It feels like the entire world is giving up (Indiana, Obama, carry)

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

It feels to me like everyone is giving up on life, like everything is pointless. It's not just in the US. Many countries are in even worse shape than we are.

People are not giving up. We have the technology that allows us to realize just how many stupid people we have in this country/world, who fall for everything, who are so partisan and biased, they don't care to learn the truth. But here's the key part: They've always been there, we just didn't have to hear their every thought and opinion all over social media, every single day.

I was looking over headlines today and saw pictures of Biden and Yellen. All I could think was that no one is in control. That we have no government, because even those at the pinnacles of power have given up on trying to fix things. I had a real sense of foreboding, that the existential void at the heart of our society had become so large that people were just waiting for it all to collapse. Because they are out of ideas, and just want to see what happens next.

Oh, there's definitely people in control, it's just not who they tell you it is.

And yes, there are those out there who do want it to all collapse. One of them even wrote a book about it. He used the words that the above mentioned stupid people claim is a 'conspiracy'.

Our society is a shadow of itself. So many people are overweight. There's so little socializing and joy among people. The dating scene among the young is a wasteland. Since the lockdowns a lot of young people have withdrawn from society and given up on carving out a life for themselves with others. I call it the fortress mentality, which is the opposite of a growth mindset. You build walls between you and the outside world to protect what you have, because you don't think there's anything worth gaining on the outside.

This was predicted over 2 decades ago. I've talked about this video several times on this forum - and I can't find it because it was before YouTube. It was talking about technology and connecting the world - and it started out pretty neat - how we could communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world. But, as the video went on, it started to reveal precisely what you're seeing now. Essentially, it was pointing out that the more we would 'come together', the further apart we would become.

The fortress mentality is in the economy too. I work in corporate America, and the amount of actual work that gets done is miniscule. It seems like most people are just trying to fly below the radar while doing as little as possible. Meanwhile employers don't reward work and loyalty. Instead they relentlessly try to cut costs even if it harms future growth. It feels like both sides are mining the economy to get as much out as they can before it collapses. Even the shiny new companies in software are mostly illusions, as the tech crash is demonstrating. All those big name companies like Uber, Airbnb, Postmates, et al don't make money and rarely have. It was all an illusion of progress.

That has always been the case in corporate America. I've said that on this forum years ago. If you were to take out 80% of the so called 'workers' in corporate America, and leave the 20% who actually do their job, do a great job, and care about work ethic, you would get the work done much faster, cleaner, and with far fewer mistakes. People have been 'showing up for their paychecks only' for as long as I've been working.

Also, I have learned that it doesn't matter how hard you work, it doesn't matter how many compliments you get from customers or clients - it's about ass kissing. If you do your job right, they keep you right where you are. If you suck up and bring in fancy coffee drinks every Wednesday for your boss and you, no one else, then you get fast tracked to the position you want.

I wouldn't worry about Uber. You should see what they have in Dubai. (Uber yacht drivers. No, I'm not kidding. https://money.com/uberyacht-rent-yacht-dubai/

Postmates is now part of Uber, so they will be fine. I can tell you what the problem was with Postmates, as I used to have it on my phone. They told you how much you would get paid and what store you would go to, but they never told you how much work you would be doing for that pay until AFTER you accepted the job. In CA, where I lived at the time, it was pretty decent because you didn't have to drive that far. In NC? Totally different story. You would see a job for a pick up at Wally World for say...$12.

What they didn't tell you until after you accepted the job was that you would have to drive 30 miles to the customer's house. Which meant you had to drive 30 miles to get back to your area. So, go to the Wally World, wait forever for the Wally World employees to bring out the order, (and I'm only slightly exaggerating about 'wait forever'), load up the car, and begin your 30 mile drive. Always, always, always the people are on the 3rd floor (no elevators), so you would have to schlup all that stuff up 3 flights of stairs, over and over and over and over and over....really fun in the humid summer! Then! You got to drive another 30 miles to get back to your own area. All for $12! Yippee.

People got burned too many times and just stopped doing it.

You can see this reflected in the birth rates here and elsewhere. When I do have the opportunity to speak with people my age, I have never encountered so many people who swear off having children because they don't want to bring a life into this world. Our world has never been wealthier and more comfortable, and yet also so unhappy.

I never wanted kids. And yes, part of it was because what I had seen of the world, thus far. People can't keep relationships - they act like it's going to the store and picking out some produce. Then, they get tired of eating cantaloupe every day, so just move on to the next fruit...until they tire of that one, and move on to the next. People don't seem to truly understand the word 'love', and instead go for 'they are good looking'.

I also grew up during the Cold War - and it definitely affected how I viewed our possible future. Talk about nuclear war, tv shows about it to scare the crap out of people - works really well on kids, I can vouch for that. And, honestly, we have way too many people on this planet who were not properly taken care of when they were kids. They grow up, repeat the same thing, and we continue to create unstable people in this world who can't handle anything.

