yes, and I live in a very poor area of a poor town.
People can't afford to eat and are going to food banks. People can't afford prescriptions of medicines. There's lots of fuel poverty. The NHS provides a horrifically neglectful service on the whole, and NHS dentists are as rare as hen's teeth, and private dentistry very expensive. If you want adequate healthcare, go private - if you can afford it. That's the UK I live in. Maybe in some areas the NHS freebies are awesome but ... not where I live or most people I know.
yes, and I live in a very poor area of a poor town.
People can't afford to eat and are going to food banks. People can't afford prescriptions of medicines. There's lots of fuel poverty. The NHS provides a horrifically neglectful service on the whole, and NHS dentists are as rare as hen's teeth, and private dentistry very expensive. If you want adequate healthcare, go private - if you can afford it. That's the UK I live in. Maybe in some areas the NHS freebies are awesome but ... not where I live or most people I know.
My experience of the NHS is very different from yours. It certainly isn't perfect but horrifically neglectful it is not. That may be your personal experience but there are many out there who would disagree with you.
Oh please. You know nothing. My daughter regularly works with immigrants who get £25 a week to cover food, toiletries and any clothes they need; they are lucky if they have more than one change of underwear. That is £25 a week, and a room with a bed. And that is a favour, funded by religious organisations; without it, they would get nothing whatsoever.
yes, I agree that material wants have got out of control, and in some cases, the poorer someone is, the more urgently they want 'status' items. Much easier in my young days when clothes and shoes didn't have logos or brand names that you could see, so no one had any idea what you had paid for anything.
Yes! this! You don't have to go back very far to get to an age where people might go an entire lifetime without ever seeing anyone exceptionally beautiful. A healthy person was generally assumed to be a fine looking woman or man because ordinary was all people knew. Hollywood started chipping away at that, but it has increased out of all control these days. At least with Hollywood, people accepted that the big stars were exceptional. These days, with the ever increasing worship of the fat-free, hair, free body, with elaborate hair treatments, with innumerable surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures, with tooth whitening and veneers, we are turning into a ghastly beauty-ocracy, with those gifted by nature or artifice with perfect looks held up for endless adoration and everyone else feeling ugly and inferior. There is something very wrong, imo, with a world where teenage girls are regularly thrown into a fever of loathing about the shape of their genitals.
I know quite a few teenagers/young men/women who are beautiful, friends of my offspring.
It's not that rare surely?
There's a young woman who works at Waitrose who looks like a forties film star, dark hair and bright blue eyes, totally unselfconscious about it as well.
And the genitals bit?
What are you talking about?
Breasts?
Material wants haven't got out of control, it's just that everything else has been taken away.
The need to simply battle to stay alive has been removed for the majority.
Hence the constant emphasis on worrying about minorities because the majority (in this country) on the whole are OK.
I would agree with this. I would also agree we are becoming more egotistical as a society which can give rise to a lack of respect and consideration to others.
Progress is never linear. It fluctuates constantly. It is very difficult to evaluate society in such a way in the present. I wonder what the social historians will be writing when they ponder society of the late 20th and early 21st centuries?
Really, compared to when?
Or doesn't poking disabled people with sticks and going on a tour of the local loony bin not count?
Attending a "freak" show, there's another one.
How about watching people thrown to the lions?
Whole lot of respect and consideration shown there.
Don't mean to snap but honestly this endless self flagelation about how bad we are as a society when in fact we are so much better than at any time in history is tiresome.
Now is it because we are better/gooder/more moral?
Of course not.
It's because we can afford to be. It's an indulgence created by the success of the society that has brought the benefits.
But apparently that same society is not good enough?
I admit to only skimming the thread, the first thing that sprung into my head was a quote from Ferris Bueller "life moves pretty fast, you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"
Thinking about it, it's pretty amazing that we've easily accommodated huge advancements in technology affecting all aspects of our world (in my lifetime). Machines are our new slaves and our difficulties are as trivial as what to do with the increased leisure time they enable.
I would say it's the other way around, we are the slaves to machines.
