Humankind

[BonosSaint]

Are you basically encouraged or discouraged by humankind?

 

[TheBrush]

I get discouraged by certain things just like anyone else. The senseless acts of violence, peoples hatred, etc.. But people are capable of so much good it almost always encourages a positive outlook...at least for me. When you see someone risk there life for someone else the dont even know that has to bring a smile to ones face.(i.e. run into a burning building). People are full of goodness. I just think the media doesnt focus on it like they do the harshness. The world is a very beautiful place, and I believe we contribute a lot to that beauty.

 

[Se7en]

encouraged.

our potential is rather endless.

look how far we've come in the last 1000 years or so.

some things need to be changed drastically but we are constantly moving towards higher levels of human consciousness.

 

[VertigoGal]

Encouraged. Although there are still wars and so many people still live in poverty, I think we are making progress and that it's a better world to live in than it was 50, 100, 1000 years ago.

 

[Saracene]

I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic.

What does scare me though is that our ability to annihilate ourselves grows at a faster rate than our ability to co-exist.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I can't say, without being absolutely unfair. I see individuals (and I am no different, I'm sure) who do stupid or rude or thoughtless things and it makes me want to run a knife through them. People shit me.
But then I see individuals do things which make me smile, but then I get frustrated again because it is not the norm, it is not habit, it's not usual or common.

 

[nbcrusader]

Discouraged by what we are.

Encouraged by what we can be.

 

[Irvine511]

i think we'd all have to agree that the world is a better place than it was 50 years ago, or 200 years ago, or 2,000 years ago.

however, the reason why i get pessimistic is see us squandering, for the worst possible reasons, all our potential.

 

[XHendrix24]

I'd say I'm somewhere in between. Probably somewhat "cautiously optomistic" like another poster said. Every day I see people lie, cheat, steal, and hate without thinking twice about it. And yet, every now and then I notice someone doing something truly good - not only for some kind of self-gain, but just for the sake of doing the right thing. And I think moments like that tend to remind me that the human race isn't completely hopeless. Moments like that make me feel that life on this earth isn't just a waste. I think it's these moments that will help us prevail in the end for the sake of good.

That is, unless we blow ourselves up before then.

 

[80sU2isBest]

i think we'd all have to agree that the world is a better place than it was 50 years ago, or 200 years ago, or 2,000 years ago.

In some areas, yes, especially for minorities. However, we've gone down hill in other areas.

That being said, I am optimistic, but in the Lord, not man.

 

[Irvine511]

In some areas, yes, especially for minorities. However, we've gone down hill in other areas.

where have we gone downhill?

 

[80sU2isBest]

where have we gone downhill?

I would think that murder rates are up, especially the random type, as well as crimes against children.

I also think that sexual promiscuity being actively promoted isn't a good thing.

I also think that gratuitous violence in movies, music and popular culture is far worse than it has ever been.

I also think that parents don't spend as much time with their kids as they used to be. As a result of this and other factors, I think that kids these days show much less respect to adults than they used to.

I think that generally speaking, respect is at an all-time low.

 

[wizard2c]

reply

Discouraged.........what good are more skyscapers and condos on the ocean, when some children even in this country (USA) lack back-to-school supplies. People around the world suffer poverty, starvation, slavery. Terrorism strikes like the hands of a clock.

The only hope for humanity is for all the Children of the World to join hands in friendship and begin a new day.

carol
wizard2c

 

[Irvine511]

I would think that murder rates are up, especially the random type, as well as crimes against children.

I also think that sexual promiscuity being actively promoted isn't a good thing.

I also think that gratuitous violence in movies, music and popular culture is far worse than it has ever been.

I also think that parents don't spend as much time with their kids as they used to be. As a result of this and other factors, I think that kids these days show much less respect to adults than they used to.

I think that generally speaking, respect is at an all-time low.

compared to when? we're taking a big, big look here -- going back milennia.

you'll also note that, nationwide, crime rates are as low as they've been since the early 1960s. and crimes against children are simply more actively reported now ('cause it's oh-so-lurid, and Nancy Grace gets a chance to be outraged once again).

the other stuff ... i dunno, debatable, but i know what you are saying.

but long term -- would you rather be alive today or alive in 500 BC? 1000AD? 1750?

 

[80sU2isBest]

but long term -- would you rather be alive today or alive in 500 BC? 1000AD? 1750?

Definitely today, no doubt. But the 1950s would be nice.

 

[melon]

Definitely today, no doubt. But the 1950s would be nice.

Ah, but then you'd have the Cold War and the nuclear scare. It's nice to know now that both were nothing more than a large scare, but if you were living in the 1950s, you'd have been genuinely frightened.

Then we'd be bitching about interstate highways and eminent domain, particularly if you were living in the path of one. There were many homes destroyed to create these highways.

Of course, then a few years later, everyone would discover that Eisenhower was blatantly lying to everyone under the cover of "national security." He's ultimately the president first credited with losing the American media's trust after he lied about a U2 plane crash in Russia, blaming it on an unmanned weather aircraft. Of course, then the pilot unexpectedly survived and the Soviet Union exploited the situation for maximum American humiliation.

In other words, the past is nice when you have the comfort of certainty that the present provides. I'm sure that 50 years from now, people will probably look at this time in romanticist lenses too.

Just to keep things in perspective, that's all.

Melon

 

[Irvine511]

i'm very glad i don't live in the 1950s.

i bet virtually all women are as well.

 

[80sU2isBest]

i'm very glad i don't live in the 1950s.

i bet virtually all women are as well.