Maybe this is because there are too many people and too much competition. That we are witnessing a global case of colony collapse. It has been mentioned in various venues that the Earth's population may peak sometime this century, and that may be the most people alive ever. Imagine that, what a singular experience to have. As many could tell you, it isn't all that nice a feeling.

It's not competition that is necessarily the problem. Competition is a good thing, in many ways. It helps us come up with new ideas, new ways of doing things, etc. The problem is when people compete to have the most money. And right now, we have a very greedy world that is never satisfied without all the flash and the bling. Why? Because see above - they weren't raised properly.

Whatever the cause, this just feels like a depressing time to be alive. And that is backed up by rates of medication and therapy to manage symptoms of mental disorders.

It doesn't have to be. One just needs to stop relying on every one else, or electronic gadgets, or some other form of outside stimulation to keep them going. But, again, when a parent uses TV or electronic gadgets to babysit their kids, when they use everyone else in the world to raise their kids because they're too busy chasing their career so that they can have the McMansion and the SUV in the driveway - well, this is what you get.

The focus used to be on family.

The focus now is on money.

Some people have tried to destroy the idea of 'family', in just about every possible way that they can. They're still doing it, right this minute.

Americans are fat, lonely, unhappy, underpaid, and stressed out. The usual succors like friends and family are also falling away, leaving very little to hold onto.

And that is all by design. And people continue to believe this way will make them happier when the complete opposite is being exposed. But, since they have no base line for what true happiness is, they have no idea that chaos and greed is not happiness.

I know the situation in this country best of all, better than elsewhere, but I think it's shared by billions all over the world. We are all united by our alienation from each other. Funny how that works.

I've long stated that I wish the Industrial Revolution never happened. Now we've got people pushing for the 4th Industrial Revolution. Yeah, cause this has worked out so well for us, hasn't it? We've got everything we need and we're still unsatisfied.

Pretty sickening, isn't it?

But, you don't have to be a part of that. The most 'luxurious' thing I have is this laptop. It's 8 years old. Oh, and I guess my car - which I use for work more than anything else. That's it. I don't need my place filled with crap. Aside from my bed and a single nightstand, I don't even have furniture. Why should I? Because people say I have to have it to fill out my living room? Meh. That's a wide open space for the pets to play. I don't even have a desk for my laptop. It's sitting on the top of my boy dog's crate. (He's no longer with us.) This is all by my own choosing. I realized that 'things' don't make me happy. I don't care what you have. I don't care what you think about what I have, or don't have. That's not the point of life.

Where I live there is nature right outside my window. I don't see a street, or other people's apartments, or dumpsters, or wood chips and shrubs. I see nature. I see hawks, squirrels, deer, possum, rabbits - that's what recharges me, not the latest cell phone or tablet.

In this world filled with people who don't care about anyone but themselves, remember that we do still have a lot of genuine, good, caring people who still get it. Find your own peace - based on what you want, not what others say you should want.

I honestly think more time in nature puts a lot of things in perspective...give that a shot. Spend as much time in nature as you can. When I lived in Miami Beach, I'd get up and go to the beach in the morning, when hardly anyone was out there, and just sit and look at the ocean. I would think about the sharks and fish swimming around. I'd think about how they didn't have to worry about bills, rent, traffic, horns honking all day...they were just living their lives.

I also volunteered at animal shelters. You don't give a toss what others think when a dog that has been waiting for a forever home, climbs into your lap when you're sitting on the bench outside for his playtime, and puts his paws around your neck, and refuses to do anything else.

You just don't care what other people think, do, or want when that happens. All you think about is that dog. You think about how you made that dog feel better, if just for a little bit. That's what matters. That is the power that you have.

Spend more time doing what good you can for the world and the humans/creatures in it, and less time thinking about how horrible it is.

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by Nattering Heights

We are at the end of progress, when the values that built our civilization don't work anymore. Many fantasies of progress such as interstellar travel will never happen. When science and medicine can do nothing for dying patients, progress takes another hit. When a blackout lasts days, progress takes another hit. When life just keeps getting worse for consecutive generations, progress is hit hard. That can be a loss of religious faith, since progress is a godless or god-lite version of paradise, heaven, etc. Without that faith, people may wallow in despair, drugs, shallow entertainment, or turn to the opposite belief, apocalyptic destruction. Some people merely shrug and adapt to the changing world, which can start with developing practical skills to use less energy, befriending neighbors and joining community support networks instead of arguing on the internet, etc.

None of these things stop human progress. Even population bottlenecks bringing the population way down in prehistoric times didn't stop progress. We will always desire to learn more and do more and have more abilities.

Nothing has stopped human progress in 2.5 million years and one election cycle in one country on the globe isn't going to stop it either. The drama is big in this thread but nope. We are not THAT important...even though we wish we were.

People are going to create and invent...AND question. We always have. We always will.

[USNRET04]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

I will never cease to be astonished at this Svengali-like hold Trump has over people. The guy can't open his mouth without lying. He is a morally bankrupt supreme narcissist who cares for nobody but himself according to his niece Mary Trump, a PhD psychologist who probably knows Trump better than he knows himself. And yet people worship him. I just don't get it.

