To think the world's becoming a horrible place

[Curiouschlo]

All you hear and see is gloom and doom.

Every week there's videos circling Facebook off teenagers battering each other. Today a local one was circling. I couldn't watch it. But I read the local comments. 3 lads beat up an autistic lad after school. Kicking him in the head etc. A girl filmed it. It's becoming a regular thing where I live to be robbed and beaten up in the street. Older Kids spit on the floor and swear and smoke Infront of my small children when we walk home after school. They shout swear words to their mates ahead. They do wheelies Infront of my children and others without any considerations of their actions.

A care home is circling at the moment for abusing a vunerable person in there so called care.

All you hear about is war and coronavirus at the moment. More attacks have happened in London this week.

I'm normally ok but this week I just keep hugging my kids and watching them play, worrying for their futures. I mean what is the future going to be for them? The world's a horrible place. Obviously there's alot of wonderful things in this world. But it breaks my heart to think they have got to be teenagers. My eldest is 5. Will she be happy and safe in 7 years time at secondary? Or will her life be made a misery. At least while they are little I can keep them safe. I'm absolutely terrified of the future and what could happen.

I'm not depressed by the way. I am just abit concerned

I don’t remember in the 70s and 80s, when I was growing up, seeing 14 year olds on bikes shouting at and staring down 30 year olds doing the school run (as cousinboneless has posted upthread.)

In fact I don’t remember, as a teen, being remotely interested in what older people were wearing. My friends weren’t interested either.

@IDoNotHaveABlackCat, thanks for that quote. My thoughts exactly.

It definitely happened to me in the '90s/early '00s. Remember when nu-metal was a thing? I was walking down the road, minding my own business, and some little scally twat shouted 'SUFFOCATION' in my face. I don't even like Papa Roach! I must have been wearing black or something, because in my high school, if you wore black it made you a goth.

So, on the one hand, it’s a sign of progress these days to keep with a style that has always suited one’s individuality.

However, there is also less respect for adults - this has also been discussed upthread.

The world isn't becoming a horrible place, it's always been a horrible place- we just have the greatest access to information we have ever had so it seems worse than before.
The reality is it is probably nicer than it once was.

"What A Wonderful World"

I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying
"I love you"

I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Becoming? That implies it was nice beforehand.

If you'd lived in Rome in the third century you would probably think things were getting better: the Empire remained solid, prosperity, civilisation had spread to previously barbarous areas, the baths were nice, trade continued apace, grand buildings were still getting put up at the Forum and a multitude of exotic animals got slaughtered at the Colosseum on a relatively regular basis.

You might slightly notice but put out of your mind the following. Perhaps you would say to yourself that although they did not quite match the expectations people used to have, those expectations were old fashioned and they did in fact represent improvements:

• Higher prices (but we have better goods!)
• Fewer animals at the Games (but quality over quantity they say!).
• The emperor behaving more like a despot than a first-among-equals (but hey, we need a strongman).
• Talk of trouble on the border and the army not being able to cope quite as easily as the scrolls say it did in the past (but who trusts those scrolls? They were all propaganda)
• The sculptors and artists not being able to make things quite like those of a couple of hundred years back (but hey, we've moved on and we like Banksyus more!)

If you were told that 100 years from now your empire would be falling to bits, and that 150 years from now it would consist of wilderness and ruined buildings that the locals thought giants had built you would think it absurd.

We are, once again, in Rome in the third century. Living way beyond our means, using up scarce resources, and blinding ourselves with luxuries and ethics and morals designed for luxury, while time runs out. 150 years from now climate change (and war resulting from it) will have ruined our cities, killed numberless people, and our obsessions with the politics of small differences will - if remembered at all - look terribly quaint.

So there.

I think people who think the world is “becoming” worse are naive and really rather ignorant.... the type to have never paid attention to the news throughout their life or really knows anything about history, and is only belated realising what the world is like as they engage with their FB or Twitter feeds.

I think people who think the world is “becoming” worse are naive and really rather ignorant

I agree. It also makes me think they come from a place of massive privilege if they cannot recognise the horrific injustice and abuse that still goes on in many places for anyone who isn't a white male.

Humanity has always done shocking things. I don't perceive it to have got any worse. It's just more widely publicised and we have more awareness of what is wrong overall. If the worst you have to worry about is how your kids will cope in sedondary school then the world has actually got much better in your case.