Opinion: the severely problematic illusion of longer lifespans

Just going to yap here. No sources. No sources needed in my opinion.

This is about the illusion of healthier people as time progresses and countries advance. We often say we’re much healthier than other generations because of significantly longer lifespans, but that’s likely almost 100% due to artificial extension of life through drugs and surgeries and other treatments, NOT actual improvements in health caused by healthier lifestyles.

(Note: I think all of this medical treatment is great.)

Think about many people are heavily involved with doctors. Almost everybody. Most people are vaccinated at birth for many diseases that would skyrocket infant mortality and plummet life expectancy averages. Many schools require vaccination. Most of Americans are actively medicated. More than 10% of people report to have gone through a medically-needed surgery (many of which give people more life, like a heart blockage. OR if they’ve been critically wounded by an accident, it saves their life) in the past year. When people get cancer, they go to the hospital for treatment and that extends their lives by several years. Millions have been able to live longer than their predecessors due to these artificial interventions (of course it great). In addition, clean water and better sanitation has prevented people from dying in masse from infections, but even then we have antibiotics, which alone dramatically reduced mortality rates from infections.

Medical intervention has helped so many people, but when we talk about health and lifespans, it creates such a massive sense of complacency it’s troubling. It’s clear that regarding REAL health, we are deteriorating within the Level 6 post-industrialization period. How can we say that we are healthier when on average, we get less sunlight, are chronically more stressed, get less exercise, and are eating more processed and junk foods than ever. The incidence of chronic diseases are steadily increase. Mental health issues are also greatly increasing. How can we say that our we are healthier because our life expectancy is longer when during the industrialization period, infant mortality rates were FORTY times higher than they are today, vaccines saves million of lives that previously would have perished, and medicine/surgery give many more years to the vast majority of Americans.

It’s necessary to accept that we’re becoming more unhealthy in order for societal health to progress towards Level 8.

This isn’t really anybody’s fault in particular. I’ve heard a version of this somewhere before: “If one person has an issue understanding the instructions to build a desk, the company shouldn’t care since that’s on the one person. But if everybody has an issue with the instructions, its the company at fault.” Same with health. Because the vast majority of people are unhealthy (not me saying it. “A study by Oregon State University found that more than 97% of Americans don't follow a healthy lifestyle - Gemini”), it’s almost certainly a societal/cultural issue that leads most people to be unhealthy.

"If one person can't do a job, it's the person's fault. If everyone can't do a job, it's the system's fault."