Be Thankful That You Live in the Most Peaceful Era in Human History
“Nearly a quarter of Americans have never experienced the U.S. in a time of peace,” contends Philip Bump at the Washington Post. This is an accurate contention that holds absolutely zero value for the reader. I get that lots of people believe we are living in uniquely turbulent and violent times, but it’s a myth. The opposite is true.
What do these charts really tell us? Put it this way: A 45-year-old American in 1960 would have lived less than half his life during wartime, but those years include two massive, world-encompassing wars that cost tens of millions of lives and another serious conflict with the Chinese in Korea, all of which led to more than 560,000 Americans losing their lives and millions more being maimed. This man would not only have likely been around to see the Vietnam War, which cost another 47,000 lives, but he would have lived the next 30 years with the possibility of a nuclear war.
A 45-year-old today has lived through far more “wartime,” and seen only a small fraction of conflict, with no draft hanging over his head, and little chance of ever seeing major states engage in any serious warfare. Since the Vietnam War, U.S. forces have experienced just over 6,200 combat casualties in total.
