Better today than yesterday? (purpose, society, life)
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Okay... this line of thinking got started in another forum.. and I thought it was better suited here in Philosophy.
Question of the day: Are we better off and happier today than we were even 50 years ago?
Some of the issues that were brought up were that tv shows that were representative of the times had men and women in defined roles, in functioning families, solving problems together (My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Family Affair).
What shows do we have on prime time today that represent families today? Simpsons? Family Guy? 2 1/2 Men?
Some people argued that being happy was a state of mind.. others argued that it's hard to be in the right state of mind when society as a whole has plunged so far into protecting the individual (and often abnormal individual) that the term for society no longer holds relevance.
Thoughts? (And remember.. I'm the messenger.. shoot the theories or opinions.. not me!!)
Okay... this line of thinking got started in another forum.. and I thought it was better suited here in Philosophy.
Question of the day: Are we better off and happier today than we were even 50 years ago?
Some of the issues that were brought up were that tv shows that were representative of the times had men and women in defined roles, in functioning families, solving problems together (My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Family Affair).
What shows do we have on prime time today that represent families today? Simpsons? Family Guy? 2 1/2 Men?
Some people argued that being happy was a state of mind.. others argued that it's hard to be in the right state of mind when society as a whole has plunged so far into protecting the individual (and often abnormal individual) that the term for society no longer holds relevance.
Thoughts? (And remember.. I'm the messenger.. shoot the theories or opinions.. not me!!)
Those shows were so "white" and so over the top that I don't even think they reflected what was going on at the time. I think they reflected what people wanted to believe the way life should be.
I think we are much better than we were 50 years ago. Civil rights, better medical technologies, feminist movement, access to more information etc.
Lets face it. Things I'm sure looked great 50 years ago if you were a White Male. To everyone else.. I bet it sucked.
hehe well i dont think I can speak about this without being called biased, my country was under a dictatorship until 1958 so I do see today as better than yesterday.
I think we're better off today in a great many ways. Fifty years ago we had segregation and racism was the norm in society. I'm 59 so I can attest to the fact that television sucked in that era and we have such a variety of entertainment available today that anyone can find something to enjoy. If you think sitcoms from the fifties and sixties are great you can probably still find channels that carry them or get DVD's of them.
Also, you mentioned something about men and women having assigned roles, I'm sorry but women are just as capable as men in every area except physical strength and in this day and age that's not particularly important unless you want to be a firefighter or move heavy furniture. If I was a woman I wouldn't have anything to do with a man who thought I needed to play the role of the smiling little housekeeper whose only purpose in life was to be a helper to her husband. Personally I've glad that era has come and gone.
It depends. In some ways we're better off today, in some we're not.
When it comes to TV, i think we were better off then, at least our kids were, they had time to spend outside and enjoy life, they probably were not obese and were healthier, unlike a lot of children today.What good is today's TV? It's nothing "real", it's brainwashing, it's plain stupid.
Yes, we do have hundreds of programs to watch, is that really what your life is about? To see how many "South Park" episodes you can watch non-stop?
To me, it seems like today, we're way to busy with everything that is offered to us. We have way too many choices to make, a lot of stress, a lot of rush to do this and get there, etc. Our lives become so much more complicated.
I think before, it was simple, it was clean, it made sense and i do believe, people were happier.
I'm a child of the 70-80s, so i don't know much about 50 years ago, but even then, growing up was much more fun and less stressful.
I thnik we are defiently better offf today than yesterday. I can remember my father was in the uppr middle class and even middle class lives better today. Few people just as a example owned tweo cars and most did not eat out near as often.People dress alot better to day.But people were alot more grounded when I was growing up in the late 50'sand 60's. Schools were good [places and there was not so much violence and you could walk anywhere.People were just more civilised than now.
Yes, we do have hundreds of programs to watch, is that really what your life is about? To see how many "South Park" episodes you can watch non-stop?
No it's not, I was responding to the OP which was comparing television programs of today with what we had fifty years ago. I've never watched a single program of South Park but I do enjoy much of the programming on The Learning Channel, The Science Channel, The History Channel, etc. I haven't watched a sitcom in probably 30 years so I don't know how good or bad it is, I don't have any interest in airhead tv shows. There's no doubt that life was much simpler a half century ago but I'm not intimidated by having more choices in life. I also think that the fifties are glossed over with alot of sentimental nonsense about how happy everybody was but I don't believe that black people were experiencing a fulfilling life and a woman could be a school teacher or a nurse and not much more. The OP just kind of rubs me the wrong way. I think that being a young person today would hold much more promise than it would have fifty years ago.
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