The World today

[Spiritofmosa]

I'm starting to feel the world is going downhill.

Life 20 to 30 years ago for people was much more simple and easy going, of course there was no cellphones and ipods then. People were more concerned about getting married and starting a family and there was less politics going on.

But as we progress into the future, developed countries produce more cars, burn more fuel and make more money. We get more greedy, out attention span lackens as we spend hours in front of a television or internet. More and more dysfunctional families and more politics.

I sense something bad is going to happen, or something bad is already happening to the world. What should i do?

[Seafroggys]

move away from American influence

Which will be hard

Your best bet is to start a Utopian colony in some isolate location.

[pedro durruti]

Run to the hills, man. Society is more dynamic than that. It improves and degenerates all the time in some way or another, and it depends who's looking at society. People in first world countries have become quite materialist, but that's not to say it hasn't been beneficial in any way or that anti-materialist ideas haven't gained considerable support in the same places. Similarly, we are facing an energy crisis but we are still developing ways to confront it while at the same time just worsening the situation.

Values are often changing depending on certain forces and the politics of the day. In American and much of Western society, there has been a greater tendency towards liberalism throughout the last centuries, with setbacks here and there depending on a whole host of circumstances.

[i am the robots]

move away from American influence

Which will be hard

Your best bet is to start a Utopian colony in some isolate location.

Location: singapore

lol

[Spiritofmosa]

Singapore is boring, and we are getting more and more American influence over the years but we will never get as liberal.
Im starting to get sick of the materialist lifestyle.

[i am the robots]

Fight everyone.

[Spiritofmosa]

Fight everyone.

That might work but i am already the slave of the world.

[Smokey D]

Life was shitter 30 years ago. You had everything that is **** about today, but things like the USSR as well.

[StreetlightRock]

Move to Pulau Ubin and ride bikes all day. It'll be a simple life



You know what I'm talking about even if everyone else dosn't.

[StrangeVision]

Get a gun and some bullets, what you decide to do from there is up to you.

[VomitStainedCretin]

If you want a simpler life, get a lobotomy

[DBoons Ghost]

Oh how original.

Geez. Like you're the first person in history to have some kind of epiphany about the evils of the world and how you'd like to change them or run from them?

My advice would be to find a beach, dig a hole, and stick your head in until it's over. Metaphorically, you can accomplish this very easy and then you would probably live a happy fulfilling life.

[Reaganista]

the past is never better
the past always sucked

[VomitStainedCretin]

Nostalgia certainly blinds people to the advantages of life in the modern day, though at the same time so called 'progress' must always be examined in context.

[Spiritofmosa]

but my point is that we are all heading towards a huge change and one day we will reach the highest level of "progress" , and the only way to go when you are so high up is down.

yeah, i'm letting my ****ing imagination go wild.

Right now i shall enjoying every moment and take advantage of what i have now, for you never know what the future brings.

[DBoons Ghost]

Right now i shall enjoying every moment and take advantage of what i have now, for you never know what the future brings.

This is the smartest thing you've said. I applaud you.

I wish I could stress how much I felt the same when I was a younger man, and while it doesn't really go away, that revolution never comes and it's the same crap different day. You're naive in thinking people cared less about politics back 20 to 30 years ago. I've always been active in local politics and community politics and we all hated Carter and we all hated Reagan and not much has changed in the way of society. We have 4 news channels each with their own agendas, each fighting for your viewing time, each looking to charge arvertisers as much as possible. More reporting brings more stories. These stories were always there but I had 13 channels of crap whereas now, it's just more outlets. Don't even get me started on the internet.

Nothing really has changed. People always want better till they get older and settle into the reality of what is. Maybe someday.

Don't worry. Just let it happen and things will work out.

[Mister_Che]

Spiritofmosa, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I used to have the same attitude, but that changed a few years back (I'm 20).

[Spiritofmosa]

Spiritofmosa, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I used to have the same attitude, but that changed a few years back (I'm 20).

Well im nineteen,

[PerpetualBurn]

You should really be over the teenage angst by now then.

And you basically didn't live 20-30 years ago to make this retarded comparison.

[1338 h4x0r]

The world is ghey, was ghey and will continue to be ghey for the foreseeable future. On the bright side, our current industrial excesses might clear the proverbial slate. :lol: [sardonic laughter]

[-1up!-]

Seriously, start smoking pot. Regularly.

