Our Age of Despair
“I WOULD love to see world peace in my day,” the young college student said, “but I know this is simply a fantasy because of all the hatred in the world.” Do you also feel this way? Does the world’s situation appear hopeless to you?
Such a bleak outlook is not ill-founded. Conditions in the world are critical from many points of view. Mankind’s very existence is being threatened. The earth’s air, food and water are being polluted at an alarming rate. Economic situations worsen and crime soars, keeping many in constant fear for their lives and possessions. World unrest and tension are unprecedented.
Even more unsettling is the threat of nuclear annihilation that hangs like a pall over the earth as wars and insurrections continue with no sign of letup. Voicing the despair of many, another student said: “There seems to be virtually nothing the individual can do about the issue of nuclear war.”
Even if nuclear annihilation could be averted, human existence is being imperiled by the sheer mass of mankind. “Global population grows inexorably and at a rate so prodigious that by the year 2000—only 16 years from now—the world, with its added billions, will be unable to provide adequate food and energy, let alone jobs, housing, education and health care,” reports Parade magazine. “And what could happen by the mid-21st century (when babies born in this decade approach old age) defies imagination.”
Annually, millions die due to the appalling nutritional situation that exists in many Third World countries. Says an expert at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for International Research: “Unless international action is undertaken rapidly to control population, I can see systems of governments breaking down.” Foreseen, along with the depletion of basic resources, are widespread malnutrition and disease, vast migrations, greater famines, civil strife and even wars.
Yet, increasing human animosity and selfishness stifle any hope that men will settle their problems and differences in a sane and amicable way. The law of might prevails as violence becomes the usual way of expressing grievances, real or imagined. “Old-fashioned” values of brotherhood—concern and respect for others—seem almost nonexistent in our modern world. Truly, as the Bible foretold, there is “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . , while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.”—Luke 21:25, 26.
‘But, surely, as mature men realize the impending doom of our critical times, they can hammer out joint agreements to ensure world peace and prosperity,’ you may say. As desirable as this may seem, is it a realistic hope? What does the historical record show?