Why our society is doomed

reply to post by nixie_nox

I beg to differ.
The rich are richer and the poor are poorer. The gap between the two is larger than it has ever been.
The schools do not educate. The "graduates" of high school could not hold a candle to a common sixth grader from a hundred years ago.
The food is crap. Genetically modified organisms in food is rampant. Many organic foods are not organic at all because of corrupt government agencies that are supposed to protect us, and DON'T.
Vaccines are increasingly mandated, although often poisonous resulting in serious disease or death.
Big cities are going to hell. Crime is underreported because no one will dare tread into certain areas in many cities, too dangerous.
U.S. government is totally corrupt, the military is bombing sovereign nations, killing innocent men, women and children, and poisoning the environment with depleted Uranium among other things.
Our news media is largely, if not totally taken over by a criminal elite that cares nothing for the truth. We are constantly lied to.
Nuclear plants are, and will increasingly poison millions upon millions of people.
Large areas of the Gulf of Mexico is so poisonous, you dare not venture close.
The U.S. is bankrupt, as is Europe, because of a fraudulent banking system that enriches a very few "royal" families, and steals the wealth from the rest of us.
The U.S. federal agencies habitually trample the rights of Americans, much of which is never reported. Only because of the Internet are we gradually coming to realize this, and "they" are determined to take that away.
We are under almost constant surveillance, a war is slowly being waged against us for daring to challenge the criminal elites that are destroying our health, our planet, threatening our very existence.
I could continue.
Yes, things are so much better.

Originally posted by SurrealisticPillow
I beg to differ.
The rich are richer and the poor are poorer. The gap between the two is larger than it has ever been.

Which poor, the ones in poverty who now have access to welfare or the middle class poor? You know, the ones with two cars, cable, playstations and multiple tv sets?

Ask your grandparents how many tvs they had.

The schools do not educate. The "graduates" of high school could not hold a candle to a common sixth grader from a hundred years ago.

How so? Got any links for that? most kids dropped out to work on farms or factories.
You know, like the Irish immigrants who had to force 9 year olds to work 16 hour days in factories so they can afford bread.

Now we have child labor laws.

The food is crap. Genetically modified organisms in food is rampant. Many organic foods are not organic at all because of corrupt government agencies that are supposed to protect us, and DON'T.

Like who? Who is the regulating agency and who did they let slip by?

Is GMO crap? Yes it is.

But we also wouldn't be able to feed the population that we have without it. Natural foods could not sustain the population we have now.

Vaccines are increasingly mandated, although often poisonous resulting in serious disease or death.

Agreed, it is a racket. But they have also prevented a lot of deaths.

My step mother had polio, her leg is still the size of when she is 12, she has a severe limp and wears 2 different sized shoes.
Know anyone under 30 like that?

Big cities are going to hell. Crime is underreported because no one will dare tread into certain areas in many cities, too dangerous.

Again, read teh statistics, crime is at a 30 year low.
Are you speaking for all big cities because mine is quite pleasant and considered one of the best places in the US.
It is generalized unbiased statements like these that have you all paranoid in your basement, gripping yoru shotgun.
Remember when NYC was the crime capital? It cleaned up its act and is a wonderful place to visit.

U.S. government is totally corrupt, the military is bombing sovereign nations, killing innocent men, women and children, and poisoning the environment with depleted Uranium among other things.

It is called war, and it happens to every nation all throughout history.Is it right? No, is it new? Actually there is probably a whole heck of a lot less of it.
Want to go back to those good ol days of medieval warlords?

Our news media is largely, if not totally taken over by a criminal elite that cares nothing for the truth. We are constantly lied to.

And your sucking it up hook line and sinker if you think that crime is much worse and there is an ax murderer waiting on every corner.

Nuclear plants are, and will increasingly poison millions upon millions of people.

Which is why the nuclear renaissance is over. One reactor is being completed in Tennesee in 2012, other then that, no reactors have been built in 30 years in the US. People realize its bad, so they stopped making them.

Large areas of the Gulf of Mexico is so poisonous, you dare not venture close.

Links?

The U.S. is bankrupt, as is Europe, because of a fraudulent banking system that enriches a very few "royal" families, and steals the wealth from the rest of us.

Which are run by a few people. Which is not representative of society. Can declare the whole barrel bad because of a few bad apples.Even if these few are really really bad.

The U.S. federal agencies habitually trample the rights of Americans, much of which is never reported.

If it is never reported, how do you know?

Only because of the Internet are we gradually coming to realize this, and "they" are determined to take that away.

