I am scared of the kind of society we are becoming?

[brasty]

More and more as a society we seem to be losing empathy for people who are struggling. From those on benefits, to those in overcrowded houses, to disabled and ill people. If individuals think they would not find themselves in that situation, then any empathy seems to disappear.

Not everyone has the same personal resources. Some people are struggling just to get through every day and so eating healthily is not a priority. It is not accident that those with severe mental health problems tend to have worse physical health and higher levels of harmful behavior such as smoking.

Being chronically disabled is shit and makes life much much harder than those who have never experienced it realise. And yes someone may be "lucky" to have social housing, but how about having some empathy if they are struggling in an overcrowded house.

It scares me. This lack of empathy has real affects, Cuts are being made to benefits for disabled people, only because most people simply don't care enough.

I suspect that people are as compassionate as they have ever been.

What has changed is the acceptability of expressing selfish/ignorant/nasty/prejudiced views. I think this is probably at least party due to social media, which allows bigots to find other bigots and enjoy their bigotry together.

Actually I struggle to feel empathy for people I don't know and sometimes for those I do know

You can't make people feel a certain way - human suffering is not something I have an emotional reaction to.

That's not a sign of the times, it's just how some of us are.

The problem is that society forgets similarities that have happened in the past. It's scary that it isn't too far in the distant past in some instances.
There are parallels with the 1960's at present with overcrowding, lack of social housing, and cuts to benefits are taking us right back there.

The irony is when the dire situation is pointed out, society is enraged at the situation, but it is society that has held the views to encourage lack of empathy and support.

An example can be found in the way we treated single mothers who had no home for their children. They were taken into care and society held the belief if you can't afford them don't have them, if you can't house them then give them to someone who can. How often do we hear comments like this on threads on here.

Then Cathy Come Home was filmed, and as a true story caught the attention of society, which led to the BBC switchboards being jammed and them having to show the film, the following week.
Most of the population saw this, millions of us, and it brought about a change in attitude.

Now, it seems like society is willing to put us right back there again as how do they expect parents to cope when benefit is cut to such a low level.

I am also scared OP.

I'm not convinced that the cuts are due to a lack of empathy from the general population. People haven't fought back against the cuts due to feeling powerless to change things and/or a lack of solidarity.

I've been thinking about this. If a colony of say 5000 people started a new life on a new planet, what would happen? What kind of society would evolve? Would people want more than others? Would people help others? Would a hierarchy evolve? Would we have a reward system - or would people just use skills and make use of resources?

For a while it would be amazing, a real paradise, and over time the original 5000 people would procreate and have children and society would flourish. They grow their own food and everyone lives well

Then start to feel sorry for the people living on Earth - say a war breaks out, so they vote to allow an additional 5000 people on to their planet, who arrive empty handed and take up half of the houses and eat half the food

The original people are pissed off at this, as suddenly there are no houses and provisions for their own children...but they are expected to keep their mouths shut as the words bigot and racist get bandied about

The original people feel they have right to be pissed off, because they have spent years cultivating the land, and have given their blood sweat and tears into the planet - yet the profits of this are given away quickly to those who have just arrived

Welcome to the new world you have created for your children

However when it comes to our own, we don't feel that same compassion, we feel judgemental.
Somehow it has become the norm for us to neglect our own, in favour of helping others.

Speak for yourself, PinkFlamingo. You're certainly not speaking for me.

Welcome to the new world you have created for your children

Unless the planet they are on becomes uninhabitable because there is a war that is helped by weapons and the politics of another planet and they need to go to that planet for help.

Conflicts don't rise in isolation. The West has a massive responsibity for what's happening in conflicts across the world - especially with arms sales. So it is partly our problem as well.

What would the population of the UK have to do to make us only as responsible as the average country?

And to this planet the new arrivals bring their labour - and even new skills and ideas - and give their blood sweat and tears, and help the planet continue to thrive, and support the now ageing original inhabitants who can no longer work.

Some of whom sit around bitching about the newcomers even while their arses are being wiped by the newcomers and their pensions paid by the taxes paid by and business wealth created by the newcomers.

Some of whom sit around bitching about the newcomers even while their arses are being wiped by the newcomers and their pensions paid by the taxes paid by and business wealth created by the newcomers

Would this planet need money? There are human societies which don't have money.

Or does money stimulate society?

Yanbu.

And to this planet the new arrivals bring their labour - and even new skills and ideas - and give their blood sweat and tears, and help the planet continue to thrive, and support the now ageing original inhabitants who can no longer work

But a cataclysmic event wipes out huge numbers on the original planet. The new arrivals head back there in haste with their new found wealth and skills for a better and easier life. Leaving the ageing inhabitants to stew and turning the inhabitants of the old planet into slaves, ensuring their increasing wealth and power.

The end.

I think we have a society where a lot of people would like to look after themselves and people who are their own.

Other people would like to live in a society where people look after each other regardless of who they are - because they know that could be them.

Maybe the world needs a reset. People could move to areas of the world which suited them. Regardless of where you were born.

But then when resources run dry in one area, we know what would happen.

Well, this thread certainly sorted the angels from the arseholes.

