Reddit reviews Titus Andronicus: The Oxford Shakespeare Titus Andronicus

https://www.amazon.com/Titus-Andronicus-Oxford-Shakespeare/dp/0199536104/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=oxford+titus+andronicus&qid=1556841635&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Hard to tell. I believe today is one of the best times to be alive. I know some people detest his thesis, but I really enjoyed Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature.

However, I also think that the prosperity and peace we take for granted are very precarious, and we cannot take them for granted. Religious fundamentalism is resurgent around the world. The concern there is not necessarily violence, but their rejection of modernity itself, post-Enlightenment values, secularism, and science as the best explanatory method we have of the world. Science and rationality are fragile, with Sagan calling them a candle in the dark.

>Some people see our TV shows and movies as too immoral and violent and our society deserves to suffer because of it.

Our media isn't that violent. Compare it with Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus or other Elizabethan revenge tragedies. There has always been violent entertainment, and lowbrow entertainment as well. I think our modern culture goes too far in celebrating lowbrow culture, but I wouldn't call it exactly alarming. It's not the end of the world.

>Billions of people live in poverty.

Yes, but that has gotten better. Capitalism made the situation better, not worse.

>And the total world debt is staggering.

That is true, but the solution is to raise taxes to pay for the services people want. Debt is largely a political problem.

>So I believe at any moment of time, there will always be equal evidence of curses and blessings.

I think that's reasonable. We have problems, but also cause for optimism. I'm middle-aged (just turned 46) and it's normal to get pessimistic as you get older. But I find myself being optimistic about many things. Many things both excite and alarm me, like the promise (and threat) of automation and Artificial Intelligence.

I don't think things are going quite as badly as some gloom-n-doom enthusiasts warn, but neither are we headed (in my opinion) to a post-scarcity utopia. I have no idea. But my chances of dying of violence are the lowest they'e ever been.

> Both signs of the end-times and signs of a new renaissance exist equally

What concerns me is how many people we have rooting for end-times, though. An awful lot of people want the world to end. That freaks me out quite a bit. I'm not referring exclusively to religious end-timers. I encounter libertarian non-believers who want a "reset" to civilization. I've heard more than a couple Trump supporters enthuse that Trump's election would cause the system to just up and fail, so we could start over with a clean slate. I find myself so aghast at that that I can't even begin to communicate with them.