To feel like this world is going to shit right now?

[Notbigandnotclever]

I am just so sad right now. My heart is breaking over so many innocent people killed in recent months. Terrorist attacks around the world, overflowing refugee camps housing people fleeing from war, people shot for seemingly no reason other than their sexuality, an MP shot doing her job. When will it stop ffs? What on earth is going on?

I feel right now like I just want to get off the world. I really don't want to live in a world with such malice, hatred and spite in it. I can normally feel sad but then let things wash over me. Not anymore though. It's too much. So much darkness it is horrible. The weather is matching it as well. Dark, cloudy, dreary, fucked up and all over the place.

Does anyone else want to bail?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

Yes.

I said to DP last night that the world seems scary and different all of a sudden.
I'm terrified for the future and for the world my children will have to grow up in.

[forkhandles4candles]

too much monstrosity in the world and very little hope. I look at DC and really wonder what sort of a world they will be adults in - environmentally, capitalism out of control, war, hatred, bigotry....

[megletthesecond]

Yes. I can only zone out the shit when I'm at the allotment or on a long run. Feel very vulnerable.

[specialsubject]

hate to say it but check your history.

MP murders were regular in the 1980s.
homosexuality was illegal in the UK for a long time (still is in many countries)
there's always a war and refugees somewhere.

no, it's not good but things are actually BETTER than they have been.

[situatedknowledge]

I was talking to DH about this a couple of days ago (so before yesterday's horror). I came to the conclusion then that I was just being spoilt and self indulgent because the world has actually been awful forever, and it is just that we are in a time just now when people who share my values may be in a minority, and that thanks to modern communication people are happy and able to share their horribleness.

I now think it is exceptionally horrible, and that it is up to those of us who feel that strongly to do something to make a positive difference.

[morningtoncrescent62]

Yes, I feel like that sometimes. Best antidote I know of to those awful feelings of hopelessness/helplessness is to do something to make the world a better place, and not just within your own family sphere, but on a bigger stage. Get involved in campaigning for whatever cause gives you hope. E.g. join your local Amnesty group, or get involved with an organisation like Global Justice Now, or another campaigning group which fits with your politics and priorities. The world does often look like a grim place, but there's lots of good in it too.

[MrsSpecter]

I agree we are actually in probably the safest time we have ever been but this year/end of last year feel like they have been particularly horrific in terms of murders, assaults, and even accidental deaths. Not to mention what seems like a lot of high profile deaths too.

[peachpudding]

It just seems worse than it is because we have 24/7 world wide news reporting everything bad that happens. The world is a safer place than it has ever been.

[branofthemist]

How is it any different to how it's always been though?

I do have a different view to most people from England. I grew up in Derry Northern Ireland and lost lots of relatives and friends in the 'troubles', they were all murdered.

Yesterday was awful and I am deeply saddened. Like my parents were when Yvonne fletcher was killed.

I grew up with this sort of stuff very close to home. So I don't see it being any different.

[angelos02]

Tis the reason I chose not to have children.

[RiverTam]

As a PP said a lot of things are better now, definitely, especially in this country, many marginalised people now have legal protections and can, as we all can, walk down the street in safety.

However, I do think there is one thing that isn't changing, or is getting worse, and that is toxic masculinity. Why, in the year 2016, to we still live, here in the Western world, in a society where men are still so fearful and full of hate towards women, towards feminine men? Why is that? And what is being done to counteract it?

Manhood needs to take a very good, long, hard look at itself.

[MrsSpecter]

It just seems worse than it is because we have 24/7 world wide news reporting

Yes i think this is a huge factor in our perception. 10 years ago we wouldnt have been hearing about a lot of the stuff we are being fed daily by social media.

[firesidechat]

I do think that a fair few of the recent attacks are by people with mental health problems. That in no way excuses what they have done and I'm certainly not suggesting that all mentally ill people are dangerous, but I do see it is an aggravating factor in these attacks. The causes they supposedly "fight" for could be anything and would be different in a different period of history.

