LETTER TO SCMP:
As an elder, let me challenge V. Krishnan on two matters ("If older means wiser why is world a mess" | Letters April 29).
First, who ever said oldies thought that we "always got it right"? Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers have critiqued everything their generations did from Vietnam to Iraq and climate change. Vigorous disputation has been a defining feature of our cohorts.
Second, who says the "world is a mess"? Certainly not careful observers like Harvard professor Steven Pinker. In his monumental works "Better Angels of our Nature" and "Enlightenment Now" Professor Pinker shows how deaths from war and terrorism are down, how poverty has declined to historic lows, how diseases are down, how we are living longer and healthier lives in all countries. Gun crimes in the US are down and even climates change shows glimmers of being solved.
The daily diet of bad news blinds some folks to these happy realities.
The "world in a mess"? Pshaw!
Pf, etc