Virtually all women? In what way would virtually all women be glad they don't live in the 1950s?

 

[pax]

When I look at the world I am pessimistic, but when I look at people, I am optimistic.
--Carl Rogers, humanist psychologist

 

[pax]

Virtually all women? In what way would virtually all women be glad they don't live in the 1950s?

This woman sure is.

Better educational opportunities, more career opportunities, the right not to be raped in marriage, better protections against domestic violence, tougher rape laws and victims' rights laws, legal access to contraception (for now, LOL)...

Damn straight I'm glad to be alive now.

 

[BVS]

Virtually all women? In what way would virtually all women be glad they don't live in the 1950s?

I can think of many.


But let's not forget those years of segregation, race riots, etc.

Oh the 50's...

 

[Angela Harlem]

Let's not forget the music, the discos, the ease in getting a job, of having no societal outrage on the scales we seem to have now, the straight forward gender roles (ie no men growing up confused thinking 'do i open doors, or will she smack me with her bag if i do? do i pay for dinner? etc and so on, the small things), the cars! those beautiful classic cars , overall community safety, being able to walk the streets and never really needing to consider that someone might grab you and repeatedly rape you then slice you with a knife....

good and bad. some of these are minor and not really worth even mentioning. but it certainly wasn't all bad, just like it wasn't all good when you consider racial discrimination, gender discrimination and so on.
my parents get all weird on me and talk about the naive innocence of those days. i envy that, at least.
definitely 2 sides to the comparison.

 

[Teta040]

Haha, Melon, you took the words out of my mouth.
If I am truly sorry for anyone (aside from the blacks who had to suffer under Jim Crow), it's that dynamic generation of American women who were temporarily liberated from the kitchen when their men had to go off to fight Hitler in the early 40's, and manned this nation's factories, etc, during the war; and then, after that brief but glorious taste of freedom, had to go back into the kitchen for the next 20+ years when their men came home, went to college free on the GI Bill, and resumed, without a murmer, their "rightful" place of dominace in the American workforce and power structure. These women were lost. To go from the workplace back into being a mere housewife and sex object..well, you men just couldn't relate. Sorry. It was their daughters who would benefit from women's lib--but they were the silent forerunners.

Funny, aobut 6 or 7 yrs ago I had a conversation with my (now 60 yr old) mother, and she was depressed, and thought the late 90's were the worst time to be alive. She cited a whole list of reasons, from the deterioration of the media into tabloid sleaze, to corporate takeover of most aspects of American life, declining health care, etc. I compared this time to the 50's, WWII, etc, and said now was the best time to be alive.

Now, the situations are reversed. She's optimistic, and I am depressed. I am wishing we could go back to the 60's, when the great progressive movements were born--when MLK was on the evening news, when Roe passed (and wasn't under threat), the environmental movement was born, when the doors opened up for women in the corporate world, when jobs were protected and health care was better and college was cheap. She lived through that time, and told me how violent it was, but I had a list of current woes: AIDS (vs disease-free, pill-protected sex); terrorism; weakening of environmental laws; I could go on and on. Yes, it was violent, I told her; but things were looking up; people also generally had hope for the future. Two steps forward, one step back.

She told me that young people were generally less resilent, that they lost hope easily. Older people are more optimistic. Funny coming from her. She says things are cyclical. I asked her, "Yes, but your generation lived on the "up" side of the cycle. Baby BOOMER, that says it all. Mine..well, you can't relate."

it's all relative, I suppose.

 

[Lemonfix]

The 50's are exaulted unfairly, probably by many people who were small children during that time and remember it as "a simpler time" forgetting that usually anytime you are a child is a simpler time in the scheme of things. Nuclear scares, racism, disease are all a large part of that decade.

I will say, however, that you also have to look at the 50's you have to remember that the adults of that time were men and women who lived through the Depression and WWII. I can't say I blame the great percentage of them who wanted a simple, traditional, suburban family life after all they went through. Unfortunatley this developed into a culture where people, especially women, felt intimidated to deviate from the norm.

So, give me today anyday. Though I can't say I don't like a lot of 50's fashion, cullture, and movies. But with the technology that we have today I can still enjoy them.

As for the 60's, you have to remember that the protests that often define the decade came from the fact that there were some pretty bad things going on---racism and race riots, the draft and Vietnam war which was killing way more people that Iraq is today (and ironically, waged by one of America's most domestically liberal Presidents). In the end, a lot of good got accomplished, but I would rather live in a time where the good they accomplished is part of daily life.

 

[joyfulgirl]

There is no fucking way I'd want to be living in the 1950s.

 

[BonosSaint]

Someone looking at both sides of something. What a pleasant change. Angela Harlem.

 

[Teta040]

You also have to remember..NOBODY likes the age they live in. Everyone looks back to a "golden age" that doesn't exist. People in the 50's looked nostagically back to the Roaring Twenties. People in the 20's looked back to the pre-WWI era at the turn of the last century, but that was a time of class discrimination, (think about the societal stratification on the Titanic.) People back then looked back to the pre-Civil War era, but that was the time of Dickens, where people in America were often as poor as those of Dickensian London. It's all relative.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Someone looking at both sides of something. What a pleasant change. Angela Harlem.

thanks mate
I actually sit on the fence on a lot of thngs lately because I fear being on the wrong side.

 

[Lemonfix]

thanks mate
I actually sit on the fence on a lot of thngs lately because I fear being on the wrong side.

haha, join the club

 

[BonosSaint]

I'm less sure of things than I used to be. But I figure for most things, the truth is somewhere in between.