Observation on a "darkness" that seems to hang over society

We are in the phase where the "darkness" has "fooled all of the people some of the time"

Or maybe it's just the Old English 800 40oz swilling, 47% is more apt to vote to protect their coven status than the 53% that want to care.

reply to post by openminded2011


the darkness is a collective state of depression that was triggered when JFK was killed. We were at a high point back then as far as hope and a positive attitude, now not so much.

Each day, is what we make it. So saying a change took place, and treating it like a sticky web we're stuck in, when in fact, each day is a blank piece of paper. We can color a new scene up in it. As an introspective person, haven't really noticed a big change. And people tend to be busy, self obsorbed based on circumstances, or friendly chatty, here in Canada, in our small town and the city I moved from. Its what we make each day, or try to.

reply to post by openminded2011


My grandparents went through Pearl Harbor. My grandfather fought in WWII in Guadalcanal. They both lived long enough to see 9/11, and the way the country was going before they both died. They used to tell me stories about what this country was like when they were young. OP, you are correct, in saying it is a different place now.

Even I don't recognize the same country I knew in my youth. They say that times change, but people don't. I disagree with this. I think the times and the people have changed. Our way of living, our concern of fellow humans, our food, and so much more. It doesn't seem as if the country has progressed, it has backslid into what it is now.

When my grandfather used to talk about what the Great Depression was like for him as a kid, I'm stunned by so many things, but most of all how he described the way people did whatever they could to help another. He told me stories of how his neighbors banned together to help grow gardens, and how no one went too hungry, because everyone was working together.

I don't know if we have so much of this now. People come home, they go into their houses and close the door. I've lived in my neighborhood for 15 years, and I don't know most of the neighbors because either they move in and out so quickly, or they stay, and want nothing to do with anyone. Everyone seems so removed and self absorbed. My grandma knew every single person on her block and then some, and the families were all friends with one another. If someone got sick, they helped each other. If someone lost a job, they would help that person find another one. It's not really like that now. At least not here in my neighborhood.

I kind of wish for a reset. Maybe an EMP wouldn't be so bad after all. It would force us to come out of our homes, get to know each other, help one another and learn how to communicate face to face again. I kind of long for the way life was before computers came into every household and a cell phone was glued to everyone's ear. I remember life without the internet, and it was good times for me.

I don't even read comments on news articles anymore. So many people are cynical, angry, trollish, and hate filled. So much fighting, so much nastiness. So much division.

Some day we may face a time as a nation, or entire world, where we will be forced to give up our pretenses, our judgement, or racism in order to survive.

ChuckNasty
Every Generation thinks the same thing.

As an old lady once told me:

"As you grow older, you start to see the flaws outbalancing the perfections in everything."

We cannot go on viewing the world as we did when we were younger.

Just the same - the kids now will say the same thing when they grow old. They'll compare the time now as a better time.

But it doesn't make it right. When each generation shifts the base-line of what is normal, it will lead to F'd up times.

edit on 27-9-2013 by ChuckNasty because: odd error

Amen, Chuck.. and a bump for your observation on incrementalism.
One doesn't need to be an anthropologist to feel things have been going steadily wrong for a long time. It's just speeding up now, so the puppet stringers can stay hidden awhile longer. There may be very little pull space left on the trigger, but who knows?
I see looks from people on mass transit that explain maybe "Is today the day or tomorrow?" The other shoe dropping into the chaos pit is no way to live, but if it's all almost all of us have ever known it takes more of the crap pressure all the time to keep the cover on the frog pot.
Maybe I should start a T/F thread poll for us on ATS to find out for sure if their personal situation is starting to need a total reset.
Finally, how dark does dark get before you have to turn on the headlights?
I haven't had them on in over thirty years, and my home went away.

reply to post by openminded2011


Please watch

reply to post by openminded2011


I could not agree more - just this week I have been yelled at by angry young [ ish] women with screwed up faces, pinched in anger, full of aggression in their readiness for confrontation. Why ?

Number 1:
I have lived in my property that I own for 7 years, tenants have moved in next door - for the past 6 months, they have been sitting in their garden - outside, drinking, and making a racket, which happens to be right outside my window - and I am talking about them acting like this late into the night.

I finally ' flipped' ish and contacted their land lord and asked her to ask them to please keep the noise down after 2100hrs.
Well - they were banging on my door, wanting an explanation, dropping essay like notes through my letter box - in short they were astounded that I had the audacity to ask them to keep the noise down.

' How dare I question their lifestyle and they will continue doing exactly what they were doing before and I should mind my own business'

Now if someone had said to me that I was making noise and disturbing their sleep my response would have been..

' I am really sorry - I will try to keep the noise down' and I would have done so.

Number 2:
In the local town my mum driving [ she is 73] she changed lanes a bit quickly causing the person behind to brake [ not severely].

Well this woman was screaming, pulled alongside me [ the passenger] and said I should retake my driving test, bare in mind I was not driving !!!!