If anything that is reported is true. the internet, that wonderful invention that allows us to globalize and let me talk to friends in other countries in a real time basis, talk to relatives long distance so they can see my son, that lets a harried mother like myself get bills paid quickly, that now lets soliders abroad communicate almost everyday with families instead of anxiously waiting for a letter every few weeks.

We are under almost constant surveillance

by who.

a war is slowly being waged against us for daring to challenge the criminal elites that are destroying our health, our planet, threatening our very existence.

There is your key word, elite. Again with the apple reference. And how is this making society worse now? The elites were always there, and preying on the poor. Go back and look at the tactics of Carnegie and Mellon.Or go back further to Kings who would tax the poor anytime they needed money.

I can keep going too. Its easy to only look at the bad instead of seeing improvements.

reply to post by nixie_nox

The topic is "Our society is doomed". It has nothing to do with how many television sets we have, or how comfortable you are living at the moment.
Yes, we have made progress in many areas. But, much of that will prove to be short lived, I believe, and we in fact are seeing darker times coming.
Much of the progress you cite, child labor laws for instance, are yesterdays news. Many of our jobs left for those countries that employ child labor.
As for citations, you cited no links, but I am supposed to?

It is okay for you to believe that the best days for humanity are yet to be. I wish I could believe that, but that would require me to bury my head in the sand. Many people do. I am near retirement age. I talk to a lot of "grandparents", and I can tell you, there are not too many optimists in the bunch.

But, don't change a thing, Nox, we need optimists.

I'm pretty ecstatic about the future right now as a nineteen year old male. I think the world right now is in bad shape but I've been doing some research about robotics recently and I've found some pretty great news.


By 2015 , One third of the us fighting force will have been replaced by robots. That's a drastic cut in the loss of human life due To war.

www.guardian.co.uk...

By 2017 , There will be robots designed specifically to take care of the sick and elderly. Perhaps reducing the cost of Nursing Homes and the strain of taking care old older family members..


www.huffingtonpost.com...


Hell by 2021 , Trans-humanism will begin to appear helping erase crippling disabilities such as blindness and deafness. In fact Neil Harbisson was born colorblind can now HEAR color due to an eyeborg.

en.wikipedia.org...



I'm truly amazed at how well we're doing in the robotics field and I have quite a bit of faith in science's ability to solve problems like blindness and the inability to walk that currently plague man with in my life time.
I could not think of a better time to exist on this planet then when Trans-Humanism begins to take it footholds in society. To see the first Truly Sentient Robot will perhaps be the greatest achievements in the history of man. I mean if man can create a brand new intelligent race of beings then there truly is no limit to what man can accomplish.



We're talking about the chance to be face to face with a real life GORT or Replicant. The sort of creatures Asimov and Pill K Dick spent there entire lives to imaging and writing about.


It kind of tears me up just writing about it.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck

because our technological evolution has vastly outpaced our spiritual evolution.

My view, though, is that it simply has to do with the sociopathic degradation of modern civilization. If you work in a modern business, I don't have to tell you that it is the people who get ahead tend to have sociopathic traits.

That is my belief as well. When a civilization's technological evolution has vastly outpaced their spiritual evolution they usually end up destroying themselves.

It's called being too big for your own britches.

I can't help but wonder though if we didn't have a little outside help.

Take that anyway you want.

Starred and flagged.................very good opening post.

Like all things there are positives and negatives.

I am one of those people always tapping away at a computer or phone. But there is so much to read online, it is like nirvana. I have the great books, the spirtual classics of many different tradtions, the interactions at sites like this. It is a neverending flow whose richness never ends in satiety.

I have learned so much, traveled to so many mental realms that I never would have been exposed to in an earlier era without the internet. That's what makes this precisely the most exciting time to be alive ever, if you have a taste for the life of the mind. It's easy to forget how intellectually stunted people could be in the old days, how claustophoibic society could be. The internet liberates information and puts it in the hands of people like me who would not have been able to afford this much info before in the form of books, media, and education. Social networking liberates people from the confines of their immediate communities and helps them find like-minded individuals regardless of location. This is fantastic stuff, don't knock it...we are truly living in a dream-world...