For me, the thing I notice now about society in general is the lack of empathy. To me empathy embodies the element that separates us from other creatures on this earth, but it's slowly being eroded by self-absorption, greed, fascination by stupid things like 'celebrity' status and superficiality. It's scary what consumes people (in general) these days, nothing of note, nothing worthy.
We now have a government, and a UKIP, who is determined to put down those who are disabled, poor, disenfranchised, and a society who (in the main) are willing to go along with this, happy to jump on the bandwagon and - although hardly rich themselves - denigrate those who are beneath them in the social structure, income levels, ability, because it makes them feel better, boosts their ego.
Is this what we've become, a society happy to be told to vilify the poor, the less able, the weaker people in our society, in order to make us feel better abour ourselves? So many have now become puppets of those who create this situation, it's astounding to see the lack of empathy some people are willing and happy to express in their belief that those really in control are acting in their best interests. That is what scares me the most about today's society.
Nastiness, vilification, derision, separation, these have become the new ego-boost to the everyman's soul, sadly it seems to work.
In many ways UK society is better than it's ever been. Virtually no one dies from lack of basic needs anymore, everyone has free comprehensive healthcare available to them, crime has been falling for decades, misuses of alcohol and drugs reached a peak in the late 90s and has been falling ever since, half of all people are in education until 21 and society is far better informed and tolerant of a vast number of different issues.
Progress isn't linear though; improvements in certain areas have lead to issues in others. We are getting lonelier, fatter and more self obsessed (or maybe that's just me)
that sounds a lot like the nanny state to me. I don't see how half the population being in education till they are 21 is a good thing either? I personally think things have got far worse for young people, with limited career opportunities, being saddled with shit loads of debt and probably never affording their own property. Then they get totally mollycoddled with them still living with their parents and governments introducing more and more age restrictions on everything.
1 - nutrition - nobody knows enough about it. We consume far too many psuedo foods like noodles, pasta, margarine, frozen fish fingers, and not enough fruit, veg, lean meat and high cocoa dark chocolate. The effects of modern society on the body are dire, and it eventually catches up with our brains making us tired, edgy, lethargic, and more simple.
2 - We get caught up in distractions like X factor, politics, media battles, etc when we could have overthrown westminster by now and have a money free, loving, world free from poverty.
3.. PEople won;'t take responsibility for their communities or appreciate what they have.
4. sex everywhere, music videos, posters at bus stops, soaps, scandly clad bodies.
1 - nutrition - nobody knows enough about it. We consume far too many psuedo foods like noodles, pasta, margarine, frozen fish fingers, and not enough fruit, veg, lean meat and high cocoa dark chocolate. The effects of modern society on the body are dire, and it eventually catches up with our brains making us tired, edgy, lethargic, and more simple.
2 - We get caught up in distractions like X factor, politics, media battles, etc when we could have overthrown westminster by now and have a money free, loving, world free from poverty.
3.. PEople won;'t take responsibility for their communities or appreciate what they have.
4. sex everywhere, music videos, posters at bus stops, soaps, scandly clad bodies.
I think the 'kids' of today often get burdened with the blame of what's wrong with our society, and unfairly so. The adults of this generation and all the ones before it helped to create the society we have, for better or worse, we all bear some responsibility for how it's turned out. A lot of grown ups need to take off the rose-tinted glasses and stop pretending that how they lived their life has somehow magically disconnected from the world today. It's not about feeling bad but it's never too late to help things improve instead of moaning about 'kids' who have no manners, etc.
I see people being impatient as something that affects many aspects of daily life. We're all so busy that we sometimes forget the little things like manners and just being nice for its own sake.
I like your thoughts Mrs P, think the same. I have a tinge of guilt for our consumer kids of today. I grew up with nothing and spoilt my lovely son with everything. However, we have always had conversations on life and what could happen if he took this path or that. I am proud to say a lot of folk have commented on how balanced and pleasant he is (still a little git at times). He has taken the 'uni' path as we feel it better to have for an ordinary boring job, than not.
He wasn't keen on appenticeships, even though I think they are a must for any kid, especially the ones that skip school. I think a compulsory calling for this group would encourage and inspire them to do something with their lives instead of 'no hope, life on the dole.'