I just said ' calm down please and stop shouting' and that just enraged her and she continued to rant as she drove off about the necessity for me to retake my driving test, even though I was NOT driving.

If that was me being cut up slightly [and it has been many times before] - I would have, braked, obviously and carried on - why so mean, nasty and angry ?

So much anger, and nastiness especially in the younger generation ie [ teens / 20s]
'

winofiend
I think it started happening a long time ago. We're just now able to see it clearly.

Before recent times, you could walk down a street or get on a bus or a train and people would stare blankly out a window. Into a book. At the floor or ahead into nothing. They didn't look at the faces of the people around them.

I can only imagine a time when human interaction was something embraced and not something shunned. I actively try to change this in my local personal sphere these days. But rarely is it taken as what it is, often I'm seen as some freak. Oh well.

.

I also agree with you on this one. When I was in London last week - waiting to get onto the train at Paddington, I was in line and I kept feeling this push on my back. As I turned around there was a youngish man [20s] pushing me, so I thought I must have been imagining it but it happened about 3 times. Each time I turned to stare at him he looked away.

Then I arrived at the turnstile to input my ticket and he pushed in front of me !!! I could not believe it.

BUT I laughed out loud when the turnstyle said his ticket was not valid and I looked at him and laughed and said ' that serves you right'.

So I got through the turn style before him despite his pushy ways !.

However - on the train I noticed how lovely people were to each other, chatting and being really considerate.

Especially considering half of us were stuck in the aisle, for the journey, South West Trains will soon be making room on the roof like they do in India.

I decided a couple of years ago to try to bring people together. I became vocal and visual. I organized a D&D game night. That became weird due to the overwhelming amount of sexual "humor". The DM based his campaign on sex and zombies. I told him in private we needed a fun puzzle solving campaign. He said the players would never go for it and will reject the game if he's not constantly talking about sex. I then said we'd have to play board games instead. That was the last I saw of those people. I've got some pretty nice board games that take some thinking to win. I managed to get a board game night going, but that was disbanded in favor of video games. People like to sit alone in front of a screen interacting by remote while virtually hunting and killing. I remember meeting this family years ago. Dad was playing GTA with their kids in the room. The youngest girl told daddy to grab the girl and make the car shake. This was in reference to hooker. I'm sorry to bring up the video game aspect of our separation. I know that infuriates people. People aggressively defend their video games.

In the past few weeks, I've really been feeling separation. I tried to let the people I work with into my life. This is how I learned they thought it was weird that I cared about and interacted with customers, whom they see has stupid and disgusting. Recently, 2 of my coworkers above me have decided to be offended by me. It's been weird for me at work. The customers want to know what's wrong. Losing friends to video games and having coworkers try to dominate me has brought me down and made me tired. Sometimes a young customer will tell me at the end of a transaction that it's all about to change so keep up the good fight.

I made the mistake of trying to talk to my "peers" online. I asked them if they lied to themselves and were neurotic. I was instantly labeled as a troll and inhuman. I was told that we have that right to lie to ourselves and that we as a species naturally lie to ourselves for our happiness. I was innocently asking a question and woke the sleeping beast.

reply to post by kusmanklute


The article is right on, the electronic age has allowed people of any age to communicate without having to worry about the consequences of what they say......kind of like ATS and other blog sites. It has opened a whole new door, one that (I think anyway) will kill all our social ability's, then how do we expand as a human being with no real physical contact with other people??

I'm not sure what this has to do with what I posted.....maybe this electronic age will breed the predator out of the species.....makes me glad I am where I am.

Weird how people remember the past through rose tinted glasses.....forgetting the prejudices and hatred we harboured not that long ago.

The world has never been better, we've never known such peace and global cooperation or health.

It's far from perfect, but we're a lot better as a whole than ever before.

All this doom and gloom mongering belongs in an old peoples home where they don't know any better.....

Prezbo369
Weird how people remember the past through rose tinted glasses.....forgetting the prejudices and hatred we harboured not that long ago.

I agree it was there in the 70's as well. My parents were well off and well liked. My mother was cold, manipulative, and greedy. She cheated on my father with a Tom Jones clone . Later, I discovered her book collection. There was a book about free sex. She eventually disowned me because I refused to manipulate people for advancement, comfort, and wealth. She would have made a great TBN preacher. My father was considered the nicest guy in town. However, he wanted all the homosexuals rounded up and slaughtered. He was also attracted to young girls. We children were left to our own devices. We played outside and went camping and learned about each other through Lord of the Flies type experiences. Later, many would spend nights downtown getting drunk. We all had porno collections. Drinking and porn were considered normal and healthy. It was very easy to acquire and was encouraged.

