OP/ED: How To Fix Modern Society

There are a countless amount of problems with todays society. The list of problems that we face every day can go on forever. We need to learn how to stop these problems and fix them, instead of ignoring them and letting them continue. We need to find a cure for modern society.


Let me start off by naming just a few things that are wrong with modern society:

• Fear
  

We fear just about everything under the sun. What is it that we do not fear? Blacks, Whites, Jews, Gays, Straights, Blondes and Muslims. They are all horrible, wrong, hurtful and mean stupid pond scum. How do we fix this problem? Well, let's use our highly advanced stereotypical minds and throw them in a concentration camp, make stupid jokes or hey, better yet, throw them in a cotton field. Now I know... "These aren't modern examples". The same stuff still happens today.

Look at the Middle Easy. One Muslim, Extremest, Terrorist, whatever you want to call him flies a plane into a tower and American citizens want to kill all Muslims with lard-tipped bullets. Hell, let's drop a nuke on them all, one less problem to worry about.

• Drugs
  

Why do we stick ourselves with needles full of heroin, or clog our nostrils with coc aine? Almost everyone you ask will say the same thing: it takes care of the stress. Give me a break! The sixteen year old kid hanging out at the 7/11 during his lunch hour, popping ecstasy tablets is bringing down his stress levels right? Of course he is. Nothing more stressful then the daily grind at school. Wait until bud gets a real job, then maybe he can upgrade himself to coc aine, the grade A stuff. God, the life of a teenager is so tough.

• Drop-outs
  

See previous bullet. Yeah, too much of that crap tends to lead to drop-outs. School sucks, it was so 2002! School just isn't cool anymore. Education has been replaced by Pokemon, video games and T.V. shows. Good idea: Get rid of school! Kids wont have to waste their lives learnings. Hell, learning never got anybody anywhere...

***

This is how the world turns. We are born into a world where everything is already in place. We have no blame, no choice, limited, and sometimes no information, no biases, stereotypes, prejudices, history, habits, or tradition. We are socialized. Our loved ones teach us these things. We are reinforced and bombarded with messages from institutes and culture.

Reinforced, stigmatized, rewarded, punished, we gain and loose privileges, and we learn to discriminate. This results in many things: silence, anger, dehumanization, guilt, ignorance, self-hatred, stress, lack of reality, violence, crime and internalization of patterns of government. What do we do about it? Nothing.

We do nothing. We do not make waves, we promote status quo. We need to change. We need to raise consciousness. We need to educate. We need to take a stand. We need to question. Without doing these things we will accomplish nothing. Now you are asking, but how do we change? How do we educate?

It's simple really. Growing up we pick up our values from our parents and other assorted loved ones. Put a stop to it. Teach your kids positive things. Teach them to respect everyone, and themselves. We are so affected by pop-culture I am sure this line rings the bell in your head: Innocent until proven guilty. Do not judge the book by its cover. Teach your kids, your friends, and everyone else you come in contact with that people are not bad. There are a certain about of people in this world that do bad things. Even then, they may not be bad people. Do not discriminate!

Drugs: There are easier ways out of your problems. Get help for you problems, there is no reason to kill yourself over something as stupid as stress, and if you have been paying any attention whatsoever to what I have written you will know how to prevent stress for yourself, and future generations. Do not kill yourself.

This is only a few things we can do to fix modern society, the list of things to do can go on forever, hopefully, this little opinion article will give you some insight. Of course, my opinions could be totally wrong...

[edit on 29-11-2004 by MacKiller]

Yes, Yes....we've heard all this before. We know what is wrong with society. The task is easier put on paper (or on forum) then it is carried out. We need to stop talking about our problems, and start DOING something about them.

Sorry I think your on the wrong track.. you have raised a few good points but whats wrong with society isn't a few points - it's more like a dictionary of points. You havn't touched on the underlying problems with society and the foundations to which contribute to the problem. Sure you may think drugs are the problem but thats avoiding what produced the problem in the first place. What produces some of the problems is the consumer driven markets and detachment from reality unto an artificial utopia of pleasurable past times. We can't forget forcing cultures into global conformity brings upon more stress as well. Then we have the spoon fed sheeple that believe shopping is more important then a walk in the forest.

I think there's more important problem to fix before, like Capitalism and War after that maybe we should take a look at some kids who want to explore the Adult world !

Good point, Linux. Another big problem with society is that the system that maintains it (government) is always corrupt, in every society throughout history. Whether it be in law enforcement, federal, etc...the apple never falls far from the tree.

