Has the world improved overall, or got worse in your lifetime?

Black Francis · 04-10-2014, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I would also point out that attitudes towards people in general seem to have hardened. It's an old "better in my day" story but really, if you slipped in the street today how many people would be rushing up to help you? People used to do that all the time, now it's almost like they're afraid they might get sued, couldn't care less or quite literally don't see anything other than the iphone or ipad their nose is buried in as they walk along.

ive seen this happen, last yr i was walking down a street and saw a lady had car troubles, i didn't have my cellphone with me and neither did she but she needed to call a tow truck

bout that time, some girl walked by us talking on her cellphone and she saw us but she completely ignored us! as she passed i tried to get her attention but again she completely ignored me, it's like we weren't there!

i ended up going to a house nearby to ask them if they could call a tow truck

it struck me that girl couldn't take a second to stop and help

Stonedtone · 04-10-2014, 04:42 PM

It's gotten worse. The base of it is selfish, me first attitudes that have been here since Reagan. As people care less for others, society fails. That drives everything

Astronomer · 04-10-2014, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchameleon

With the same back in my day attitude, it clouds peoples memories of all the bad stuff that was going on in the past because they are only concerned with the good memories linked through nostalgia.

Totally agree with this one, too!

**Janszoon** · 04-10-2014, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stonedtone

It's gotten worse. The base of it is selfish, me first attitudes that have been here since Reagan. As people care less for others, society fails. That drives everything

I'm pretty sure people have always been selfish.

Trollheart · 04-10-2014, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchameleon

People aren't as jaded as you think. I was down in NYC (which has the rep of incredibly rude non caring people), this lady fell down and four people stopped what they were doing to check on her and help her up. They put aside their devices to do so. I would have helped but a fifth person wasn't necessary.

That's great to hear, particularly as you say when NYC has such a bad rep. I do see it here though: nobody helps anyone and this even goes back to about the 80s when I was on a tube train in London, carrying a big doll's house for my niece I think. The laws of physics asserted themselves eventually and down it went, along with a lot of other stuff. As I struggled to pick everything up NOT ONE PERSON in all that crowded tube station even offered to help. I know there are probably heartwarming stories that can counter that, but this has been my experience. Of course, it happens the other way too, but I see people in general hesitate more if they do offer help, whereas in my parents' time they would just jump right on in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Overall, I would not use anecdotes to infer that the world at large is better or worse off today than it was at some previous point, because that is highly likely to be the least objective measuring tool.
But if this thread is just about our anecdotal opinions about whether we think something or the other, then by all means, the world is better, because I saw someone give a homeless guy money a few times therefore peace, tranquility and utopia.

In all seriousness, I think that it has gotten both better and worse, in many different regards. And no matter what I think is more important, there will invariably be something left out that I did not consider. Ultimately, I think it is up to humanity as a whole to decide what is for the better and what is for the worse. But unfortunately, people never to agree on such a thing collectively, and in that sense, I think it has always been that way and is the biggest obstacle we face, regardless of incidentals.

This is why I asked for everyone to make lists (sort of empirical evidence?) but nobody has, ergo this thread is not really doing what it should have done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nurse Duckett

The main difference between now and thirty years ago is the way humans act and interact. Young people are taught to not have an opinion, or to not have an opinion that might upset the apple cart, the dumbing down is well underway and the unsuspecting masses of young people have fallen for this line of fake liberal bullshiit.

Political correctness seems to have taken over, if you arnt ultra pc at all times the dumbed down see it as you're not very bright, the dumbed down are the only people who don't see the irony in all this. Some call it political correctness and others call it mind control of the masses.

Over the last 30 years the standard of living has gone down, the standard of education has been reduced to nursery level a degree isn't worth anything nowadays and the general public have little or no say in anything anymore, and the public seem to have accepted all this and convinced themselves that things are better now than ever before, further proof that the dumbing down is well under way. The only thing that is better now than thirty years go is cars.

Modern music is shiit, modern football is shiit, the modern media is shiit and full of its own self importance, modern living standards are shiit and maybe they're all shiit because you're a deluded dumbed down piece of **** that has believed the hype and helped to make everything shiit. If the cap fits wear it.

I agree with the ultra-pc bit. Probably that only. Your other contentions particularly in the last paragraph don't stand up to scrutiny but anyway. I think it's ridiculous that even certain words are censored on the Electronic Programme Guide for TV, such as bastards and screwed. For ****'s sake!

There's even a programme called Crapston Villas and it's shown as Cr**ston Villas! Give me strength!

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchameleon

With the same back in my day attitude, it clouds peoples memories of all the bad stuff that was going on in the past because they are only concerned with the good memories linked through nostalgia.