Huge existential and unsolvable problems tend to fade when you do that.

Plus it's loads of fun. You have nothing to lose there!

[1338 h4x0r]

Seriously, start smoking pot. Regularly.

Huge existential and unsolvable problems tend to fade when you do that.

Plus it's loads of fun. You have nothing to lose there!

Well, there is the whole issue of ten years of imprisonment for possession and death penalty for trafficking in Singapore...

[Reaganista]

you're not from singapore you're from kansas

[1338 h4x0r]

you're not from singapore you're from kansas

The OP is from Singapore though.

[Reaganista]

oo ok nevermind then i guess

[-1up!-]

Well, there is the whole issue of ten years of imprisonment for possession and death penalty for trafficking in Singapore...

I laughed out loud.

[1338 h4x0r]

I laughed out loud.

I'm sure Shanmugam Murugesu laughed out loud just before the Singaporean government hung him for possessing a piddly 1kg of cannabis. :smoke:

I imagine that's still better than a Singaporean prison.

[Chrizzle fo' Shizzle]

The mere fact that you have the spare time to have these musings and the technology to post them over a medium in which people halfway around the world can see them is proof that today's world is a million times better than anything else in the history of humanity

[1338 h4x0r]

The mere fact that you have the spare time to have these musings and the technology to post them over a medium in which people halfway around the world can see them is proof that today's world is a million times better than anything else in the history of humanity

Technological improvements do not necessarily imply social improvements. But, yeah, some things are better than they were before, brah.

[McP3000]

Technological improvements do not necessarily imply social improvements.
Yeah, thats true

but in this context Technology has lead to social improvements so whats your point

[1338 h4x0r]

Yeah, thats true

but in this context Technology has lead to social improvements so whats your point

Well, the Internet is a two-edged sword socially.

Hence the phrase "lol internets".

[Give me Beer]

I wonder if people realize that we actually have texts dating back to ANCIENT GREECE that say the exact same thing that the threadstarter said.

Including the whole "Nature is dying!" tirade mind you! They were right by the way, they were killing of their nature, do you really think Greece always looked like it does now? Hah!

[Independent_CA]

The world, society, etc is never dying, simply changing. This may sometimes resemble dying because the changes can be quite drastic. However, from the old order a new order will always spring. It always has and it always will.

[jaredong]

hey, im from singapore too, it isnt that bad a place... ok theres a awful materialistic culture with the whole great singapore sale and stuff, buying new fancy cellphones every year. Its kinda sad when people say "our national pastime is to shop" in a happy way.

think its awful that so many people spend all their time making money in singapore. theres definetly more to life than making money, buying that car, paying erp road taxes, saving for retirement and dying.

frankly, i dont think the way to change the world is through protesting, getting all riled up and telling people what to do. Instead, i think you gotta lead by example and show that it works.

Say all your friends spend copious amounts of time eating in expensive bad tasting restaurants (cuz our other pastime is eating). Instead invite em out to eat at the cheapo coffee shops. Or if they go to clubs and spend all their money at awfully high taxed alcohol, you could get em to do some dorky stuff like go to some board game cafe. (not lan shops though...those places are the devil)

if you wanna change the state of things the best place to start with yourself. Use el cheapo old phones, wear shirts/jeans/shoes that dont cost 150 bucks, take public transport and show that you can be happy without throwing all your parents money down the drain

yea! it looks like nobody in singapore (or the world) cares bout whats going on, but they do, least a good number of people do. just that they might not overtly say it out loud.

[StreetlightRock]

Or goto JB and spend as much as you want because everything is half price.

[2muchket!]

Compare getting hammered on a night out, dancing with mates, pulling a bit of fanny and bangin the **** outta her to playing board games.

Yep I'll take my materialistic lifestyle tar. And I see nothing wrong or 'sad' about it either.

[Chrizzle fo' Shizzle]

tbh materialism makes me happy. As long as I'm making the money to pay for it, who are you to judge?

[gregulus]

you sound like an old person. just saying.

