To think everything will be unrecognisable in 50 years

It’s nonsense inspired by grievance and rigid political ideology.

Robert Sapolsky has pointed out that, rather than the complete social breakdown that Malthus predicted would be caused by overpopulation, the global decline in childbirth is perhaps making this avoidable. And it is a global decline.

Yep, I remember the homework by candlelight. Because we were kids it seemed an exciting adventure, those times must’ve been a nightmare for our parents.

I actually do regret having DC when I imagine what will be in 50 years. I am actually unsure if the human race will be alive; we have given power to far too many greedy men who don't have the ability to consider consequences.

At least there wouldn't be any more threads on mumsnet in which people express their anger at women wearing revealing clothing.

@HoppityBun And it is a global decline.

False. Birth rates far exceed the replacement rate (2.2) across almost all of Africa.

Yes. AI and demographics (mass migration and aging) will change everything.

What's that meant to mean?

Easier said than done.

Many many people feel and are completely disempowered in making change happen. Look at all the people who have a degree and cannot find work other than behind the bar at a Spoons or stacking shelves.

It's another trope like the "just work harder and don't buy so many Costa coffees" as the solution to the unaffordable of housing.

I was in my teens and 20s in the 70s. Of course I was young and it was my era but it was fabulous. The worry was about nuclear war and overpopulation, neither of which are top of the list now.
What was different then that meant we were content was two things.
Firstly no social media. You didn't get any sense of how others were better off so less envy.
Secondly almost all of my generation were better off than our parents. My parents were born just before WWII and grew up in poverty. I grew up in poverty, although we were better off than many, we had very little in the way of material belongings. We didn't go abroad on holiday, I had very few clothes, I never ate in a restaurant until I was 18. There was enough to eat but no money for luxury. Once I started working I was significantly better off than my parents had ever been.

To the poster who had never heard of Scottish sectarianism. It was and still is to some extent a division between Catholic and Protestant in a similar way to northern Ireland. There's obviously much more to it than that. Rangers v Celtic isn't just sporting rivalry.

I grew up in a City in the Midlands, and even back then (80's), there were parts of the City that white people could not go. It was full of shops and restaurants aimed at the foreign people that lived there, and the people had no desire to integrate with "white trash". I can't imagine what it must be like now, what with all this extra immigration.

I agree with everything you say, including feeling British although I do think Glasgow, although much larger than Edinburgh is not as metropolitan /cosmopolitan as Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a European city.

Possibley means due to immigration?

I find lots of places stay more or less the same.

Haven't read whole thread but if course many things will be different. I was a teen in the seventies and this is a different country and we do things differently here. Not all good, not all bad.

the loss of shared cultural reference points in TV and newspapers and radio
what do you mean by this?

I thought you were asking talking about 50 years ago?

😂

The people living in 50 years time (assuming we don't have total climate collapse and end of civilisation) will think being "Scottish" is what they see around them. Just as people 50 years ago had a different idea of "normal" and "change" to you. Most of what we understand as traditionally "Scottish" culture today was created during the 19th (possibly also 18th, I'm not sure) Scottish Nationalist revival.

Things change all the time. It's very human to see the state of things when we are growing up like some sort of fixed point that change happens to but it isn't, every time is just one moment in a river of ongoing change.

I thought the other day, walking down my high street which is one of the most multicultural in the UK, in 50 years time Britain may not be considered a white country any more. And you know what? I realised I don't care. I feel just as connected to a future Britain that isn't mostly white as I do to one that is. It will still be Britain. It will still be that story, moving on and changing as it always has. There are cultural moments in my neighbourhood that are uniquely British now because there are children growing up together as neighbours from cultures that would never have met if they were tied to geography rather than all here at this exact point in time.

All that we need to do to qualify for our place in the story is to be here and be part of it.

Unfortunately I think it's a symptom of globalism. Every highstreet starts to look the same, with the same shops. The same products are available everywhere, the same food. So what differentiates places gets less and less.

When I read your opening post I really wasn't sure what you were getting out. Then you posted this and voila, all became clear.

An interesting way to start one of the many 'too many forrreigner' threads I'll give you.

There are things you can control though. You can use the best of advancements and ignore the rest.
You can decide that regardless of where someone was born, or how they arrived living in your road that they are also other human beings with hopes, dreams and traditions.
You can keep yourself healthy to try and avoid unnecessary visits to the GP/NHS
You can be happy with enough instead of wanting more
You can go to church for community (everyone bangs on about the UK being lost but you don’t see crowds flocking into churches even though people bang on about Christian values)

We have a free at the point of use, still, for the time being health service, we have benefits so people aren’t starving, we have to option of buying cheap goods.

And I know the issues with housing, stunted life possibilities for the young, the cost and possible pointlessness of university, the difficulties for the younger generations we have two teens in exam years and by jove it’s a different world to our world. But they have the internet and YouTube full of free tutors (one of ours is upstairs learning Arabic quotes for his RE mock right now), there are huge problems their generation need to solve, they are going to have to be inventive. We as their parents have/are going to bypass any inheritance to us direct to them and pay £100k plus god knows for their higher education. So we know this. We could navel gaze “it’s not fair” and you know what some things aren’t “fair” they just are.

Some things are better, some things are worse. Like every generation/time/place in history.

The UK was rich (beyond it’s natural means) because we had an Empire, we matched in and stole India for starters, we are utter hypocrites for thinking “oh immigrants coming here taking things” - that was our job eh!

We have an educated, creative population. We have a world-class creative industry and mostly robust ethics and political system. Brexit was a shot in the foot and some now want to get rid of the BBC (big mistake - change it yes but instead of looking at the soft power and influence it still has many want to put it in the bin).

We don’t treasure and support the good stuff in the UK, we just whinge and complain. And do nothing. That is who we are now.

There’s loads of things people can do.

Exactly!

Thank God I'll be dead in 50years time - the world will be awful by then