Humans are a virus running wild. We are doing nothing but harm to the planet for our own selfish needs.
I suppose Nature has a plan to get rid of us though.
Of course it will try. Nature has just had a dabble with HIV. What you need though ultimately is something really contagious, that is spread via the air and only infects humans. The eruption of Yellowstone could do the job as means of near human extinction, but that event will affect other lifeforms, which is not really what is wanted.
What could we all do to resolve the situation because society is already messed up as it is.
Easy:
1) Be Excellent To Each Other
2) Keep The Noise Down
3) Don't Make a Mess
4) It's Not Yours Put It Back
5) Don't Make It Worse
6) Serve The Public Trust
7) Protect The Innocent
8) Uphold The Law
I know quite a few teenagers/young men/women who are beautiful, friends of my offspring.
It's not that rare surely?
Our standards of beauty have become more artificial and expensive. Beauty used to be pretty democratic, and you never knew when, like Hogarth, you would see a beautiful young woman selling shrimps. But it is very noticable that as we have got fatter, the ideal (for women at least) has got slimmer and slimmer. There really is something wrong with a world where a large majority of women and girls think they are fat, and can never achieve a body shape they are happy with. The preferred method of the wealthy is often highly interventionist, with everything from surgery to spa visits. There is a reason why body shape is increasingly related to social class and disposable income. And our standards for teeth have become ludicrous. It is even odd to look back at the 1970's and 80's and see famous sex symbols with uneven, non-too-white teeth. People really believe that a row of blinding veneers, all identical in shape and size, and highly unnatural, is the way teeth 'should' look. Look at people like Simon Cowell, 'breaking' America with his whiter-than-white £20,000 veneers; at one time we would have scoffed at their ridiculously improbable teeth, but now, non-veneered celebs like Kate Moss (whose teeth are perfectly normal) regularly get monstered for their 'horrible' teeth.
And the genitals bit?
What are you talking about?
Breasts?
No, genitals. A perennial, and very unamusing, staple of any teenage advice site or page is utter shame and anguish when girls find out that they have uneven or dangling labia; they have all seen porn sites, and believe that the only acceptable way to look is pink, smooth and hairless. At least girls of my generation were able to feel that a boy would feel grateful if he ever got near them, not filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight.
Our standards of beauty have become more artificial and expensive. Beauty used to be pretty democratic, and you never knew when, like Hogarth, you would see a beautiful young woman selling shrimps. But it is very noticable that as we have got fatter, the ideal (for women at least) has got slimmer and slimmer. There really is something wrong with a world where a large majority of women and girls think they are fat, and can never achieve a body shape they are happy with. The preferred method of the wealthy is often highly interventionist, with everything from surgery to spa visits. There is a reason why body shape is increasingly related to social class and disposable income. And our standards for teeth have become ludicrous. It is even odd to look back at the 1970's and 80's and see famous sex symbols with uneven, non-too-white teeth. People really believe that a row of blinding veneers, all identical in shape and size, and highly unnatural, is the way teeth 'should' look. Look at people like Simon Cowell, 'breaking' America with his whiter-than-white £20,000 veneers; at one time we would have scoffed at their ridiculously improbable teeth, but now, non-veneered celebs like Kate Moss (whose teeth are perfectly normal) regularly get monstered for their 'horrible' teeth.
No, genitals. A perennial, and very unamusing, staple of any teenage advice site or page is utter shame and anguish when girls find out that they have uneven or dangling labia; they have all seen porn sites, and believe that the only acceptable way to look is pink, smooth and hairless. At least girls of my generation were able to feel that a boy would feel grateful if he ever got near them, not filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight.
Isn't it the same for young lads too? Seeing men in porn with huge willys, often with very good hairless physiques and taking drugs so they can last for hours in the sack?
