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

What has changed, even among blacks, is the family. Big, bad things have always been happening around family units since the beginning. Nowadays, the stress is different because the family units are smaller, therefore the natural safety net smaller. Soon, we will have to depend on the top 1% to have the families.

reply to post by openminded2011


I agree with what you say. I think this all leads from about the mid 1960's, when God and Christianity was taken out of schools, the Atheism (Evolution) religion took its place, yes Evolution is a religion not science. So you are nothing but an evolved monkey, there is no God, there is no accountability, if you can screw someone and get away with it congratulations. Then you add on homosexuality, Gang bang rap music, violence and immoral crap coming from Hollywood, all these things add up to and epidemic of apathetic idiots in the world today.

reply to post by openminded2011


i really respect anyones insight & courage to tell it like it is..you are soooo right in what you see & feel..most people cannot or will not think this "deep"..they don't "wanna go there".they are absolutely "comfortable",with their "rose-colored" glasses on.especially if they have money,fame,anything "material"..i am going on 59,& spent most of my life as a caregiver for the elderly,disabled,& mentally impaired.,(starting with volunteering as a candy-striper when i was 14yrs old).it was TOTALLY different back then.the thing that i've learned,(which was MOST important,i think) was--you cannot TEACH is "compassion".it is a "natural" emotion.you either have it-or you don't..period..so it is totally a waste of time,if anyone thinks people can "learn",this truly important natural emotion.anyway-i believe some people are void of this emotion from the start...when i was young,TV was saturated with violence-(cowboys & indians fighting,wars being fought,almost constantly,sci-fi shows,that depicted terror,rape,killing,you name it! so i guess you could say-it probably DID have consequences over a long period of time.,& have become the "norm",for the expectations of most people.except,now it is ten-fold..& real.now you have a paranoid,withdrawn,angry,-almost animalistic society.it IS a dog eat dog mind set..now-there are people that do not blink an eye when they kill ANYONE,maybe for a twenty spot,or a pair of nikes.now-parents kill children,children kill parents,grandmothers killing their grandchildren,& so on...i suppose I sound like a downer-but you cannot reverse this..we can only"hold on for the ride"..the reality is--it is going to get worse...with the lack of "compassion,& conscience",leads ME to think..that people are being born without SOULS...& maybe they are the devils minions ?,& are becoming the new "norm"?...these are totally just MY assessments,of the world we live in today...evilness,is greed,power,fame & lust.this to me-defines our society of today..

You are also living in the age of the internet where just about everyone knows all the "bad" news as soon as it happens which, IMO, helps build a largely negative world-view (the world was every bit as unfriendly and hostile in the past as it is now - the difference is internet and more humans). On top of that - the global mantra we all seem to be adopting is "if it's not me - it's not my problem" - that doesn't help the pessimism.

Sometimes I think the human problem is, simply, our vast numbers.

Too many differing opinions to actually get something done that has a chance at fixing anything.

I think we're falling into a rut of creating more problems than solutions because to have solutions people actually have to agree with one-another and that's just about impossible with roughly 7 billion of us.

I would just like to say that I used to believe this pretty firmly. But with the hope that when I got older, it would be better. And that it would one day become better.

But the sad thing is, the older I got - the colder the world became. The colder I became. And it's because people are making me so. I cannot decipher who's going to be accepting and non-judgeamental, or hateful and outcasting. I can't tell who has kindness in their hearts, or fear in their eyes. (For the most part.) Because that's how everyone has become. A cold steel wall.

And if I were kind or nice to them, extremely out of the ordinary, chances are that I would be the only one to remember. And thus, would lose faith.

**Side note: I once had a conversation about this. This exact topic with a good friend of mine that I miss every now and then and we said that what the world is lacking - and needs the most - is hope.

It doesn't matter if it's in the most subtle thing, or if their hope means anything to anyone else on this planet. AS long as they personally believe, they fight for it, and they know their lives have meaning.

HOPE is what is gone.
And I wish there was a way to bring it back.

- ConMi

reply to post by openminded2011


Well, lets examine what as a country was rejected in the last 40 years as being 'old fashioned' and 'irrelevant' and what has been 'accepted' as normal....

Therein lies your answer. There is no other answer....

darkbake

Countless philosophers, even Aristotle himself, have stated that the government's purpose is to provide *better* lives for the people. The whole point of a good society is to make good lives for the individuals in that society.

Game theory also shows us that such a society will fall.

However - Aristotle also says that a man having the right to private property is essential in being altruistic, and with the bad economy and movements to make freedom a battle just to have, this may be part of the culprit.

edit on 27-9-2013 by darkbake because: (no reason given)

Regarding your Game Theory assertion - do you have a source - print, internet whatever that I can follow-up on?

Thanks

bottleslingguy
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.

I think the turning point was dropping the Atomic Bomb - such mass murder in a single moment was unheard of before, the possibility of ending all complex life on earth was unheard of before.

Atoms for Peace! Yeah!

AnonymousMoose
Try working in retail right now. Customers yell at me for the stupidest reasons. Customers are impatient, cannot read the ad correctly, and yell at cashiers. People want to do a return on an item they broke 6 months ago then get pissed and yell at me when I explain the 30 day return policy.