Sadly help for mental illness is hard to get and seriously underfunded as we have found from our own personal experience.

As others have already said the world has always had tragedies and people doing despicable things to others. It's nether better nor worse than previously, just a lot of sad things in a short time.

[MerryMarigold]

I agree. I think troubles, disasters, wars have moved around different parts of the world forever. We are just so much more aware now. Some of the sadness is good, it shows we are about others, in different countries, and not just ourselves. I don't think we could have said that in the 70s.

[10tinycrabs]

I agree with Peach.

[Notbigandnotclever]

It just seems worse than it is because we have 24/7 world wide news reporting everything bad that happens.

I do think this is a big part of it as well and I am aware of it. It in same way that it feels like lots and lots of celebrities have died recently partly because there are just so many well known people now in these times of mass media and the internet.

I also try and do my bit but I'm left reeling at how little I can actually do. It just scares me to see all this horribleness and feel so insignificant against it.

[BeverlyGoldberg]

Social media and rolling news bring it closer to us.

Things were as bad if not worse in the 1980s but we had to wait for the 6 / 9/ 10 O'Clock news or the newspaper the next day.

Nowadays we can look at the tweets from Jo Cox's husband, we can see tweets from people trapped in the Colorado shooting sent seconds before they died, it makes it easier to empathise with the people involved which unfortunately makes it feel very close to home.

Having said all that I admit I am scared for the future that my child will grow up in, I hope I can equip her with the skills she'll need to navigate a very different world to one I grew up in.

[Notbigandnotclever]

My hope and prayer is that the more we see the more people will rally against it as it's only through many, many people taking a stand and saying "I will not stand for this shit" that it will stop.

[nonamenopackdrill]

I am also in despair today.

I think that the toxic mentality of some (eg the likes of Katy Hopkins) contributes to our general desensitising as well. I know that much of it is affected for the sake of it, but how much further can someone take things in order to get the coverage? While the world is going through a humanitarian crisis, it fells like we are trying to pull up the drawbridge and release the hounds on those less fortunate than us, rather than offering them a hand.

I joined the Labour party recently in a bid to try and make things better, and aim to be out canvassing for an 'in' vote tomorrow, assuming the referendum is going ahead. Because I have to try and do something.

[Betrayedbutsurvived]

I agree that the 24/7 worldwide news coverage doesn't help. Sadly, the world has always been like this. I remember my parents checking under their car everytime we went out, looking for bombs. My school was regularly evacuated due to bomb threats. Pol Pott in Ethiopia. Hearing the explosion on the news when Airey Neves car blew up, Lockerbie, Lord Mountbatten. John Lennon, the list goes on, and that's just my recollections, people older than me no doubt remember worse.

Sad to say op, the older you get, the more you realise the human race has a long way to go before it becomes civilised.

[Itscurtainsforyou]

I agree with you OP. Coupled with some tricky personal stuff going on I feel that this week has knocked me for 6.

[ifcatscouldtalk]

Sometimes I give myself a news break as it gets so depressing and worrying I guess. I do however think 24/7 news channels, internet and instant access in real time watching events unfold do add to the sense of the world is getting worse. I'm afraid I live in a little bubble at times as its a much happier place. I'm sure that grim stuff has always been going on.

[hmcAsWas]

YABU - as someone said, check your history. Life has always been nasty, brutish and short.

[SharkBaitOohHaha]

The world has always been shit. People have always been shit.

This week has been particularly bad, no doubt about that. But I would still say, on the whole, the world is a safer and more progressive place than it ever has been.

[blitheringbuzzards1234]

Yes, things seem to be getting worse but awful things have always happened and as we get older we all see/hear things which sadden us. We have much better communications now which bring all the troubles of the world to us instantly. Good news rarely makes the headlines but does still happen. Try to bear in mind that for young people these will one day, no matter how unlikely it seems to us older ones, become their 'good old days'.