Science and technology are making great strides, offering better services, faster food, better income, bigger houses, more advanced medicine and, one could conclude, a much better life. But opinions vary on whether this is the reality or not. Here are some thoughts of renowned Croatian economist, Velimir Srića, professor emeritus at the University of Zagreb, with a PhD in IT management and an MBA from Columbia University, who has also taught as visiting professor at UCLA, Swiss School of Management in Geneva, Renmin in Beijing, universities in Shanghai, Cincinnati, Budapest, Graz and many others. It would take too much space to list all his achievements, so I leave that to Google. Here is how Dr. Srića views our lives today (and by the way, "srića" means "happiness" in one of the Croatian dialects).
Prof. Velimir Srića in an interview for Glas Slavonije:
"We live in creative times. Medicine has advanced so much that almost no man is completely healthy. The state is so powerful that no one is free. We are ruled by democracy, with man incapable people electing a few corrupted.
Today, the best football player, actor or singer makes a thousand times more than the best teacher, educator or healer. Material wealth is accompanied by spiritual emptiness.
We are constructing ever taller buildings, while the threshold of tolerance is sinking ever lower. Cities are expanding and world views narrowing. We buy more things and enjoy them less.
The square footage of dwellings is growing, for people who increasingly live alone. Families are wealthier but couples divorce more often. The number of beautiful houses and broken homes is growing at a similar pace.
Technological advances are saving time, but we are still increasingly short of it. We have learned how to rush and forgotten how to wait with patience. The number of experts is growing as is the number of unsolved problems. We are more educated but not wiser. We know more, but understand less.
The abundance of comic shows is growing in pace with the number of people suffering from depression. We are angry all the time and tired all the time. The brain we use while reading a book is replaced by vegetating in front of a screen. We live longer, but emptier lives. We are surrounded by fast food and slow digestion.
One third of humanity is dying from starvation and one third from morbid obesity. We have hundreds of Facebook friends but no real friends. The number of high-placed people and small-minded people is growing. We quarrel often, love rarely and hate easily.
Good taste has been replaced by junk. Mass culture has created mass hysteria and mass murderers. We are visiting remote planets and asteroids, and do not know our closest neighbors. The center of our lives is a shopping place.
We proudly eat "healthy food," but allow the media to poison our spirit. There is more and more information and less and less real communication. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We are taught to earn a living, but not how to live.
Once we used things and loved people, today we love things and use people. Do we live better than before? Make your own conclusion."
