Does every generation go through changes like the ones we are experiencing? I know it’s common for people to say that we are not experiencing anything new under the sun, but I don’t think that applies to today.

Here are some of the things we have to contend with now, for better or worse.

• Technology. It’s changed EVERYTHING, especially our ability to destroy life. See below.
• We have a news cycle that does not sleep… ever… literally… and it only lasts hours (maybe minutes) now instead of days. I think our addiction to cell phones has accelerated the news cycle because now you can take a video and instantly have it distributed to the world – for free. I think Trump was elected because of the interwebs (FACEBOOK) and the obsession news and media organizations have with his madness (he does give them ratings).
  
• We have nuclear bombs! I think I should have led with that one. They aren’t necessarily new, but while we have less bombs now than before (U.S. and Russia have over 7k each, whereas U.S. had over 31k in 1965 and USSR had over 39k in 1985), the bombs we have are more powerful than ever. Also, more countries have them now (9 countries is a safe bet, but how many rogue bombs from the former Soviet Union are floating around?). Can we make it without one being used? I’m not so sure. I think this is what will do us as a species in. It’s just a matter of when.
  
• We have a racist maniac at the helm.
• We’ve had and survived bad presidents before, but this is totally unprecedented. Would Trump be president 20 years ago? I really doubt it. How could he, when he sides with white supremacists (see blow), insults families who have lost sons and daughters in service to the United States, separates families (kids literally yanked from parents’ arms), starts trade wars without consulting ANYONE, denies climate change and sets forth destructive policies, offends our allies and sides with our enemies, admires dictators because he is one (at least in his head… for now), and lies like no president has before him? I’m not saying we were better then, we just swept our dirt under the rug better. Technology has exposed this, so it’s no longer shameful to express vitriolic views. Can we survive another 2 years (let alone a potential 6 more)?
• Russia. W.T.F.!!!!
• After FDR and before Clinton, U.S. presidents served in the armed forces. “W” didn’t serve in war, but at least he served and has some cool pics of himself in jets. I think that a lack of service has hindered the presidency. I think Obama was a good president (I was too immature to really pay attention to H. Bush and Clinton), but it’s still hard to ignore military service. I did not serve, but I do wonder, is it harder to respect someone who has never served as commander-in-chief when they never put themselves on the line? I know the founding fathers wanted civilian oversight of the armed forces, but I also think that knowing war (or at least service) grounds men and prevents them from contemplating wars for anything other than defense or humanitarian reasons. Wag The Dog anyone?
• I was talking to my nephew who recently turned of drinking age, and I thought it odd that he has never had a time in his life when this country was not at war. I was born after Vietnam, so my first (or at least first that I remember) TV exposure to war was the Invasion of Panama in 1989. A few years later, we have Iraq and the tunes haven’t stopped spinning since.
• We are so desensitized to war, violence and humanitarian disasters, but are so easily offended by tweets.

Yeah, times are different and changing. However, the more times change, the more I think we see who and what we humans really are. Deep down, we are still the same: selfish, nature destroying and manipulating, tribal and easily misled. Technology accentuates this.

We may cite progress (less wars / hunger / murder / poverty than ever), but it’s clear to me that what has grown are consequences, not how we feel and deal with each other. People have not changed, just the consequences of continuing to do what we’ve always done.

The proof (at least to me): one major war now between nuclear powers will take more life than history’s wars combined. The numbers don’t even make sense: an estimated 1/2 billion initial deaths – not counting deaths after due to nuclear winter, famine, disease, skirmishes, etc. because… such numbers are not comprehensible. Let that sink in.

I haven’t even touched Artificial Intelligence because I’d like to write something about this later. For now, here’s an article that drives my point home:

Nuclear war warning: Artificial intelligence could cause worldwide destruction

ARTIFICIAL intelligence could spark a nuclear war according to a new study and researchers believe it could happen as early as 2040 with huge advances in technology potentially leading to a “doomsday AI”.

Humanity: times are changing, but we are not. I’m not impressed.

Update (8/23/2018): Check out this beauty of a story, right inline with what I wrote above:

How do you find a nuclear-powered missile that’s lost at sea?

‘Since this thing is nuclear powered, supposedly, one question of course is, has it leaked radiation?’

Moscow is hunting for a nuclear-powered missile that went missing during a test last year, CNBC reported today.

Yeah, we’re screwed.