To think we are doomed and there's no way back now?

[StellaGibson118]

We have constructed a society that doesn't work for people. People are burnt out from overworking, many are getting poorer year on year, services cant meet the demands of the population, we are becoming nastier due to these stressors and the influence of social media/the media, and well the planet is fucked too.

We have moved so far away from simplicity that we have descended into chaos and it isn't just the UK, it's all around the world. I'm worried for my children's future but I can only allow myself to think about it for a minute or two or I'd go mad.

Yes, YABU.

Stone Age/Iron Age/Bronze age/,Romans/Vikings/Dark ages/medieval Britons/Tudors /Stuart’s/Georgians/
Victorian’s/WWI and II populations/Cold War populations and those I’ve no doubt missed out all felt exactly the same way. They all survived and so will we.

I agree and I am going mad with worry
can you do something in your small circle to change something. ?

YANBU there is a lot of othering, stoking and creating of divisions and the gap between the wealthy and those in poverty is increasing all the time. Social media is encouraging and normalising abuse. I have always been positive about humanity but I think we're in trouble. We need sweeping systemic changes at a global level, and I just don't see how that will happen.
A pp asked what we can do? I campaign. I'm involved with local politics. We give to charity. We volunteer. We recycle etc. But that's a drop in the ocean.

Imagine what your list of examples would look like if you were writing this post in 1943, or 1917. Not to arbitrarily invalidate how you feel but it helps to get a sense of perspective.

Yanbu. It's depressing, and I don't see how it will change

Yanbu
We are in a mess and the first step to fixing it is to recognise and admit it.
We won’t. So we can’t fix it.

Every time a person gets shat on by another person, it has a multiplier effect. Personally, I’ve been shat on enough to avoid most people now. I won’t get nasty, I just won’t engage. And I don’t trust anyone outside my family.

Yanbu. I'm also very worried. The poverty trap, low wages, the housing crisis, climate change, coronavirus, social media, the news - it's all having a huge impact on our physical and mental health.

I'm sure every generation felt the same, probably not about the planet being fucked though.
Wages have always been low for many and the people being nasty due to stress well thats always been true too. Stress is not a new illness, it just either wasn't recognised or was called "nerves '.
Hopefully by the time our children grow up Covid will be under control but no doubt there will be other issues they have to deal with.

Something happened to me over ten years ago that made me lose my faith in anyone but my own family and close friends
I know now who to trust.
The pandemic has changed a lot of things and the divides are even bigger now :(
It is sad and I hear what your saying , but just trust those you know won't let you down and be wary of others and stay true to yourself
!

This civilisation is in decline imo.

God you’ve summarised it very well OP

How depressing.

I definitely feel more depressed, lonely and stressed this year than I have before

I understand your fears, but think that each generation has it’s mountains to climb.
Take heart @StellaGibson118. Do your best./

I'm so sorry that you feel like this, but I don't. There have always been trials, throughout history, and the human race has always come through it. I'm an optimist.

I agree OP. I think SM has done so much damage to society. I have never seen such nastiness from people since the start of Brexit TBH and it has now moved on to vaccinated/unvaccinated.

I worry for my dds safety with smashing down of women only free spaces and hard core porn accessible to children online and schools inviting sex talk on explicit sexual activities to our kids in school.

This generation is different because the power of social media, its allowed people to become so polarised and find their little 'tribes' on line allowing them to get angry and say tings they wouldn't normally say to peoples faces. Its allowed people to find their 'own truth' through google.

When I grew up people read the paper in the morning, had a rant then moved on to work. Now with constant access to SM through mobiles phones they are in constant access to what their 'tribes' are saying - stoking the feelings.

We have a very fractured society

@MrsSkylerWhite

Yes, YABU.

Stone Age/Iron Age/Bronze age/,Romans/Vikings/Dark ages/medieval Britons/Tudors /Stuart’s/Georgians/
Victorian’s/WWI and II populations/Cold War populations and those I’ve no doubt missed out all felt exactly the same way. They all survived and so will we.

This. I can understand people feeling stressed and worried at the moment but try to calm down and get a bit of perspective.

We've had civil war, conflicts which required us to ration what our population ate, a pandemic which killed a much greater proportion of the population. A time when a large number of young men were wiped out on the battle field etc.

This is bad by late 20th century standards but in the overall scheme of history its nothing. Being hugely hysterical about it doesn't help others see this perspective.