It is not the Customers job to make life easy for you; it is your job to make life easy for your customer.

I don't agree with abuse from anyone, period; however, your expectation is unrealistic and may be cause from dismissle (hum?) from your job.

I miss people paying attention to their work and doing their best - Hey what happened to that?

Brother Stormhammer

Sublimecraft
The frustrating thing about your very accurate observations is that a solution appears possible, we just need to remove from society completely:

1. The Banksters.

The word is 'bankers'. I'm not saying that banks are 'corporate saints'...I know better, first-hand. That said, a surprising number of the 'poor victims of greedy banks' are actually 'poor victims of failure to exercise common sense'. I worked at a bank for 8 years, and I've done business with them for most of 50, and in all that time, I've never seen a loan officer hold a gun to a customer's head and tell them 'sign on the line there or I shoot'. Banks certainly don't *help* the financially foolish, but it's the consumer's job, not the bank's, to make sure they aren't getting in over their heads. If you take the banks out of society, you're pretty much eliminating the source for initial funding for businesses, and expansion capital, unless in this utopia, we're giving money, land, and equipment for free.

Whereas I really enjoyed the majority of the rest of your post, I call foul here because it seems to be falling under the presumption that the only injured parties were the ones signing the loan agreements. Your response completely ignores the issues of the banks also accepting the risks through their signing into these agreements and then, deliberately and deceptively, turning around and offsetting that risk to unsuspecting investors (both governmental and individual). The banks chose to sign those agreements and the banks also chose to repackage those sorts of agreements in such a way as to create toxic CDOs.

Bank of America Corp's Countrywide unit placed profits over quality in a "massive fraud" selling shoddy mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a U.S. government lawyer said on Tuesday. Reuters

JPMorgan, which has said it wanted to avoid bankruptcy, has already paid more than $75 million and waived about $647 million in fees as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over charges of fraud in connection with Jefferson County's sewer debt.

Carrington, who heads the five-member county commission, said Jefferson County was continuing to pursue claims against JPMorgan and some of its affiliates. Reuters

Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs

Citigroup on Wednesday agreed to pay $285 million to settle a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had defrauded investors who bought just such a deal. The transaction involved a $1 billion portfolio of mortgage-related investments, many of which were handpicked for the portfolio by Citigroup without telling investors of its role or that it had made bets that the investments would fall in value. NY Times

Robosigning was a big problem but when the idea is to create a large number of CDOs that one could sell and even insure oneself against, then robosigning practices by banks just guarantees that you have plenty of product to sell. And hey, bribing public officials is cool, too. It's all about the sale, right?

grayeagle
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.

I agree but I used to drive about 30000 miles a year and I was cut up all the time. I can honestly say I rarely lost my cool - if an elderly driver or someone made a mistake, I would just let them in - never be nasty to them.

The only time I did lose my cool was slightly was when being tail gated by semi trailors or idiots .. my pet hate.

Tail gating is bullying. I have once or twice pulled over let them pass me then tail gated them for a while. That was only when I had a really good car - I woul d not do it in my current car a Ford

Anyway - that was my only little episode of road rage - no yelling and maybe I have done that a few times.

I do agree taht people are on a very short leash - many are, with little give. So the anger just spills over left, right and centre.

Perhaps it also has something to do with the way we are pushed to live our lives in a very narcissistic, me me me, sense.. it leaves little room for compromise and ' other people'.

However - I also think there is a polarity forming - some people are becoming meaner as others are becoming kinder.

It is not an easy time right now ..

reply to post by openminded2011


Of course I've noticed it too. It's global. Only difference is, I think it's always been this way, but in the past I was just too stupid and naive to realize and notice it.

reply to post by ConMi27

...what the world is lacking - and needs the most - is hope.

It doesn't matter if it's in the most subtle thing, or if their hope means anything to anyone else on this planet. AS long as they personally believe, they fight for it, and they know their lives have meaning.

HOPE is what is gone.
And I wish there was a way to bring it back.

Hope and meaning DO exist...

They always have.

I believe the difference now is that people no longer believe.

We have been lied to about reality and eternity.

Those in control worship the counterfeit god.

Their primary goal is to keep the truth hidden.

TRUE hope exists beyond death's door.

Here's my question for you all, if things are getting worse, then why is the murder rate steadily dropping?

www.cnn.com...

I realize this is from 2011, but that's still after the 2008 world economy crash, and less than 2 years ago. a quick quote.

"Among violent incidents reported to police, murders were down about 0.7 percent, robberies dropped 4 percent, aggravated assaults declined 3.9 percent, and forcible rapes were down 2.5 percent."