Our standards of beauty have become more artificial and expensive. Beauty used to be pretty democratic, and you never knew when, like Hogarth, you would see a beautiful young woman selling shrimps. But it is very noticable that as we have got fatter, the ideal (for women at least) has got slimmer and slimmer. There really is something wrong with a world where a large majority of women and girls think they are fat, and can never achieve a body shape they are happy with. The preferred method of the wealthy is often highly interventionist, with everything from surgery to spa visits. There is a reason why body shape is increasingly related to social class and disposable income. And our standards for teeth have become ludicrous. It is even odd to look back at the 1970's and 80's and see famous sex symbols with uneven, non-too-white teeth. People really believe that a row of blinding veneers, all identical in shape and size, and highly unnatural, is the way teeth 'should' look. Look at people like Simon Cowell, 'breaking' America with his whiter-than-white £20,000 veneers; at one time we would have scoffed at their ridiculously improbable teeth, but now, non-veneered celebs like Kate Moss (whose teeth are perfectly normal) regularly get monstered for their 'horrible' teeth.
No, genitals. A perennial, and very unamusing, staple of any teenage advice site or page is utter shame and anguish when girls find out that they have uneven or dangling labia; they have all seen porn sites, and believe that the only acceptable way to look is pink, smooth and hairless. At least girls of my generation were able to feel that a boy would feel grateful if he ever got near them, not filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight.
But I remember that being a letter for Cathy and Claire in Jackie in the 70's - because of a) spending an interesting half hour with a compact mirror and b) giving it up as a bad job
No, genitals. A perennial, and very unamusing, staple of any teenage advice site or page is utter shame and anguish when girls find out that they have uneven or dangling labia; they have all seen porn sites, and believe that the only acceptable way to look is pink, smooth and hairless. At least girls of my generation were able to feel that a boy would feel grateful if he ever got near them, not filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight.
WTF. We are always being told that young people are mature ahead of their years, so should not be easily lead by what they read on the internet. And the way you word it is like men are in control of getting sex, when it is women that normally dictate terms, so if the bloke is to put it in your own words 'filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight', the woman can just move on to the next guy who is more tolerant. Problem solved.
Comments
I would say all these. In other words there is a lack of humanity and lack of a sense of community.
yes, and I live in a very poor area of a poor town.
People can't afford to eat and are going to food banks. People can't afford prescriptions of medicines. There's lots of fuel poverty. The NHS provides a horrifically neglectful service on the whole, and NHS dentists are as rare as hen's teeth, and private dentistry very expensive. If you want adequate healthcare, go private - if you can afford it. That's the UK I live in. Maybe in some areas the NHS freebies are awesome but ... not where I live or most people I know.
My experience of the NHS is very different from yours. It certainly isn't perfect but horrifically neglectful it is not. That may be your personal experience but there are many out there who would disagree with you.
I know quite a few teenagers/young men/women who are beautiful, friends of my offspring.
It's not that rare surely?
There's a young woman who works at Waitrose who looks like a forties film star, dark hair and bright blue eyes, totally unselfconscious about it as well.
And the genitals bit?
What are you talking about?
Breasts?
Material wants haven't got out of control, it's just that everything else has been taken away.
The need to simply battle to stay alive has been removed for the majority.
Hence the constant emphasis on worrying about minorities because the majority (in this country) on the whole are OK.
Really, compared to when?
Or doesn't poking disabled people with sticks and going on a tour of the local loony bin not count?
Attending a "freak" show, there's another one.
How about watching people thrown to the lions?
Whole lot of respect and consideration shown there.
Don't mean to snap but honestly this endless self flagelation about how bad we are as a society when in fact we are so much better than at any time in history is tiresome.
Now is it because we are better/gooder/more moral?
Of course not.
It's because we can afford to be. It's an indulgence created by the success of the society that has brought the benefits.
But apparently that same society is not good enough?
People judging others. >:(
(Sometimes I over-dunk and it all goes wrong. In which case I need your sympathy not your judgement.
I haven't been fond of him since he shot Clive Anderson.
I would say it's the other way around, we are the slaves to machines.
For me, the thing I notice now about society in general is the lack of empathy. To me empathy embodies the element that separates us from other creatures on this earth, but it's slowly being eroded by self-absorption, greed, fascination by stupid things like 'celebrity' status and superficiality. It's scary what consumes people (in general) these days, nothing of note, nothing worthy.