OP, in almost every way that you can measure we have it better today than in years gone by. We have more leisure time, live longer, less war, less poverty, better healthcare (Covid notwithstanding), the ability to communicate with one another and connect over long distances, more personal liberty, less prejudice and racism, greater education, better and more food, the list goes on.

Every generation worries about the future and thinks the world is going to hell in a hand basket, but if you ask me which era in history I'd prefer to live in, it's this one 100%.

Here's a nice article with some sources for some of the good news:
https://www.science20.com/eduardpetiska/pessimismmmakestheeheadlinesbutttheworlddisgettingg_better-255584

Chin up, people, things are getting better!

I absolutely agree OP.
But human beings will not go on forever anyway in the bigger scale of things. Different 'eras' of carboniferous plants, dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures lived, evolved and then died out/were killed before us, and human beings will be another 'era' of creatures which then dies out too.

It may be that we destroy each other, or that we choke the planet with debris so that our particular 'system' doesn't survive, or there may even be another catastrophic event which wipes us out too.

Whichever way it is, the earth will go on for a for more millions of years, there may be other life forms at some point, who knows? Eventually it will all be consumed when our sun expands as a red giant and beyond all that, when our solar system collides with another.

In the great scale of the universe, the human race is a mere dot which exists for a very short space of time, and not for eternity. It seems such a waste when, in that short space of time, we cannot live in harmony, either with each other or with the natural world around us.

Capitalism has spectacularly failed.

It's the socialist countries that have beaten COVID.

Speak for yourself. Don't you think that's a tad pessimistic.

Yes we need to change, so start now. Turn the heating down a degree and put on a sweater. Take the pressure off your wallet and the environment.
Eat vegetarian today. And instead of chucking stuff in the bin, take the time to recycle it. Don't buy another candle you don't need. An acre of rainforest might survive because you're demanding less palm oil.

It's no good feeling down and just being hopeless. If you do one thing today, that's progress. Do something seven days in a row and it starts to make a difference.

Now it'll take 20 seconds for the doom mongers to come along and say that if China & the US aren't onboard, then it's all pointless. Forgetting that China is heavily influenced by what the west does. They copy our fashion, our lifestyles etc, We have much more control than we think.

I agree OP. Lockdown resulted in the transfer of an obscene amount of money from the poor to the rich.

It will only change when we decide to stop going along with it. The first step in that process is to stop being afraid.

I actually agree that ordinary people have become incredibly self-centred, hooked on instant gratification and external validation of their their looks and status symbols.

I have been astounded how blatantly people use other people in real life to promote themselves or their business on social media. With online shopping, ratings and the customer is always right attitude people go around demanding respect and support but seem completely unable to reflect on their own behaviour and afford respect and offer support to others. It's all about self promotion and self gratification and many are just plain rude.

This has always been to a degree but our online lives are changing us into self centred zombies.

I totally agree with, as a society we are becoming more selfish and obsessed with material things.
Social reform is essential for any real change to take place.

@malmi

Imagine what your list of examples would look like if you were writing this post in 1943, or 1917. Not to arbitrarily invalidate how you feel but it helps to get a sense of perspective.

This.

Perspective is important and human societies have always had struggles. People who have been alive in the last 50 or so years have just had a very easy time of it and got used to that. It has not been like that for much of human history.

Yes we are facing some huge challenges right now, but overall I don't think that the individual person's standard of living in the UK is worse than the average over the last 200 years.

I actually agree that ordinary people have become incredibly self-centred, hooked on instant gratification and external validation of their their looks and status symbols

To a degree, yes. However, I also see young people who are passionate, wonderful individuals and want to make positive change in the world.

I don't actually think people are much different than they have ever been, once you scrape back the surface. I think there is a lot of hype in the media about all of this but there are many, many people out there who are wonderful, kind, generous and caring individuals - I think as many as there have ever been.

I think it was all a little bit better around 2012, I might be looking back with rose tinted glasses, but SM was still quite innocent, the Olympics made it feel like people were embracing a multicultural UK, homophobia was less common, the Tories hadn't started ripping apart the support sector yet and Brexit seemed like something only my FIL would vote for. Now politics have imploded, the rise of populism and SM being deliberately being used to divide and rule us it feels pretty grim.
Switching of SM is a blessing and reading less news.