Crime is falling, and has been since, well, around the '60s. I'm not saying everything is sunshine and roses, don't get me wrong. As a 22 year old man in American society, I often feel down and depressed, and generally ousted from society. I think a lot of the malaise we're experiencing comes from a combination of people feeling like they have a lack of guidance in their life due to either a lack of social norms, a mismatch of social norms, or (as I think is happening here) social norms that are evolving faster than we can keep up. There's a term for this that was thought up by the sociologist Emilie Durkheim around 1900 to explain the lack of cohesion felt in nations that were exploding into industrial super powers. "Anomie". Look up that term if you want some interesting reading. It's been a cornerstone of sociology ever since, and was often called upon to explain why women started turning to drugs and alcoholism when suburbs and White Flight first became a thing... those were new institutions that hadn't formed their own societal rules yet, so these bored housewives didn't know what to do.

As far as I see it, here's the rub. We've got a combination of a society becoming more closed and oppressive as the burgeoning surveillance state comes into full bloom, a news media that efficiently reports all the slaughter and bloodshed that supports our way of life (Well, not all of it, but the slice of it that makes for good ratings and keeps people angry), cities full of so many people they just become faceless objects to us, and the perfect excuse to disengage from the real world in technology.

When I was a bit younger, I was heavily into trolling anonymously, and it served as kind of a confidence boost and made me feel better about myself because I was part of a group and smart enough to trick people. It gave me a sense of power I didn't have in ordinary life, and especially a way to 'lash out' and show my true emotions that I had to hide in normal society due to being fairly powerless. The group I was in has moved on to moralistic goals that I have no interest in (how I miss the old days), but I think that my experience shows a lot of the appeal of technology for the section of the populace who doesn't fit in. Do I know the solution to tackling these social problems? Hell no. I don't think it's Christianity though, because frankly I was raised in a Conservative evangelical Christian household and was dragged to church every day, and even considered myself a Christian until I was sitting in 'science' class in my Baptist Private High School and came to realize that I couldn't actually follow a line of reasoning for why I believed in the bible and creationism that wasn't "I just do". It seems to me that if the monotheistic religions are our savior, they would've held onto me a bit tighter.

All I can think is maybe we need to create better support networks. That's what I would've wanted as a teen when I could've actually turned my life into something. The family is falling apart, and honestly I don't think I could tell my family much anyway since they're all very moralistic and we don't see eye to eye. We need to either find a way to rehabilitate the family, or create a new institution to replace it's function in supporting us. The government (Both Dems and Reps) seem to think the best option is to turn the government into that structure, while feeding us all pacifying crap so we don't rebel. I can't help but think there has to be a better path, though the options I lean towards aren't something ATS would be on board with.

ConMi27


But the sad thing is, the older I got - the colder the world became. The colder I became. And it's because people are making me so. I cannot decipher who's going to be accepting and non-judgeamental, or hateful and outcasting. I can't tell who has kindness in their hearts, or fear in their eyes. (For the most part.) Because that's how everyone has become. A cold steel wall.

- ConMi

You are giving in to fear, there has been a surge of fear in the world, as well as an increase in love(if you choose to see it). It is as though the world is being split in two. People are awakening to their true nature, you must learn to transmute fear into love or it will devour you. I know this sounds corny and new agey, but we have all chosen the lives we lead, we are in complete control. Many have "chosen" fear.

WaterBottle
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.

edit on 28-9-2013 by WaterBottle because: (no




reason given)

I do not happen to be Black , but does that somehow take away from the Life I described in the Post you quoted ? In New Jersey back in the late 1950's , the Black Folks I happen to know were Good Hard Working People that were not so Oppressed as you might think compared to the Southern States at the time , and Women back then were treated with Respect and Courtesy. Your assumed Generalizations show a Lack of History when it comes to the Past Sir .

...........

reply to post by openminded2011


Maybe humankind is simply evolving into what it really is; something not very nice. No of course I don't believe that for a moment yet it appears to be happening on many fronts. I don't think there is a profound mystery as to the why of it, the problem is how do we drag ourselves back from the inevitable horror of what we are sinking into.

reply to post by openminded2011



Many people look for a sign of great change or the end times. They look towards the sky or under the ground waiting and searching for the slightest of changes. Truth be told the so called signs are all around us.



People have changed and not for the better. We accept behavior that should not be accepted. We welcome the sickness that is the progressive mindset into our schools and houses. People enjoy watching other people suffer. We complain about politics and the liars we elect and do nothing to stop the two party scam.



This is all part of a cycle that has been played out many times before. And only hunger and the lack of basic things will change it. Look back into history it will show you the future. I believe the internet and rapid communications will only serve to hasten the change when it finally does show up. The only question is what will be the straw the breaks the camels back? You could spend 1000 lifetimes guessing and you would still not find the answer.

I would do anything, anything, just to be able to have a real talk, a real conversation with someone; a real connection, to feel that feeling again, like I once did, many years ago, without fear of exploitation and judgement and fear itself. The world I live in feels desolate and lonely all around me, like I am the only one here, with just myself. I am beginning to understand I am not the only one experiencing this state of time right now.

What a lonely world. If you don't become ignorant and stop your thinking about profound thoughts and ideas you may ponder, you will be ostracized from society, and that my friend is a lonely road to travel down if I don't say so myself. ...Cheers, have a beer for us forgotten souls.

I believe there are 2 kinds of people. Those in service to self and those in service to others. To turn things around, we need be in service to others. Where we care for others MORE than ourselves. Then we'll have a chance.