A whole lot of the people still reading this are saying, “Of course I'm depressed! People are starving! America has turned into Nazi Germany! My parents watch retarded television shows and talk about them for hours afterward! People are dying in meaningless wars all over the world!”
But how did we wind up with a more negative view of the world than our parents? Or grandparents? Back then, people didn't live as long and babies died more often. Diseases were more common. In those days, if your buddy moved away the only way to communicate was with pen and paper and a stamp. We have Iraq, but our parents had Vietnam (which killed 50 times more people) and their parents had World War 2 (which killed 1,000 times as many). Some of your grandparents grew up at a time when nobody had air conditioning. All of their parents grew up without it.
We are physically better off today in every possible way in which such things can be measured … but you sure as hell wouldn't know that if you're getting your news online. Why?
Via Shadesong [1], “7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable [2]”
Growing up, Mad Magazine [3] was the humor comic to read (heck, my Dad got me a subscription to it, much to the consternation of Mom), whereas Cracked [4] was the sad, second rate ripoff [5] of Mad Magazine (so sad and second rate that I think I only picked up a single issue).
How odd it is, then that the Mad Magazine website is the sad, second rate ripoff of the Cracked website, as this Cracked article [6] attests—a well written, funny and yet informative article on why we're so miserable when by rights, we shouldn't be.
[1] http://shadesong.livejournal.com/3486139.html
[2] http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-
[3] http://www.dccomics.com/mad/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracked_magazine
[6] http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-