To feel utterly depressed and hopeless about the cruel world we live in

[Sosocold]

What is the world coming to? So many cases of child abuse and cruelty - there's so much of it around.
Plus, parents being killed whilst children asleep upstairs, asylum seekers stuck in freezing cold woods for weeks on end, no food or milk for babies. A humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan... I could go on. what World are we living in?! Surely every life is as important as another, but it seems not. Where's the help for these people, what can we do to help?!
Sorry for the depressing rant, I just feel utterly hopeless this morning.

Since reading something in news this week I’ve cried for 2 days and I’m not sure how to get over it. I can’t sleep. I work in a fairly traumatic job and used to coping wth harrowing and heart breaking things but this has really really upended me. I’m with you.

I can’t get over the situation with the enforced camps in China to convert them as they are Muslim. Why no one is kicking off about this as China holds all the production cards. Even the ISIS type states who go to war and blow themselves up for anything aren’t making any attempts to free their fellow Muslims. Any other country and NATO etc would’ve bringing them down. These people are locked up for their religion and I don’t know why no one cares.
My DH was telling me there are more people living in slavery than any time in history. The amount of people living in horrid conditions in places like UAE/Qatar to be cleaners etc is terrible. I was watching blog by someone showing the good conditions the workers lived in 30 to a room and passports removed and they even got to have a haircut ince a month. He had no clue.
7000 people died during construction in Qatar for the fucking football? 1 death here and they’d think about cancelling it.
People are too scared of those that hold the wealth cards. This makes me sad. I’m with you OP

@Moraxella

Since reading something in news this week I’ve cried for 2 days and I’m not sure how to get over it. I can’t sleep. I work in a fairly traumatic job and used to coping wth harrowing and heart breaking things but this has really really upended me. I’m with you.

I'll not mention what I think you are talking about, but I suspect it's the same thing that triggered me to write this post. It's totally upended me too and I just couldn't stop crying this morning. Then I started thinking about everything else that goes on and no one seems to be doing anything about. If all the things mentioned above (and more) are things we know about, I dread to think what hasn't been uncovered.

@Moraxella, I'm willing to bet I know which piece of news has upset you so much, I won't name it as MN has already removed a couple of threads as the case is still ongoing, however, I think it will haunt me forever, I dont often cry over things but this has had me sobbing several times now and I wake in the night feeling so incredibly sad.

I also agree with all of the above posts, right now the world feels a very evil place to be - What I do do though is to try and read an uplifting piece of news everyday, there are still good people out there!

I'm with you. I cried so much last night after seeing some awful things on the news/papers.

I'm having a quiet day with the littlest today whilst dd2 at school. I just can't believe how the world works at times.

We just have to remind ourselves of all the good in the world too.

The world has sadly always been like this it’s just that with modern communication systems and social media it’s information readily available.

It's always been like this.

Surely every life is as important as another, but it seems not

This is the crucial mistake. Why start from the assumption that all lives are equally important? It's illogical. Is Colin Pitchfork's life equally as important as that of a nurse barely keeping herself sane in the face of long hours and seeing the damage Covid can do day after day? I'd say the nurse's life is of more value because she is doing good, whereas Pitchfork is just a manipulative murderer.

We can't change the world and we can't make it a fair place to live. Deep down you know this, otherwise you would sell all your belongings and devote your life to helping those less fortunate. The device you typed this post on could be donated to someone who can't afford a computer. The time taken to write it could have been spent fundraising or working in a job so you could give the money away.

Accepting the unfairness and cruelty of the world is the key to a happier life. Making yourself miserable doesn't do a damned thing to help those you are upset on behalf of.

As pp's, it's not much of a consolation if you already feel down, but the world has always been thus, in fact much worse. Wars and disease have existed since man existed. Violence, in all its many awful forms, against other humans, is nothing new. 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, death was much more present in everyones lives.

24 hour rolling media and social media, mean we live everything in the present now, unlike previous generations where things were very much at community level, or hushed up, or only reported weeks after the event.

I am sorry you feel down today OP - but we do actually live in quite blessed times, even though it often doesn't feel like it.

Stay off the news. It only shows the worst stories. Its designed to make us fearful so we are more easy to control. There's literally no point watching it.

It has always been like this.

But I know what you mean. I'm avoiding that story but I accidentally caught a couple of details and it's been haunting me too.

I am deeply against the death penalty but I admit I get tested sometimes.

All you can do really is your best for the people who mean the most to you. And that's always been the case. The world is a deeply flawed place, there are many, many issues way out of our control.