[jaredong]

im not against partying and having fun. Sure, go wild, party, drink, do whatever you like. But what are people celebrating about? If someones getting married, or you did really well in exams, or someone got promoted or its a reunion of old friends or something. What are all these "parties" every other day of the week about? what are we celebrating? I love to splurge with friends if theres something worthwhile.

i know a couple of people who really dont earn that much money at all. they talk about how they always dont have enough money to save for the future. And yet they spend all their money in pubs/clubs regularly. When they do save up money in a couple years, they buy a car that only takes away more money with maintainace, insurance and taxes.(and in singapore its way way more expensive). they get a credit card and then buy their girlfriend expensive gifts for valentines day. and they're upset that they dont have enough money.

its your prerogative to spend your money you earned whichever way you wish. im just saying we shouldnt throw caution to the wind with spending money. No matter how happy a person would be with buying new stuff, being trapped under debt would definitely be no fun at all.

[McP3000]

Materialism is fun if you a have stable social and emotional life.

[1338 h4x0r]

Compare getting hammered on a night out, dancing with mates, pulling a bit of fanny and bangin the **** outta her to playing board games.

Yep I'll take my materialistic lifestyle tar. And I see nothing wrong or 'sad' about it either.

You overlooked something: except for going out to a club and maybe the board games, none of those things cost much, if any money. It's not necessarily the club or board games that made you happy, it was being with friends that really made you happy.

Consider the following: there was an experiment where a researcher put a baby monkey with two surrogate 'mothers', one made out of bare wire cage, which had a milk bottle and another with fur lining, which had no milk. The baby tended to cling to the fur 'mother', even though it could offer him no nutrition, because, in some sense, it gave him affection. That experiment teaches us a lesson about ourselves, primates who are not altogether too different from the others: it doesn't take much in material goods to be happy. Likewise, a high material standard of living does not imply happiness. It always puzzles me when people suggest that one should not be depressed because of his material comforts; their presence or absence is not the root cause of depression.

Myself, I choose not to live very decadently because someone somewhere pays for it. The easier my life is, the harder it is on someone else. Cheap consumer goods for me mean a 14-hour hell-shift for some laborer in China. As such, I try to avoid spending money on things that I don't really need, or at least buy them from better sources For example, my Swedish military surplus coat was cheap, didn't require any more labor besides shipping and was presumably manufactured in a humane working environment. Plus it's hella warm.

[The Stig]

I'm starting to feel the world is going downhill.

Life 20 to 30 years ago for people was much more simple and easy going, of course there was no cellphones and ipods then. People were more concerned about getting married and starting a family and there was less politics going on.

But as we progress into the future, developed countries produce more cars, burn more fuel and make more money. We get more greedy, out attention span lackens as we spend hours in front of a television or internet. More and more dysfunctional families and more politics.

I sense something bad is going to happen, or something bad is already happening to the world. What should i do?

Yeah back from the 1950s through the late 1980s we were never concerned with the constant threat of full-scale nuclear war.

I'd just deal with it. Times change, and the world today isn't really actually all that bad.

[McP3000]

Yeah back from the 1950s through the late 1980s we were never concerned with the constant threat of full-scale nuclear war.

I'd just deal with it. Times change, and the world today isn't really actually all that bad.
Yeah, people are pretty melodramatic

[1338 h4x0r]

I'd just deal with it. Times change, and the world today isn't really actually all that bad.

I agree up to a point: the world remains shitty, but isn't as shitty as it used to be.

[Spiritofmosa]

Yeah, people are pretty melodramatic

i think melodramatic is a good term to describe me right now :p
But i'm working on that

[i am the robots]

Compare getting hammered on a night out, dancing with mates, pulling a bit of fanny and bangin the **** outta her to playing board games.

Yep I'll take my materialistic lifestyle tar. And I see nothing wrong or 'sad' about it either.

aye

[Spiritofmosa]

I think Christianity is going through bad period now.

[StreetlightRock]

Congratulations?

[2muchket!]

You overlooked something: except for going out to a club and maybe the board games, none of those things cost much, if any money. It's not necessarily the club or board games that made you happy, it was being with friends that really made you happy.

Consider the following: there was an experiment where a researcher put a baby monkey with two surrogate 'mothers', one made out of bare wire cage, which had a milk bottle and another with fur lining, which had no milk. The baby tended to cling to the fur 'mother', even though it could offer him no nutrition, because, in some sense, it gave him affection. That experiment teaches us a lesson about ourselves, primates who are not altogether too different from the others: it doesn't take much in material goods to be happy. Likewise, a high material standard of living does not imply happiness. It always puzzles me when people suggest that one should not be depressed because of his material comforts; their presence or absence is not the root cause of depression.