We now have a government, and a UKIP, who is determined to put down those who are disabled, poor, disenfranchised, and a society who (in the main) are willing to go along with this, happy to jump on the bandwagon and - although hardly rich themselves - denigrate those who are beneath them in the social structure, income levels, ability, because it makes them feel better, boosts their ego.
Is this what we've become, a society happy to be told to vilify the poor, the less able, the weaker people in our society, in order to make us feel better abour ourselves? So many have now become puppets of those who create this situation, it's astounding to see the lack of empathy some people are willing and happy to express in their belief that those really in control are acting in their best interests. That is what scares me the most about today's society.
Nastiness, vilification, derision, separation, these have become the new ego-boost to the everyman's soul, sadly it seems to work.
that sounds a lot like the nanny state to me. I don't see how half the population being in education till they are 21 is a good thing either? I personally think things have got far worse for young people, with limited career opportunities, being saddled with shit loads of debt and probably never affording their own property. Then they get totally mollycoddled with them still living with their parents and governments introducing more and more age restrictions on everything.
1 - nutrition - nobody knows enough about it. We consume far too many psuedo foods like noodles, pasta, margarine, frozen fish fingers, and not enough fruit, veg, lean meat and high cocoa dark chocolate. The effects of modern society on the body are dire, and it eventually catches up with our brains making us tired, edgy, lethargic, and more simple.
2 - We get caught up in distractions like X factor, politics, media battles, etc when we could have overthrown westminster by now and have a money free, loving, world free from poverty.
3.. PEople won;'t take responsibility for their communities or appreciate what they have.
4. sex everywhere, music videos, posters at bus stops, soaps, scandly clad bodies.
The fact you don't need intelligence, talent or any ability now, that confidence is valued over anything else.
Again that sounds like nanny state hell to me. It is also the vision of the Labour party http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619655/Labours-nanny-state-plan-drinkers-smokers-unhealthy-eaters-sparks-revolt-party-Red-Ed-says-FORCE-fit.html
I like your thoughts Mrs P, think the same. I have a tinge of guilt for our consumer kids of today. I grew up with nothing and spoilt my lovely son with everything. However, we have always had conversations on life and what could happen if he took this path or that. I am proud to say a lot of folk have commented on how balanced and pleasant he is (still a little git at times). He has taken the 'uni' path as we feel it better to have for an ordinary boring job, than not.
He wasn't keen on appenticeships, even though I think they are a must for any kid, especially the ones that skip school. I think a compulsory calling for this group would encourage and inspire them to do something with their lives instead of 'no hope, life on the dole.'
Humans are a virus running wild. We are doing nothing but harm to the planet for our own selfish needs.
I suppose Nature has a plan to get rid of us though.
and this sounds like the vision of the Green Party
Generally it's pretty good here though.
Of course it will try. Nature has just had a dabble with HIV. What you need though ultimately is something really contagious, that is spread via the air and only infects humans. The eruption of Yellowstone could do the job as means of near human extinction, but that event will affect other lifeforms, which is not really what is wanted.
1) Be Excellent To Each Other
2) Keep The Noise Down
3) Don't Make a Mess
4) It's Not Yours Put It Back
5) Don't Make It Worse
6) Serve The Public Trust
7) Protect The Innocent
8) Uphold The Law
Isn't it the same for young lads too? Seeing men in porn with huge willys, often with very good hairless physiques and taking drugs so they can last for hours in the sack?
Huxley was right - we distract ourselves with nonsense.
Legs it>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But I remember that being a letter for Cathy and Claire in Jackie in the 70's - because of a) spending an interesting half hour with a compact mirror and b) giving it up as a bad job
WTF. We are always being told that young people are mature ahead of their years, so should not be easily lead by what they read on the internet. And the way you word it is like men are in control of getting sex, when it is women that normally dictate terms, so if the bloke is to put it in your own words 'filled with revulsion and astonishment at the ghastly sight', the woman can just move on to the next guy who is more tolerant. Problem solved.