reply to post by Never Despise

I, for one, am not knocking it.
But, you speak of the past like you really don't know or understand it.
In the past, we had creeks we could swim in, and we did. We rode bicycles everywhere, without helmets, but there was a place to go that was practically unexplored. There were caves that you could go into that weren't part of a tour. You could DIE! Gasp. They are sealed off now.
At Hamilton Pool, people jumped off of cliffs into the water below. 80 foot cliffs. Occasionally, someone didn't come up. It is a park now, and you have to stay on trails. The cliff is closed off.
There was the flats where you could go have a bonfire. You could hitchhike there and back. Or ride a bike. It is a park now, no bonfires allowed. You can't hitchhike in or out. You can ride a bike in and pay the fee, but you would be risking getting run over by all of the foreign made cars....
In school, we had to pass by actually learning. An education meant something.
You could get in over your head when I was a kid, and I am not talking about overdosing on drugs. The world was wide open, like a book, but WE were writing it. I suppose some of us didn't write a very good future, because the present sucks compared to the past.
I worked on the farm at my grandparents place. There was dignity in it. You had to know what you were doing to convert seed into food crops while saving a dime in the process. You had to know how to operate a tractor, and repair it.
They had a television they never watched. Too much life to live.
The past wasn't that bad. In fact, it was better than today. In my opinion.

reply to post by SurrealisticPillow


Yes, you're right. And when we did want to read or research something there was the library. I can never find the things I'm looking for on the internet like I used to be able to do in the library. At least not without having to wade through a bunch of garbage and ads trying to find the one bit of information I need. I also grew up in a time when we used to ride on the tailgate of my grandad's station wagon with our feet dragging in the road. A time when we could swim in the creek in the woods behind the house and build bonfires and sled for what seemed like miles down the old woods path in winter. Dang, getting nostalgic...

reply to post by wtbengineer

I say this rarely, but thanks for at least understanding.
In an internet world, this is as good as it gets for a thank you.
Oh, wait, we have the emoticons....

Modern society is evil. We have been driven insane by the 60 - 300 million psychopaths running loose in this world. You are correct in saying we are doomed. We can only handle so many crazies trying to destroy the world before we reach the point of no return. We have reached that point. We are in the mutual downward spiral of negativity. Feeding off each others vicious lack of remorse, lack of compassion, empathy, and so forth.

Find like minded people. Find some real human beings. Seek out spiritual folk; the wise. Find people who will love you, and care for you no matter what. Seek them out, like you are seeking a missing child. Most importantly of all, love your enemy. Always remember that. Stay away from the sick as much as possible. Come to terms with your mortality. Grow yourself spiritually in ways you can't imagine.

Originally posted by SurrealisticPillow
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

The topic is "Our society is doomed". It has nothing to do with how many television sets we have, or how comfortable you are living at the moment.

Then you have totally missed the point. Can't help you there. We have a lot more to make life easier now, invented by people who care to make it easier.

Think life was great? Then go to a civil war museum and look at the dental instruments and be thanksful for medical innovation.

That the life expectancy has gone up because babies and their mothers aren't dying left and right. Which raises teh value of life when it isn't so easily extinguished.
That being poor isn't necessarily a death sentence.
If you think society is doomed, watch Angelas ashes and tell me that any charity would today would be given pox infected mattresses to children.

[Yes, we have made progress in many areas. But, much of that will prove to be short lived, I believe, and we in fact are seeing darker times coming.

Purely based on your opinion and with no basis whatso ever. Society is doomed because you say so isn't fact because some people are doing something you don't like.

Much of the progress you cite, child labor laws for instance, are yesterdays news.

Ok, so you think society is doomed because of how people behave now, citing it as being worse, I provide information that tells you how it was worse then, and has gotten better now, and the best thing you can come up with is that it is old news?

um......

Many of our jobs left for those countries that employ child labor.

And there are now many groups that are going into those countries trying to change that.
Those awful awful charity groups that are dooming society.
And those countries are representative how how society in first world countries USED to be, before they became enlightened. So look at that glimpse of the past and tell me that society was so much better then.

As for citations, you cited no links, but I am supposed to?

What I gave you is basic historical knowledge, but if you need me to give you a history lesson I can.

What you claimed is based on opinion, if you are going to make a grand statement that half the Gulf of Mexico is dead, I am curious to see the information as to how.
Not saying it is unbelievable, the Chesapeake bay is like that too. But I would like to see the information behind it.

It is okay for you to believe that the best days for humanity are yet to be. I wish I could believe that, but that would require me to bury my head in the sand. Many people do. I am near retirement age. I talk to a lot of "grandparents", and I can tell you, there are not too many optimists in the bunch.

My grandmother thought I shouldn't bar tend because "women don't bartend" and she didnt' talk to me for 2 weeks. Good thing that outdated thoughts die. Just because a bunch of curmudgeons are jealous of what people have today, doesn't make them right.

Heck, I go into my son's school and I can't believe all that they have.