Myself, I choose not to live very decadently because someone somewhere pays for it. The easier my life is, the harder it is on someone else. Cheap consumer goods for me mean a 14-hour hell-shift for some laborer in China. As such, I try to avoid spending money on things that I don't really need, or at least buy them from better sources For example, my Swedish military surplus coat was cheap, didn't require any more labor besides shipping and was presumably manufactured in a humane working environment. Plus it's hella warm.

I understand what you're saying but I do live a decadent life. And as for when I go to a club, I do have a good time with them having a drink and what not but it's just as much as the environment I'm in that allows me to enjoy myself fully.

[JumpTheF**kUp]

I'm starting to feel the world is going downhill.

Life 20 to 30 years ago for people was much more simple and easy going, of course there was no cellphones and ipods then. People were more concerned about getting married and starting a family and there was less politics going on.

But as we progress into the future, developed countries produce more cars, burn more fuel and make more money. We get more greedy, out attention span lackens as we spend hours in front of a television or internet. More and more dysfunctional families and more politics.

I sense something bad is going to happen, or something bad is already happening to the world. What should i do?

Well you haven't been worrying about it for the past 19 years and the world got along fine.

Just don't worry about it, seriously.

Unless you're going to be in a position where you will be making very important decisions (and seeing as you're on MX, chances are high that you will not), then just leave it to the people who are. The world is still chugging along, even if we do believe our world leaders are morons and our society is slowly degrading. And it still will be 70 years from now when you will be close to death (provided there isn't some kind of nuclear holocaust, and even if there is, there's nothing you can do about that either).

Instead of worrying about the big picture, do small things everyday that will help in the here and now. Stop emitting greenhouse gases, use public transport, smile at people who you ****ing hate, don't buy into commercialism, whatever, just do something that will make you stop thinking actively about it.

I think I went around in a circle or something, but w/e.

[spitfirejunky]

Life 20 to 30 years ago for people was much more simple and easy going, of course there was no cellphones and ipods then. People were more concerned about getting married and starting a family and there was less politics going on.

:lol:

My God.

[Iskandar]

Pretty reactionary sentiments, obviously.

[Spiritofmosa]

Well you haven't been worrying about it for the past 19 years and the world got along fine.

Just don't worry about it, seriously.

Unless you're going to be in a position where you will be making very important decisions (and seeing as you're on MX, chances are high that you will not), then just leave it to the people who are. The world is still chugging along, even if we do believe our world leaders are morons and our society is slowly degrading. And it still will be 70 years from now when you will be close to death (provided there isn't some kind of nuclear holocaust, and even if there is, there's nothing you can do about that either).

Instead of worrying about the big picture, do small things everyday that will help in the here and now. Stop emitting greenhouse gases, use public transport, smile at people who you ****ing hate, don't buy into commercialism, whatever, just do something that will make you stop thinking actively about it.

I think I went around in a circle or something, but w/e.

thanks for the advise mate,
i have a habit of thinking too much, and have been feeling pretty down these few days. But everything will be fine on friday.

[Surtr]

You can all come join me on Litla Dimun :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Litla-dimun-photo.jpg

[1338 h4x0r]

You can all come join me on Litla Dimun :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Litla-dimun-photo.jpg

That **** be uninhabited, nigga.

[VomitStainedCretin]

That **** be uninhabited, nigga.Wrong; it has a substantial leprechaun population and is an important stronghold of the endangered Faroes Pixy.

[Mr. Ron]

There's bad stuff about society ALWAYS. Whenever you feel this way just think "Hey, I don't live in Africa".

[Surtr]

That **** be uninhabited, nigga.

Other than me, and my fortess that's hidden among the clouds/fog/mist at the peak of the island.

[r1mbaud]

move away from American influence

Which will be hard

Your best bet is to start a Utopian colony in some isolate location.

chill out jim jones


we should all just find a ptista with some real horrorshow groodies, and give her the old in out in out real rough and horrorshow, eh droogs?

[tablespoonful]

There's bad stuff about society ALWAYS. Whenever you feel this way just think "Hey, I don't live in Africa".

"Hey, I wish I owned a diamond mine in Africa."

[The_Berzerker]

People like scientologists make me want to go postal