Tolerance and antigeneralization (is that a word?) should be spread to everybody. Theres this mid eastern kid in my class, and over the last couple years shes been ridiculed and beat once (damn cops) for being Indian. Just because a few assholes of a certain race, or denomination, do something stupid and insane, doesnt mean that that has to be branded onto everybody of that race or denomination.

DLMs Ways to Fix Modern Society
1. Drugs: Get drugs off the streets, and crack down on everybody that is pushing drugs into our country. I know this is what they always say, but a better way has to be brought about. Burn the coc aine fields and poppy fields. Tighten up our borders with Mexico and the waters off Florida and California.

2. Once kids are off the drugs, things will look up for us. The society right now is built to plunge many people into depression. Ads telling you your ugly, fat, a faggot, a freak and that if you dont get #ed by 16, that you should just not live. This is pushed through our schools so quickly. Not only is TV, Radio and Magazines telling you this stuff, now your friends are as well. Take this advertising smut off the air, and replace them with ads promoting education, with a good education you can get a good job, a good car, and a good house. Of course, for the first generation or 2 that this is implemented, the kids would still have this crap in their heads, and it would still be going around.

3. Fear: Show tolerance films and have examples of successful people of the race or denomination that the people are afraid of. Show them that they are not all like this, force them to know that a few bad apples doesnt have to spoil the pick. Make the people know! You dont see many people scared of white people...makes ya wonder dont it?

4. Clean up the streets! We got bums living in the streets spending all their money on booze and drugs. FIrst we stop the drugs coming in, then clean up the places they live. Increase police coverage in rundown areas where bad things are sure to happen. Bums should be given a place to stay for a while, cleaned up, educated, and sent out into the work place.

5. Seperate the huge gap between social classes. The rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor. The middle class almost always stays in the middle, but drops or bumps up sometimes. The rich run things, and the poor are the ones being run. This huge difference in class makes the lower classes feel used, and stepped on, and they cant do anything about it. Tax the rich and have that money go to HELP the lower class.

6. Reform of the Government!! The current state of government, both Democratic and Republican, causes fear and strikes tyranny into many Americans eyes.

Some things are drastic...some things are easy...some things are kinda vague on how to put them about.

Drugs are a symptom of the disease...

The prohibition on booze made the Mafia rich, the prohibition on coc aine made Pablo Escobar obscenely rich, and the prohibition on crack, crystal and extacy is making criminals an absolute killing...

People take drugs because they are bored and lack opportunity...

Take a night club, it's just a dark room with flashing lights, excessively loud music and overpriced drinks, most will get tired and go home after an hour or two...

Add Amphetamine and people find this room entertaining all night...

I think that as a society we need hope, we need to beleive that the future will be better than today, we need to turn the light back on at the end of the tunnel. To do this certain key issues must be addressed.

We must be committed to stopping polution, and clean up the environment, no matter what...

We must understand the unsustainable nature of current Industry and commerce and abandon usuary...

We must honor the committment we signed to in the UN Universal declaration of human rights, including the rights to health care and education...

We must revisit our historical past and formulate an dynamic official historical record which is based only on evidence...

We must honor our commitments to our own precepts of justice and democracy, before we can expect anyone else to respect them...

We all must be brought to the realisation that their is only one God, which we all percieve individually...

I beleive that the changes that are nessecary are about the 'Matrix' we inhabit, the mental prison of potentiality in which we live. It is not a waste of time to discuss these matters because once someones mind has been freed they will go forth and free others, eventually change will be seen as inevitable and the existing paradigm will crumble...

We can blame others. That's the natural reactionary response. I't easier to place blame on others.

What we really need to do is focus on our selves and maybe realize that we could be better and more involved parents. Maybe we could fix some of the problems with ourselves. If we fix these problem, then the problems with others go away. In no time, we realize we've solved inumerable problems.

I think materialism is one basic problem of society. People valueing
"things" over humanbeings. Alot of the stress people have today is how to accumulate more "things" or how to hold on to all their "things". You might be paying less attention to your family because of this. This teaches the kids to value money or objects more than people. Because you're their example after all.

If people were'nt so materialistic they could take a look around at their fellow man and help solve many problems within society more effectively.
Everything from pollution to drug use.



[edit on 2-12-2004 by elaine]

[edit on 2-12-2004 by elaine]

Is that all? Fear, drug use and drop outs sounds like normal life. Maybe you should change the title to lifestyle choices in modern society?

The title makes me think of problems that would destroy society.





[edit on 3-12-2004 by Justanotherperson]

Well, so this is the big change and this is the way to "save" - "Fix" modern society?

