Is the Future Depressing?

[Jim O]

Dick Lamm is an interesting character but I've always had a problem with the "OK I'm here now, let's lock the door behind me" theory on immigration. It's not that I have a good solution but just because my forebears had the good sense to immigrate before and just after the turn of the twentieth century hardly makes my family "native American".

[Tom Houlihan]

I don't have a problem with immigration. Houlihan ain't exactly a native American name, neither!

However, I'm not in the best of humours tonight, and I think 'twould be better if I didn't release the rant I feel building up... Except, it's in the 'how,' not the 'what.'

[MAGNA]

Good article. it has many parallels with Australia too.

Don't forget that to make sure those who try to do something about it are held up by an ever growing tide of bureaucrats, employed specifically to make sure you don't get to speak to anyone who may be able to do something positive. Again, Rome suffered this and we could too. It is good how I see my kids thinking the other way and not feeling guilty as charged. They take the view that things must go on and they are proud to be Australian.

[Geek44]

Originally Posted by Tom Houlihan

It might be "doom and gloom," but in general it does seem to resemble the empire of the Caesar's.

Hello!
Too much wealth and entitlement. People are so selfish. I think that when companies manufacture t-shirts for kids with the words 'Porn Star' printed on the front, something's seriously wrong.
To be sure, the contributors to a forum such as this are all literate, read books and have insights into the lives of others through said reading. But I'm sorry, in my opinion the majority of folks in the Western World are consuming, littering idiots who don't care one whit for anybody else until they can't afford beer and steak every day. I live in a wilderness area and every Monday I drive around after the tourists have been up here on the weekend driving into trees and running over the wildlife. The place is ankle deep in litter. It's the lack of respect that really gets me. Doom and gloom is one thing. What I observe is another.
I know I'm cynical. Sometimes I just can't believe that everybody else isn't.
Peace.

BTW. I don't care who wants to live here as long as they contribute. How they contribute is up to them. Some of my best friends are immigrants and so was my Father.

[MAGNA]

That's a fair comment on the situation. Are we being dumbed down to make us easier to control ? Who knows. I sometimes get the feeling we are.

I have noted over the years that the economic needs of most are driving us away from community involvement. 'Society is to blame' is plain BS to me.

It's the community that counts. my mum is in Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, CWA, and the repetory club. Many younger people cannot join these organisations any more because they have to work. When I was at school most mums didn't work. They were the ones who ran all these community things for the betterment of us all. Now a lot of them are still doing so but there just aren't the younger ones available. It shows a big shift in community effort. User pays seems to be the way of it now.

Things will change when we work out a way to get rid of the need for money.

BTW - the old phrase - money is the root of all evil - is misused. The whole thing is - the love of money is the root of all evil - this is more to the point as many strive to get more and more for no real reason or need.

[lufttiger]

I'm not a Doom and Gloom person, never have been, and usually ignor things
such as Y2K. The reason i put stock in this, like the artical says, which was
written 2 years ago, is that certain events have to ocurr for a depression
to happen. And that pretty much what i'm seeing.

The thing i see happening is more like the bread lines of the 30's. We have
become so dependent on everything given to us, you need food - go to the
store. We no longer know how to grow, hunt, can or store food like they did
in the 1800's. Not many people have there own gardens, and have to rely on
trucks to bring them food & clothes.

The Govt. i believe is nearing panic to stop this from happening, They have
lowered interest rates, loaned banks huges amounts of money, sending us all
a rebate check in May.

No i'm not saying the end of the world stuff, but a real possibility of a drepression. It happened before, it will happen again, and so why not do a
few things to better prepare yourself for it?

[cyberia]

You know what's funny about this thread? I read an article in a magazine with many of these same comments. The general rotting of moral issues, celebrity hi-jinks, the evils of modern music, the changing home environment, people losing their faith, and the sad state of affairs of the nation's youth.

The piece pretty much spelled impending disaster and painted a very bleak picture of the future.


The magazine was part of a bundle of old publications I bought as a curiosity at swap meet about 10 years ago. I think it was dated from sometime in the early 1930s.

As I recall another magazine in that pile had a piece singing the praises of Benito Mussolini and that the rise of fascism in Europe could be a positive thing.

About the only certainty of the future is, there will be one.

[MAGNA]

Originally Posted by cyberia

You know what's funny about this thread? I read an article in a magazine with many of these same comments. The general rotting of moral issues, celebrity hi-jinks, the evils of modern music, the changing home environment, people losing their faith, and the sad state of affairs of the nation's youth.

The piece pretty much spelled impending disaster and painted a very bleak picture of the future.


The magazine was part of a bundle of old publications I bought as a curiosity at swap meet about 10 years ago. I think it was dated from sometime in the early 1930s.

As I recall another magazine in that pile had a piece singing the praises of Benito Mussolini and that the rise of fascism in Europe could be a positive thing.

About the only certainty of the a future is, there will be one.

That last sentence says it all. I suppose the best we can do is get on with it while trying to do the best we can for others.

[cyberia]

My father lived through some tumultuous times, yet he somehow manged to hang on to a sense of humor with a firm grasp of reality.

I asked him once what he thought the future would be.

His reply, "Short."

He was 97 at the time.

[Geek44]

I guess my reasons for feeling so bleak about this stuff is that in many ways, we delude ourselves that we're 'modern'. If we think about it, we're not a lot different from people 500 years ago in our attitudes. Old grudges going back centuries still influence our actions (Balkans 1990s), people still avoid walking under ladders, people feel entitled to kill the guy who inferred that our grandma wears army boots...in a lot of ways, it's easy to view humanity as apes with guns.
In my own country, we've just ended eleven years of blatant 'money is more important than people' government. Hopeful and desperate people who sailed over here in barely sea-worthy boats as refugees were imprisoned behind razor wire for years in the desert before applications for asylum were inevitably dismissed. One guy, was deported 'home' to Serbia despite the fact that he had never been there, didn't speak the language, had no family there and knew nobody. He spent three years (I think) homeless in Belgrade before the change of government last year and they let him come home. Governmental racism at work. And this guy was white, spoke English and had employment prospects...his big issue? He had a short record of petty crime.