If I recall correctly, there have been numerous attempts to try to explain this to you, but I don't think that you want to "get it".

We are not worshiping Donald J Trump, the human. For myself, I worship only God and his Son. I'm pretty sure that this is the way for most people who voted for Trump. The "worship" thing is really no different than what Obama's followers were doing.

What we voted for was to stop the train wreck that Obama started or carried on from Bush. The country would have been doomed even further if Hillary Clinton became president, so many American's who felt they did not have a say, voted for Trump. We were not going to let her destroy this country.

Trump's polices, while not perfect since he was not a politician, were working for the people who you elites call "fly over country".

As a Trump supporter, I would cringe when he talked or tweeted. But things, overall, were going pretty well. Then in 2020, the Dems put up the nit-wit combo of Biden/Harris, you really gave Trump supporters no choice other than to vote for him again.

When Trump said "I'm the only thing standing between you and Anarchy", then yes I believe that because look at what the mess we are in now and it's only going to get worse. Biden has TOLD us that it will get worse.

Hopefully this helped you understand a bit.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by Nattering Heights

We are at the end of progress.

That's a very myopic viewpoint. In the 1970s we were told that the human race had exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity and there would be mass starvation. 20 years ago, who would have thought I'd be walking around with a supercomputer in my pocket? I just read of a clinical trial in which 100% of the patients with advanced rectal cancer went into remission. Technological progress only ever accelerates.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

You can't argue with a boomer... they have been told they were the best for years... but Harrison Ford is a walking corpse... they didn't cast like that in the past. At a certain point older actors were put out to retirement. No longer.

The boomers suck up every acting role there is, and ruin most movies.

They were called the "Me" generation and now that they are in charge we live in a world of selfishness... humn... shocking.

Our only hope is their extinction.

You don't seem to have much knowledge about the way the film industry works.

Filmmakers try to hire the talent that will sell tickets.

Just rest with that a moment.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Leo58

You make a good point here. I don't think everyone is depressed and giving up on life. But yes, political bickering and complaining has become the #1 pastime in America.

Maybe the problem is that we have it too good. People forget what actual hardship is. Gas goes up a couple bucks, and people act like the world is ending. People forget what actual discrimination was like. Now they get upset if you don't use their chosen pronouns. People forget that there was a time when communism and fascism were existential threats to the US. Now, if someone wants to extend Medicaid they're call a communist, and if they want to enforce the border they're called fascist.

I have said that for 20 years. This generation - my generation - I grew up in the 60's and 70's - has never had any hardships. Individual people, obviously, have had problems but as a collective, we've been wrapped in cotton and packing peanuts. We just missed the Viet Nam draft, but were able to watch others go through that horror of being snatched up against their will to fight a war that was purposeless.

That's it. After that, coasting on a wax papered slide. It causes the imagination to drum up stuff to be upset and worried about.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by danielj72

None of the generations alive today have the character and fortitude of the Greatest Generation. If the depression happened today we would quickly descend into civil war or anarchy, if WW2 happened today we would end up speaking German. We are not that country anymore. We are one crises away from the end of our Union. We are to disunited, we will quickly divided into political camps and turn on each other if something like the depression happens again.

I think they had character and fortitude BECAUSE they were challenged. It doesn't come naturally. Our current generations - Baby Boomer, GenX and Millennial - have had it soft. Which is good; we don't want to have wars and depressions. But it leaves us unprepared to face adversity.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

You don't seem to have much knowledge about the way the film industry works.

Filmmakers try to hire the talent that will sell tickets.

Just rest with that a moment.

Good point. Old people go to movies. They want to see their fellow old folk actors.

[snerk]

People still protest, they donate to causes, they help one another, and work toward change. That's not giving up.

Too much time spent online will give you the false impression that the whole world has gone to hell. It's not true. Spend some time in nature, or at least outdoors. Take time to look around you.

[Oklazona Bound]

Originally Posted by naicha

If you can't discern the difference in giving someone who is feeling overwhelmed by this circus advice then you just want to revel in toxicity.

The OP feeling down,...give advice saying to back off the circus and you can see how people react, like I was Mao or something. I am far from Left and probably say some vile things too, but it's too much to say , hey,..maybe you should chill out on consuming this stuff?

Like it's some personal attack on you for trying to help the OP,..lol.

No personal attack. But what you said would be like going to eat at an all you can eat buffet and telling overweight people they should probably stop coming here while you chow down. Do as I say not as I do I suppose. I just thought it was funny.

They were giving observations on their take on how the world is. I don't disagree with any of their points and tuning out to social media does not change anything. Just go out in the world and the high prices, empty store shelves and an overall frustration most people feel.

Add to all of that the government raising interest rates which is necessary but will cause a huge amount of pain with jobs losses and business downturn. Last time with this sort of inflation unemployment was over 10%, with over 10 years of hiking rates to stop inflation and we did not have the across the board inflation pressures we do now.

We have a lot of problems now and its about to get much worse. No wonder people are glum.