Hi Nderitu,

Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts. We can discuss each point that you brought up. I think taking a look at this article would help us agree on some points: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2017/11/30/why-the-world-is-getting-better-why-hardly-anyone-knows-it/#a74ad9178268

I’m not arguing that the world has reached a state of peace and that suffering around the world has been eradicated. You’re right — there are still many problems to be tackled and many atrocities still happen every day. However, we are living in a time that is 100x better relative to any other point in human history. I never made the claim that there aren’t crimes or tragedies happening in the modern world. I guess our differences come from what we choose to focus on. When we turn on the news, they try to only show us dramatic and exciting news — cops chasing criminals, mass shootings, fatal accidents, etc. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay attention to these things either. We just need to put things into perspective.

I can also acknowledge that, since I live in the US, I am oblivious to the numerous things that happen in every other place around the world. Even in the US, there are many damning things that are happening and it seems like no one really has an answer for all the unfortunate events that are happening here.

We can sit here all day and point out all the problems of the world. That would be easy. I’d like to think about it in a smaller scale — what can we do about these problems to make the world just a bit better, to aim toward a more peaceful future? Is it possible? Where can we start? If we individuals took responsibility to try to change what we could only change, could we see a brighter future where the prevalent problems you stated are resolved? While this may seem naive and overly optimistic, it seems like a better alternative than just philosophizing about the tragedy and suffering of this world.

I hope you don’t take offense at anything I just said and will say, because I genuinely wanted to make my point clear and spread a positive message through my writing.

Also, I’d like to point out that if we wanted to have a conversation that we can both agree on, we should refrain from bringing in our religious beliefs because if we start from an absolutist fundamental perspective of the world (I’m guessing you’re a Christian, but correct me if I’m wrong) and I happen to disagree with that fundamental perspective, we cannot move forward in discussion without referring back to ultimate authority. I’d rather talk about statistics and facts — something we can empirically analyze and argue about.

You can certainly bring up his words and make valid points based off of them, but I think you shouldn’t expect me to agree with you when you try to argue based off authority (When you say Jesus wasn’t wrong and that anything else deviating off of Jesus’s point is a lie, you make the claim that his point is irrefutable, which I might not necessarily agree with for various reasons such as not seeing him as an ultimate embodiment of truth in this world due to my religious background. That’s beside the point though, so we won’t get into it.)

So here’s my question to you Nderitu. I’m willing to accept your notion that we aren’t living in the most peaceful time in human history. Could you tell me what you would do to move toward peace? We need problem solvers, not problem identifiers. I liked that you decided to refute my points and I respect your differing opinion. What will you, as an individual, do to better this world? What can we do, as a society, to bring forth a better world for humanity?

I look forward to hearing your response :) Thanks again for reading and sharing your thoughts Nderitu.