Unfortunately the masses that believe we are the righteous now are just as tainted as those referring to how it used to be. I cringe when someone like AJ starts talking about the founding fathers and how great they were, then bleeding his religion into it. What he's trying to do is make these guys Godlike. Patriotism is just another tool used by the elite on the masses. You can see him demonstrate that method on a daily basis and if you recognize that as a form of propaganda it starts to irritate. We are humans and we all make mistakes. The big difference is that there are more of us now and when somebody gets caught doing something wrong it's in the public eye immediately due to social networking. You wouldn't even hear about most of these things in the past unless you read your local paper or it managed to get on the evening news. If we want to change things we can't depend on police to solve every problem. For instance you see someone getting beaten up and you're capable of stopping it maybe that's what you should do. We all want money and for that opportunity we're willing to turn a blind eye to much more than we would if there was nothing in it for us. You see it every day in the workplace when someone gets a promotion into leadership and now they are told not to associate with certain people. It just goes on and on it's everywhere. You can't undo it because we're animals operating on instinct. Everyone loves social media like reddit but it's obviously steering your opinion. If you don't post what the herd wants you're going to be punished right away. It's everywhere so chill out a minute and stop acting like your govt is out to get you. They've always been out to get you read history. You're not special. Look at Cuba they won the revolution and they got a dictator. That's the way it's going to play out so the next time you go stock up on your ammo and think about shooting people... realize you're being led. Someone planted this in your head it's not you. You've got things you'd rather be doing then planning for a fight you can't win.

intrptr
My problem with that statement is that this time in this era the US is responsible for the Major woes. We are the ones attacking and occupying the world.

Not the Germans, Russians, Japanese or the Dust in the Dust Bowl, but the American Corporate Military Industrial Complex. Right here, right now.

Ultimately this is not a total downer for me, I am not responsible for any of it so my conscience is clear. The problem I have in my heart is that my nations government is so far out of bounds when it comes to violations of International Law and other countries right to self determination. Thanks for the consolation but reminders of "thats the way it always has been" aren't doing it for me.

I can't recall ever agreeing with you on anything, and in fact your posts normally get my blood boiling, but this time IMO you are absolutely spot on.

I feel exactly the same way. Years ago, I felt like we were the "good guys" in the world, as naive as that may have been. We were certainly never perfect, but things were different. Now, when I wake up in the morning, I feel a constant kind of heaviness knowing what my government is up to not only around the world, but in this country also.

I think this is just one of the factors that most people here seem to be missing. Human nature overall hasn't changed, but the times we live in are causing a pessimism as I've never seen or felt.

In a real disaster people come together. There will always be exceptions, but that's all they are - exceptions.

reply to post by HelenConway


Helen it is my personal opinion that there is so much road rage and anger out there on the street because people are feeling more and more powerless in the rest of their lives. Their cars become their personification. If they perceive you cut them off it is a personal affront. You did not respect their 3,500 pound lethal weapon. I am sorry to say I only see it getting worse. If you don't respect my 9mm then maybe you will respect the bullet I fire.

Am I the only one who still sees warmth and compassion? Every day I see people doing things for each other out of kindness. From opening doors, to picking up dropped wallets and buying rounds of shots.

I think there has been a bit of an over introvertedness. People don't start casual conversations on the bus or in the shops as much. People I think are more afraid of offending people or pissing off one of the dark people you talk about.

There certainly is a darker element in our society. One that glorifies war, death, torture and fear. One that likes head shots and blood and violence. But even a lot of those people are kind in person and would help someone out in need.

I think it's a struggle, and probably just the fact that goth and punk and horror are now major industries that feed on darkness make it seem more prevalent. But I see an undercurrent of goodness that is always there at the bottom of most people. We're just too afraid to show it or seek it out in others sometimes it seems.

reply to post by AntiNWO

I can't recall ever agreeing with you on anything, and in fact your posts normally get my blood boiling, but this time IMO you are absolutely spot on.

Well, thanks?

Your post was like getting slapped and then kissed. I'll take it as a pseudo compliment.

I really don't like you either. Wait I don't even know you. What do I care?

Blood back on boil.

It is the natural cycle of a world empire. Read what the bible has to say about greedy nations like ours, its called Babylon. Our obsession with sex is called the harlot. We worship money, sex, and that destroys the country. What do you think happened to the last three empires? Persian, Greek, Roman? Its a predictable life cycle. We had our day in the sun and now we're under the moon and next shall come judgment and, sorry to say, the fall of the greatest empire the world has ever seen will be tremendously horrific and very well might lead to the Chinese empire!

reply to post by Zanti Misfit

I was Born in 1956. As a Child , the World back then was a Beautiful Place

Tell that to the black people alive back then....

1956 America was legally sexist and racist, how beautiful.

This shift in global perception i recognized recently. It is an awakening.

It is happening on a large scale right no

w. Some it drives to violence, because it weighs too heavy on them and they were given no defenses.

Others it causes them to look for truth, within, and without. It weighs on them to be the change that is needed but not available in this society. These will not be consumed by the shift. These will hopefully realize their power.

Most sense it and continue life as usual. These will not survive.