Aibu to think we're entering a new "dark age"?

[Sorrelle]

Over-reliance on social media, living in our little bubbles; economic nationalism rather than globalisation; growing inequality; growth of illiberal democracies... Anyone agree?

Do you remember the 80s? I do and what I remember is ending up in hospital at least once a fortnight because the air quality was so bad. Or the 90s ozone layer holes which are now getting better. I think we really are turning things around with the environment but it's going to take time.

There are lots of pedantic parrots around along with people not interested in learning much outside skills required to do their job, football and personal grooming.

HesterShaw Sat
I'd say there was something about IQ's dropping. The general level of stupidity and lack of applied thought in the everyday population is staggering.*

As witnessed by reading:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2513449-Ridiculous-things-youve-only-recently-realised-youve-been-wrong-about-your-entire-life

I was gobsmacked.

You're right Silver, a bunch of Mums not knowing that hang gliding is not hand gliding is surely a sign of how stupid the population truly has become. Never mind the advances we're making or anything like that....

Think carefully... would you really like to have been born in any earlier time? Before modern medicine, before clean water, before vaccination, high risk of dying in childbirth (or in war if you were male), enormous differences in wealth and privilege, no education for most, chance of whole families dying of starvation if the harvest failed.

The scenery must have been lovely though...

I agree with MilkTwoSugars. We are in the opposite of a dark age.

And my favourite fact for anyone longing for another time is that there was legally no such thing as rape within marriage in the UK until 1991.

Air quality in the UK has been improving since circa 1910, other countries are going through the same cycle in far less time.

By definition 50% of people are below median intelligence, intelligence is inversely correlated with childhood malnutrition, which is obviously dropping, quickly...

Of course 50% of the population are below average intelligence It's the definition of average.

Whatever tests might be saying ... I'm fairly sure I'm observing a fall in 'intelligence' although I'm really talking about critical thinking and common sense. Knowledge must have increased, as we have access to so much of it. But knowledge isn't worth much without the skills to discover, question and apply.

I feel there's a serious risk of sleepwalking into a feudal system, with the chasm between rich & poor becoming unbridgeable and the poor lacking autonomy. It will look different on the surface, but actually the medieval rich & powerful did form a global elite. The masses were nothing but an expendable resource to them. Unless people get a lot more concerned en masse, today's children won't be able to believe their parents grew up with free, high quality healthcare & education, housing security and loads of consumer choice.

I'm still optimistic that people will arrest the decline before it gets too much worse - but there's a lot of waking up to do first. If things carry on as they are, I'm glad I'm not going to live that much longer and don't have children of my own. I still worry for my neices & nephews, though, and the kids they will have.

I think as far as national and international economics (and economies) are concerned, we have entered an age of mass disinformation (or maybe just mass speculation?) and it's obvious that nobody knows just what is actually happening now or what the future holds... different commodities and assets all seem to be at either record highs or record lows, nobody can predict just what the long term effects of QE and 'emergency' ZIRP will be, all forms of debt are at record levels, some analysts claim we're in recovery, even booming, whilst others are saying we're in the greatest depression the world has ever seen!

Economically I believe we are in completely uncharted waters.

Trills, the vast majority of women's rights were won during my lifetime. My concern here is that too few women now realise how recent, and therefore fragile, these rights are. They're attacked every single year, with varying degrees of force: do women understand that they still need defending?

We're in uncharted waters because all the world's economy is now debt based and controlled by commercial actors. This has never happened before.

We have wide-scale destitution in the UK now; absolute poverty. There's no excuse for it, except from the perspective of the finance industry which holds that those who cannot service a debt don't deserve to live.

I agree. Libraries have been destroyed, most media is controlled by right wingers issuing politician spin straight from their mouths with no analysis, evidently including the BBC. Tertiary education is increasingly out of most people's reach due to huge tuition fees - and there was a time in theory when the publuc had access to research in journals in uni libraries, that has now gone as private unis close doors and electronic journals are restricted - and schools are being forcibly turned over to private interests in the form of academies. Decent information and analysis is increasingly hard to get hold of for ordinary people. Thank god for internet news sources, IT's open source movement and the library open access movement.

