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Comment by deadbabe | Hacker News Reader

As the world grows more interconnected, the proliferation of news about horrible events happening spreads faster, and even if you personally ignore the news, other people don’t, and this colors the overall mood of society.

There is horror everywhere, and always will be until the end of our days.

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Suppose you lived in a village where there was no outside news. You'd learn of about two murders and a dozen deadly accidents in your lifetime. Imagine how safer you'd feel compared to a villager who's getting outside news beamed to her face every hour of the day.

I'm not advocating isolation, but our primitive minds are not able to really understand that what is projected in front of us is not the same as what happens in front of us. I don't know how anyone could solve that.

And how can you support funding this beautiful park proposal when there are children starving in ${country}??

I can’t remember where I heard this, but it was someone questioning joy and frivolity in a time of war. And the answer back was that people need to remember what they are fighting for otherwise what’s the point?

If you don’t allow yourself joy until the problems are gone, there will never be joy and the problems will multiply for lack of it.

I was thinking the same thing. It's surprising how many people don't get this, arguing that poverty, wars or some other pressing matter must be solved first before we can go to space or spend money on non essential activities.

It may seem counterintuitive, but that way of thinking doesn't actually solve problems, it only perpetuates them.

While your point has value, there's also value in the perspective that people should take more responsibility for the damage inflicted on others under their watch. For example, it is my perspective that too many people stood by idly while the U.S. engaged in war for the 90's/00's/10's/20's. Too many people said "I want to go make money on wall street/in law/in consulting" instead of either changing their political system or serving it. There is a fair argument that war, particularly war conducted by your own country, is an exceptional thing and requires re-prioritizing duties over desires. The only other exception I can think of that isn't debateable is genocide.

> the U.S. engaged in war for the 90's/00's/10's/20's.

but also in the 40s/50s/60s/70s/80s

I started to respond with more depressing historical facts and then thought better of it.

Look! Colorful rubber balls bouncing in the sunlight! Fun!

At least "how can you support funding this beautiful park proposal when there are children starving in ..." is more than a century old at this point (there are Soviet books from 1920s lampooning this sentiment).

> and this colors the overall mood of society.

Would thousands of colored balls careening down streets bouncing off objects and each other and damaging things in their path be an okay metaphor for this?

I hadn’t thought of it in this way. Interesting point.

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