Mother Teresa said if you want to change the world go home and love your family didn't she? Words to that effect, anyway. I agree with not watching the news, because it's so devastating, but also of course we need to know broadly what's happening in the world in order to be a responsible person. Tough balance to get.

Mother Teresa would be the last person I would be taking moral guidance from.

I agree about the 'rolling 24 news' situation, my ex dh was in the first gulf war and I nearly drove myself mad, I had the tv on 24/7, not daring to sleep and then feeling so guilty if I dropped off for a while, sometimes we all just need to withdraw for our mental health.

Also @TheKeatingFive is spot on, all we can really do is behave like decent humans and love and care for the people who surround us.

I agree op add to this i find animal cruelty and the meat industry barbaric as well. I have trouble switching off from seeing and hearing constant bad news and cruelty everyday.

Life isn't any worse now than its been at any other point in history and in many ways it's a lot better. But they way that news is delivered and consumed now is totally totally different and it compells the viewer to invest emotionally with the content. It's too much. It's old fashioned but it's easier just to pick up a newspaper to stay informed and it still allows people to make a difference by putting their hand in their pockets/write to their MP/ protest. Just crying about the place doesn't change anything.

@HarrietsChariot

Surely every life is as important as another, but it seems not

This is the crucial mistake. Why start from the assumption that all lives are equally important? It's illogical. Is Colin Pitchfork's life equally as important as that of a nurse barely keeping herself sane in the face of long hours and seeing the damage Covid can do day after day? I'd say the nurse's life is of more value because she is doing good, whereas Pitchfork is just a manipulative murderer.

We can't change the world and we can't make it a fair place to live. Deep down you know this, otherwise you would sell all your belongings and devote your life to helping those less fortunate. The device you typed this post on could be donated to someone who can't afford a computer. The time taken to write it could have been spent fundraising or working in a job so you could give the money away.

Accepting the unfairness and cruelty of the world is the key to a happier life. Making yourself miserable doesn't do a damned thing to help those you are upset on behalf of.

You are totally right that my "argument " is flawed and I knew someone cleverer than me would come along and correct it :-). I'm not in the mindset to construct my points very clearly but you are totally correct in everything you say.

I'm just feeling so utterly sad and helpless today.
Agree with other PPs about the good in the world and also that loving and caring for those closest to us is paramount.

Thanks to everyone for posting. I'm going to take a deep breath, cuddle my little boys and be thankful xx

If it's the case we all think, yes it is unimaginable people would behave like that.

I guess you would have to have a heart of stone if you have kids and were not moved, however, I think it's worth thinking through whether it is worth it to your kids, your mental health and your life to dwell on that.

You can't change what has gone, indeed one of the only comforts is that it is over. You can be proactive if you see harm, report it, don't just turn a blind eye, that's the message I take from that case.

I deliberately avoid very upsetting stories though like this once I've seen then once, it won't change anything reading about them and can significantly start to drag you down.

Seeing evil is a terrible thing we all have to do, but you can't keep looking IMO if you aren't doing or changing anything.

The world has always been like this, except even worse. We used to send 7 year old's up chimney, torture people for information, go to war with our neighbour over land.

Yes, terrible things still happen. But the world is actually becoming more humane as time goes on. We're still humans however and humans can be right nasty animals.

there is always one!

Sadly people have always been brutal. Through history when has the human race been anything other than utterly savage? The Romans, the Egyptians, the British, basically every empire in history. Ivan the terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Hitler, bloody Mary, Stalin, Timur...

'ordinary' people who stood and did nothing or participated in atrocities. The people who would go for a days entertainment at the gallows.
Dog fighting, fox hunting, matadors.

Abusers, killers, people so outraged by violence and cruelty that they want to do the exact same thing to the perpetrators or worse. I mean, it is endless.

People pretend that we're civilised but we aren't. It's just a veneer. Underneath we are the same vicious, blood thirsty, cruel species we always have been. The most scary thing is each of us think we could never behave in such terrible ways but if history has shown us anything it is that people are capable of so much more evil than they would ever admit to themselves.

Yes, I agree many, many people have been deeply affected by that particular case. On some of the earlier threads there was talk about what we can do to bring about change. Once the case has ended I think we should revisit that as Mumsnet users. There are a lot of women on this site who can pull together to campaign for change.

@LucentBlade

The world has sadly always been like this it’s just that with modern communication systems and social media it’s information readily available.

Yes, the world has been a lot worse as well- I wouldn't have fancied living through quite a few periods of history.

There is also a lot of good in the world- far more than there is evil.