We are an addictive culture in the west and we have propelled a society that fits quite well into our view and crafted our lives into this model in hopes to remain part of the fabric and network of the population.

Drugs are not bad. The people that use them are not bad. The way in which they are used can create negatives; however they can also create positives. Have you ever had a headache, did a pill help? so lets start with a reality.. Drugs are not bad.. Abusing them causes the issue.

Then take a look at who is abusing and why, is it a band aid for a ill perceived future in a society that benefits from paying people the lowest wage in order to extort the highest profit margin or a government who creates war in order to pressure changes of policy and manipulate the lower classes.

Either way are not these the same people who cram the fact the drugs are bad and waste billions with no affect to the drug war . We have a drug czar ordering planes shot down over Columbia and pharmaceutical companies manufacturing morphine in the States. So again is it the drugs that are bad?

Moving on to fear... How else can you govern and control people with out fear.. Christians believe they'll burn in hell (the ultimate fear) and they wonder why others don't fear it as well, and they try to convert them to this belief.. Children fear Santa won't visit them , so they are good little boys and girls.. the system works.. name another more effective control tool then fear�. or drugs

We are addicted to fear more than drugs,, in some cases similar nervous and skeletal responses occur. and by the way, evolutionarily speaking these processes have developed simultaneously. Both have a place in society and shouldn't be removed.

And dropouts, some great people were drop outs or in their words didn't need school,.. so lets think about what school really is. A place to indoctrinate the views of society (the Ruling Society view) into a captive audience mandated by law. The teachers who are suppose to lead the way are paid inadequately. Yet they are suppose to craft the young mind's views about our society into a cohesive and useful way to deal with life. An alternative to drugs and tv and pokemon.

But what is that life.. President of the country, CEO, Board member. Head cashier at the market. Why learn from under-educated teachers making little more than minimum wage in a building that is likely neglected for a society that is failing it's members.

So what action should be taken,. the opening of this post states that no waves are being made. But why should they be. Why is my time worth worrying about drug use, pokemon and drop outs, and how does this effect culture as a whole.

Religion in all it's forms seeks to control people or have them control themselves. It seems that society is more worried about controlling others than it is controlling itself.

The sad fact that most under appreciate is that there is such a population increase that is exponentially creating these problems for us to "deal� with. The problem becomes how.

Kill people. Lowering the population can make everyone else in the world just like us and then all will be happy.

Make them fear us and come to us as a safe haven, or go on with your life aware that everyone is not like you, enjoy the friends you have, meet new people, discuss life, government, and always try to respect and view situations from another person�s perspective.

Don�t try to change anyone except yourself.

By demonising drugs you miss the point. By labelling all who take them as sad people with something missing from their lives alienates us. Yes US that's all of you above as well. Unless of course none of you have ever had nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, sex etc etc. Yes sex ! what on earth do you think gives you the "buzz" before and during sex.....hormones....which is a chemical....the same as "drugs".

Human beings as well as the animal population (read the studies) have an inbuilt desire to alter their state of mind. We enjoy the "buzz" whatever causes it. There are plenty of people who take drugs because they enjoy it not because they are avoiding "life".

You will never rid the world of drugs, sex, eating or drinking. So don't try. Instead make sure that everyone understands the dangers of excess. Legalise everything to ensure the health risks are minimised, costs lowered and taxes raised ! All the studies show that if you work with the problems of excess use you can control the negative effects. Whenever you have the anti-drug hardline stance things just get worse and worse.

The problem with society is very easy to understand. It is the decline of personal responsibillity.
From abortion, to divorce, socialism to censorship all are no more than symptoms of the underlying problem. Society no longer expects people to be responsible for thier own actions, welfare, health etc.
it is natural to not want to take responsibility for oneself, it is after all a very hard thing to do and unless taught from a very early age nearly impossible to learn.
Abortion is the refusal to take responsibllity for your own sexual activity.
Welfare is the refusal to take responsibility for your financail well being.
Divorce, why work at a marriage when you can give up and reset?
Censorship, why decide what to watch for yourself when someone else can do t for you, why pay attention to the what your children are exosed to when the government wll do it for you.
The only way to fix the problems of modern society is to regain the sense of responsibility we have lost.
Legalise drugs and criminalise addcts actions
Outlaw abortion and force p[eople to act in a sexually responsible manner
End welfare and force people to take responsibillity for thier own life
End censorshp and force people to decide for themselves what they read hear watch etc.
Untill the bulk of people alive remember that they and they alone are responsible for thier welfare actions thoughts children etc society will continue to decline.