Ok OP, I read the article you linked to and some others by the same author. In 2008 he predicted that the US Congress might enact protectionist trade policies - Nationalist Trade as he defines it - not only did the US not do that then, they haven't done it since. In fact only Russia, North Korea and a couple of other odd countries seem to be doing it. For a bloke with a long list of credentials, his argument seems piss weak. He mentions Nationalistjc trading policies, talks about how ordinary people are being robbed by inequality and globalisation, then just moves on as if he's proved some point; which he plainly hasn't.

"Tertiary education is increasingly out of most people's reach due to huge tuition fees" More people go to university than ever before, you can do a degree with Open University online, it's a really good organisation

When I hear the Bank of England was going to public consultation for ideas, my ears pricked up. They haven't a clue how to fix the financial mess. They won't accept capitalism doesn't work.

I am no longer sleep walking around feminism. I even took a new view today on a documentary on Kurds/isis history, made by Christian American Men.

And the fees are notional really, nobody pays them up front. They are taken back as a (small) deduction from salary over a certain level. Anybody who doesn't go to University because of tuition fees isn't understanding the system.

I was also interested to read this article admitting that access to law is now very restricted and beyond the reach of ordinary people. voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/11/27/access-to-justice-restricted-beyond-the-reasonable-endurance-of-ordinary-citizens-solicitors-journal/

It has been the case for a while imo. So there is in effect no law for poor people and the rich can get away with whatever they want. Lovely. Definitely a dark age in the making.

Hotterwok, more rich kids are doing degrees than ever before. Mature student numbers have dropped like a stone since tuition fees were brought in, and there has been a bit in the news recently about how working class kids are increasingly cut out. That will get worse. You can only do Open Uni degrees if you can afford to pay for them.

cardibach I just love your rich person's complacent attitude to taking on £27 k debt in fees alone. It is not a debt working class people can seriously take on at the start of their lives. I don't know why anyone goes to Uni now, frankly, I wouldn't and my kids won't be able to. This debt economy is not sustainable.

cardibach Anybody who doesn't go to University because of tuition fees isn't understanding the system.

I think you are being a bit patronising. A junior doctor was on recently pointing out that the cumulative effect of everything including paying student loans and tuition fees was crippling what would otherwise be a decent salary. What some people seem to be saying is " don't worry, you'll only get a shit job after University so you won't be paying the fees back" - hardly an encouragement.

I am glad I had my children in this generation.

They are very, very lucky.

That is all.

NoTechnologicalBreakdown I just love your judgemental persons belief you know my circumstances! I'm a far from rich single parent. DD is at university. I know how it works.
As far as 'crippling' - I doubt that's true unless said junior doctor took on loads of other debt not from Student Finance. Most people will never pay it all off - it'll be written off before that happens. Not because they have a shot job, either - graduates still earn more than non-graduates (on average).
For what it's worth, I disagree with fees and loans - I think we should be investing in the education of the populace directly - but nobody should turn down university because of fees. Look at Martin Lewis on the subject. Sorry, iPad won't let me copy the link, but google it. He strongly advises exactly what I advised.

Incidentally, I'm not arguing that people from less affluent backgrounds aren't being put off - they are. NoTechnologicalBreakdown illustrates that. What I'm saying is they shouldn't be.

Am I missing something here? Why would 50% of the population be of below average intelligence, or indeed median intelligence?

That is not how averages are worked out.

It certainly can't be how IQ is worked out, given that IQ scores are on a bell curve and are all going to fall below 200.

We have wide-scale destitution in the UK now; absolute poverty.

?? Yes, some rely on food banks, but how many shoeless children are there starving on the streets with no access to proper health or education... I.e destitute. None... Not one...

Yes, all is not rosy, but to exaggerate does no one a service

We have wide-scale destitution in the UK now; absolute poverty.

If this is true why is obesity such a common problem?