sometimes, too much thinking can be a bad thing. Or maybe just pointless.

Any horsemen ridden by cressers on the horizon in your view of the future?

BBC says it could be more than a "blip."
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170418-how-western-civilisation-could-collapse

Nah..100yrs ago we would have already been at war.

This is generation sensible, better informed, better educated and better at communication than ever before.

They'll survive and prosper when we are all pushing up daisys.

Not sure how the 20th century was 'peaceful' or progressive. We had two world wars that collectively probably killed more people than all other wars before it, we saw genocide on biblical levels with the Jews at the hands of the Nazi's and other genocides occurring around the world at various times killing several millions of families. We've demonstrated that big organisations like the UN, despite their best intentions, still don't trump the individual nations' own ambitions so therefore are largely irrelevant institutions. It's amazing that we actually survived the 20th century.

The current events are far less worrying because of the horrors of the 20th century. There is alot of chest puffing and tough talking on the international scene, but Russia's capabilities have been hugely depleted over the last 30 years so they are not able to sustain a significant conflict, North Korea is just all talk - unless we allow them to develop an intercontinental nuclear capability, and we're not about to go to war with China really, they put trade above everything and the rest of the world is indebted to them so if they destroy us they wont get their money back, and because of that they don't need to go to war. We'll push things further than they are now, but a way will be found for a peaceful compromise. This century is panning out to be a bit more chaotic, but the appetite for global war is not the same as it was in the early part of the 20th century.

I think people need to listen less to the media whipping up storms in teacups. The pressure of 24hr news means they are all trying to outdo each other wringing everything out of every little snippet of irrelevance. Look at the last 24hrs of nonsense about the snap GE announcement - they're still going on about it this morning but just re-gurgitating the same old crap from the last 24hrs but with more 'shock' and 'wow' and amazement. It's all a bit boring. things are never anywhere near as bad as the media portray.

Seriously?

[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_conflicts ]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_conflicts[/url]

The 20th Century is the bloodiest in history.

Even if you only look at post WW2, there was some major wars, Korean, Iran-Iraq and look at the other Middle East conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s.

More adults die of being too fat than through war. This is almost unheard of in history.

More are dying from being run over and poisoned but that doesn't mean we going to hell in a handcart, just thats theres different problems to fix.

Pessimism is a human condition, however the reality is my kids are brighter and better educated than I ever was or will be and are well placed to fix the problems my generation has caused.

The 20th Century is the bloodiest in history.

Feels like it it should be, but it isn't by a long way, look up Taiping Rebellion, 1850ish, at least 40million dead, makes WW1 seem like a playground argument

Feels like it it should be, but it isn't by a long way, look up Taiping Rebellion, 1850ish, at least 40million dead, makes WW1 seem like a playground argument

Check out WW2, 60 million dead. Makes the Taipang Rebellion and WW1 seem like a playground argument.

[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II ]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II[/url]

[url= https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-died-in-all-the-wars-in-the-20th-century ]An estimated 123 million dead for the 20th Century[/url]

An estimated 123 million dead for the 20th Century

Pffft.. [i]everyone[/i] from the 19th century is dead!

I'm not sure those are the best comparable sources tbh. I'd look at warring as a % of population as well.

Mongol conquests for example.

I'd look at warring as a % of population as well.

You can look at the numbers anyway you like but consider the 20th Century and innovation and engineering that went into killing.

Factories to perform mass executions.
Nuclear weapons.
Mass carpet bombings involving thousands of multi engine aircraft.
ICBM's.
Machine guns.
Flame throwers.
Tanks.

The list is endless.