How often do world crisis like pandemics happen ?

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I seem to at times feel like we are living in situation out of disaster films or novels and stuff and have looked at past major disasters, events and times of crisis such as a giant asteroid, world war one and two, threat of nuclear attack, the spanish flu etc and thought things like may not happen in my lifetime and right now we are. From the beginning there were times nearly every day I was almost in a state of fear to point of tears and looking back now makes me feel like a wimp and I am still anxious now and that the inside of my body is in a state of alert of an alien invasion (covid) even though where I live is in a lockdown and I have tried hard to put a lid on the anxiety at home and a work wearing a 3-layer mask and washing hands but it doesn't go away.

I would say that it is hard to determine the frequency of world crisis's, in that some are caused by nature
(such as earth quakes, virus's etc), and others are caused by man kind (wars etc.)

I would say that the latter (wars) are perhaps more controllable by the people who start wars,
while the natural disasters such as earth quakes, tornado's and virus's are out of our control to the greater extent.

Either way, unless you are a major player in Global politics or at least an influence of those who are,
you will neither have much power over either, natural disasters from occurring nor wars, so there it isn't
productive to worry about either, but instead, do what needs to be done if either occur.

That said, I believe we as individuals can be a positive influence on the world around us by being rational caring human beings who try their best not to spread hate in the world, so as to prevent any unnecessary political agitation and disharmony from occurring, as such things often cause suffering.

That however is the opposite way of thinking to how those who are far right do things, and I know for a fact, that there are certain people in this world, who due to having amassed large quantities of capital, are able to manipulate people on a national and in some cases even international scale, and generally for the worse, in their search for dominance and in some cases, in attempt to change the religious-socio-political influences on the world. Steve Bannon, being one such person. boo!

But nonetheless, try not to worry too much, and if you do, try and repeat to yourself "do not worry, I will deal with it if it happens!" This hopefully will stop your worry and help you to remain calm, including if something does happen,
as better to have a rational person help during such crisis than someone who is panic stricken.

It is a little hard to measure because of the scope of the disaster. Within my lifetime I have been in a major earthquake, a major tornado and then a COVID pandemic. I am 72 years old. Divide that by 3 and you come up with once every 24 years, give or take.

But most times it is the small stuff that will get you. For example, a few months ago during a flood, I was pulled into the water and through a culvert pipe. I shot out the other end like being shot from a cannon.

Stay away from culverts please and please restrict swimming during floods. .. am very sorry that happened to you
Please be safe .

Well this is my first pandemic ? Think it will be a drawn out ordeal . Been alive over 50 yrs

Apparently virus pandemics occur approximately every 100 years, so I've heard.
Before 2020, I always thought virus pandemics were a thing of the past, and occured years ago because of the lack of medical knowledge. I thought that these days with today's advanced scientific technology the world would be more prepared for any new viruses. Evidently not.

I was also thinking every 100 years. The historic records seem to prove it.

Well in a perfect world we would have all the nations and countries working together to try and prevent these kind of things. But for now capitalism prevails in the world so its all a competition rather than us all working together as the single race of humans to achieve great things. Fact of the matter is if the world does not find a way to work together we are all likely doomed. I don't think your anxiety about it unreasonable and you're not a wimp for worrying about it, I mean maybe like me you wouldn't stand much chance in a fight, but its not wimpy to worry about the state of things when things seem bad that is just acknowledgement the state of things. I figure its more wimpy to try and deny the state of things because you can't accept it.

Although you might not believe it, the world has gotten better in the modern age. World crisis have diminished in the modern world.

Several years ago I assembled a book that identified many of the world crisis that have occurred over the past two thousand years. The primary focus was weather related crisis. One of the major crisis spawned by weather was famines. As you thumb through the famines, those that really stuck out were those so severe that parents sold their children for a loaf of bread; or ate the bark from trees in the forest because they were dying of hunger; or those where people ground up the bones of the dead to make flour for bread; or those where people resorted to cannibalism. The icy cold fingers of death were frequently appearing throughout the pages of history.

A Chronological Listing of Early Weather Events

Life expectancy in the U.S. today is 78.54 years (as of 2017). In 1860's it was 39.4 years. 17th-century English life expectancy was only about 35 years, largely because infant and child mortality remained high. Life expectancy was under 25 years in the early Colony of Virginia, and in seventeenth-century New England, about 40 percent died before reaching adulthood.

Part of this increase in life expectancy was due to the development of medicines/vaccines to treat disease, part was due to the increase in farm productivity, part was due to advances in transportation. One can sit by their computer and place an order and goods can arrive at their door within a few days, goods from across the world.

We may believe that crisis are happening with greater frequency. But in reality, this is a fallout from the news media where every crisis in the world is given instant front page news reporting.