I think there is a subsection of society that has never empathised with people on low incomes, with illnesses or disabilities and similar situations. They're more vocal now because, with the Conservatives in power and Trump's election, they feel that there is more public support for their views. I don't know whether it's some kind of Oppression Olympics or what, but they've decided that they are the most hard-done-by, because they don't get "free money" (ignoring how lucky they are to have a) their health, b) their job and c) no reason to flee their war-torn country of origin).

I may be blindly optimistic, but from my experience of my generation, I'm hopeful that things will get better. There's still some individualism from the ones who've had everything handed to them and unlimited access to the Bank of Mum and Dad, but because so many young people now have experience of hardship/poverty (what the UK classes as hardship/poverty, before anyone starts on at me about the Middle East & Africa), there's more empathy for those who endure it.

There's also a lot of disenfranchisement and unrest towards the government and some previous generations (dare I mention the baby boomers? ), so who knows which way it will go unfortunately :(

What we need is the world to be in danger, Then we could build some arks to escape the world. People could be put on different arks depending on their personality. Who would be on the B Ark?

Some days I do feel like this too, and feel terrible for bringing a child in to this world (hello PMT!), although when you really look at the past, things are better in some ways and acts of kindness happen around you all the time, but we are bombarded with so much negative media, it seems like things have never been so bad. I'm worse when I look at what other people have (a house with a garden that they own, great career with a big salary, another child (have to stop at 1 for financial and practical reasons), but then others might want what I have (rented flat with a nice view, allotment to grow own veg, a job which doesn't carry a huge amount of responsibility).

I work on a psych unit. You really do need to have empathy to accept being called names sometimes. It does make me angry when people bang on about people claiming benefits all of the time and "scrounging". A lot of people have been subjected to traumatic abuse throughout their childhood and adult life, and their self esteem is on the floor. I agree that the process to recovery and being independent is taking responsibility, but when you've had no guidance from a responsible adult through your life, it makes it more difficult to know where to start to get your life on track. They have no idea what you need to do to function or what normal is and that isn't their fault. Some people I have worked with will never work because they are so debilitated by their illness, and they don't respond to medication.

I agree that some people do exploit the system though. I think it is just one of the quirks in human nature that some people are like that. The majority of people generally have empathy for others and want to provide for themselves, but we all have flaws and bad days, and we have to be more selfish in order to get our shit together!

Many of our public services rely on people to have empathy. They just wouldn't function otherwise. Sometimes the fact that our services are stretched means it doesn't come across like that, but trust me, working in a caring profession and not being able to care is hugely frustrating.

I think the best thing to do is just concentrate on your day to day life and ignore the BS in media(although yes, I'm very much bricking it over Brexit), and remember, people do get through difficult times and carry on.

People have extreme opinions now because they are unhappy. When people are unhappy, they have to be a bit more selfish to figure out the next step, so seem to lack empathy. I think it is interesting that people have protested against the status quo by maybe supporting a more extreme choice, only time will tell if it works in our favour. If you look at how things have panned out through the years, change always happens. It's up to you how much you let it affect you.

If only the resources were used as required.
If only people took what they needed.
If only ambulances were called for emergencies.
If only we looked after others in our family/locality.

Unfortunately the world just isn't like this. Communism as a concept is brilliant. The problem is the pigs (animal farm) decide they call the shots and start standing upright because some animals are more equal than others.

The welfare state and the NHS was set up to bridge the gap between richer and poorer. The problem is it's been massively abused. Our country now needs to look after those, currently living in its borders simply because we've been too generous to the wrong people in the outside world. When I say the wrong people, I mean Anyone could come here and be operated on for free or claim benefits. Affordability wasn't the issue. So yes, to delivering the baby to the circumcised woman for free, who just flew for the delivery in but no to doing it for free for the one, needing heart bypass surgery, who just happened to be here.

The government is doing this too little too late and in the process causing massive disruption and hardship to those, in genuine need.

YANBU, you could look at the comments section of any news article on Facebook and some of the comments are terrifying at times.

Googling found this:

www.thevenusproject.com/

A world without money..

"The Venus Project is an organization that proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization. It outlines an alternative to strive toward where human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life.

We propose a fresh, holistic approach – one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world’s people"

@OvariesBefore

I agree with what you say about younger generations. I hate people giving teenagers and young adults crap. They are living through a time where they -and possibly their parents- have to deal with expensive housing and fewer job prospects and the fact that automation may make quite a few jobs obsolete in the future. Yet, they are polite, care for others and good causes, and look after themselves and have fewer bad habits than previous generations (probably because they are better informed). In some ways I wish I wasn't born in that grey area between generations. I may have got my shit together when I was younger, instead of leaving it too late.

It is alway the people who have the most going for them that over generalise saying young adults are feckless, lazy idiots who have no respect. This opinion is usually based on a newspaper article where a teenager stole a car or something!

Although I must admit, I really don't get the pouty selfie and online 'personality' thing. I guess each generation needs a flaw of some sort.

human suffering is not something I have an emotional reaction to.

Sociopathy?

Who said that?

Ever thought about going in to politics?

I said it actually

Im empathetic to people I know and love and I am caring towards animals (to the point where I can't watch films with animals in) but I don't have an emotional reaction to people I don't know.

But hey, thanks for the armchair diagnosis