THE BEST ERA........YESTERDAY, TODAY OR TOMORROW????

we have all heard this constantly, that the world is going to hell, that is getting worse day by day. the ravages of pollution, disasters, drugs and moral decay we see today do indeed seem to cast a dark shadow on the present and the future.

yet, we all have enormous hopes for the future. we imagine mankind roaming the galaxies and conquering the skies, when we look into tomorrow.

but when really is the best time to be alive? yesterday? with it's wars and lack of modern comfort's, today, as we see it? or tomorrow with it's flying cars and skyscrapers? let us look into the past. it has been only recently that the women have had the right to suffrage and to equal status as that of men. today, women from almost all the countries in the world enjoy rights that were denied to them for centuries.

when conservatives talk of the present, they only talk about the moral decay, the craze for worldly pleasures, ill manners and the complete absence of decency. but can the bigotry, racism and religious persecution of the past be defined as decency or morality? thousands of Jews were massacred in the name of purifying blood which is something no one could imagine of happening in the preset times.

everyday, the developments we make in science and technology, have improved our standard of living. the diseases which ran rampant and killed people by thousands are now curable. of course, the world still suffers from diseases like AIDS but we are still much better off compared to the famines that struck and killed hundreds of people in the past.

we imagine and expect the future to be a world devoid of hunger, disease and suffering but could the future be a better place? the misuse of the environment and the problems of pollution which we endure today, in the future would be far worse to the extent that the animals that we call endangered today would be extinct tomorrow and the little bits of scenery we enjoy today will have to be hologrammed tomorrow.

considering all factors, one thing is obvious, the present is not such a bad place after all. as some one said, "today is great. we live in the freest, healthiest, wealthiest, most peaceful, longest lived era in human history."

the past was a different country, a different realm ruled by hunger, unrest, violence, bigotry and imperialism. things were done differently and we are well rid of them.

the future, well, only tomorrow can tell us whether it is a universe conquered by peace, hope and development or decayed by pollution, scarcity and monopoly. until then, today is great, so let us let go of the past, forget the future and live today for what it is.