Again why I asked for lists. Lists, if done properly, don't lie. I have no clouded memory (almost no memory, if truth be told)

--- I know how bad it was here in the 70s with bombs and airline hijacks and strikes and all. I'm not for a moment suggesting the world was better then. But is it now?

Quote:

Technology is a big thing that has improved over time along with innovations to make our lives more simple.

In some ways yes, in other ways no. It's also made people almost dumb by design, like that point you made about remembering people's telephone numbers in the "Things that make you feel old" thread. Some things we have forgotten how to do and technology can be blamed for a lot of that.

Neapolitan · 04-10-2014, 11:25 PM

Better

Technology has definitely improved.
Information has increased.

Worse

Abortion
AIDS
The increase of Cervical and Breast cancer
The rise of anti-Semitism
The rise of the police state, phone tapping, check points, stop light cameras
Globalization/Flatworld Economics
Disinformation
The rise of Wahhabism
- Persecution of minority Muslims.
- Persecution of Mid Eastern Christians.
- Persecution of African Christians.

These are either possible or unforeseeable threats:

Avian Influenza pandemic
The increase exposure of chemicals
Genetically modified foods
The availability of the former Soviet Union WMDs - nuclear war heads, and anthrax
Super Solar Flair/Coronal Mass Ejection crippling communication and everything dependent on it

Engine · 04-10-2014, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

These are either possible or unforeseeable threats:

Avian Influenza pandemic
The increase exposure of chemicals
Genetically modified foods
The availability of the former Soviet Union WMDs - nuclear war heads, and anthrax
Super Solar Flair/Coronal Mass Ejection crippling communication and everything dependent on it

ohmygod, are you saying that i might not live forever?!
In that case I definitely prefer the 1970s

Neapolitan · 04-11-2014, 02:38 AM

I quoted this from another thread, but it seem out of place there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

Bull Connor
Church Bombings
George Wallace
Mississippi Burning
Selma
JFK
Watts
Nam
Detroit
MLK
Cities burn
RFK
Chicago

One thing about the 60's, the generations, the older generation that fought in WWII vs the younger generation being drafted to fight in Vietnam, just hated each other. We were more divided in the 1960's than any other time in my life. It was an extremely painful time for most.

The '70's

Kent State
Attica
Munich
Watergate
Recession
Stagflation
Energy Crisis
Iran

By the late 1970's there was a palpable sense of being beaten. That, whatever greatness we had achieved in the past was gone. It was a very depressing time.

Every decade has ups and downs of course. The '60's and '70's had such sustained downs that I'd pick them as the worst decades of my time on this planet. The 2000's were pretty bad too, with the single worst day I hope I ever see. But as a sustained crappy decade the '60's and '70's really take the cake.

If I had to pick a best decade I would go with the 1990's followed by the '80's, depending on what happens during the rest of the 2010's

You picked the decade which was the height of the cold war and the beginning of the age of AIDS (a time where most people didn't know what really was happen just that there was a epidemic of people dying) as better time than the 60s and 70s? "Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 60 million people have contracted HIV and 25 million have died of AIDS-related causes. " HIV/AIDS Facts

Paul Smeenus · 04-11-2014, 03:02 AM

^ Height of the cold war was '60's and '70's. Especially this event which had us closer to firing ICBM's than any other event. When, in fact, did the cold war end? The '80's.

AIDS, and in particular the Reagan administration's response to it, was deplorable. But I would unhesitatingly pick the '60's and '70's as worse than the '80's. In the '70's I had the opportunity to see the Iron Curtain with my own eyes. In the '80's it was torn down. Seeing people dance on top of that damn wall was one of the high points of my life.

**Scarlett O'Hara** · 04-11-2014, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Overall, I would not use anecdotes to infer that the world at large is better or worse off today than it was at some previous point, because that is highly likely to be the least objective measuring tool.
But if this thread is just about our anecdotal opinions about whether we think something or the other, then by all means, the world is better, because I saw someone give a homeless guy money a few times therefore peace, tranquility and utopia.

In all seriousness, I think that it has gotten both better and worse, in many different regards. And no matter what I think is more important, there will invariably be something left out that I did not consider. Ultimately, I think it is up to humanity as a whole to decide what is for the better and what is for the worse. But unfortunately, people never to agree on such a thing collectively, and in that sense, I think it has always been that way and is the biggest obstacle we face, regardless of incidentals.

I agree. I think life is more stressful here in NZ. People take work home with them and feel a lot of pressure to perform (and compared to their peers). Yes technology has improved but the best of all is that prostitution is legal (safer with more rights) and we have legalised gay marriage.

04-10-2014, 04:42 PM	#22 (permalink)
Stonedtone Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 152	It's gotten worse. The base of it is selfish, me first attitudes that have been here since Reagan. As people care less for others, society fails. That drives everything