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.

Social media and the news definitely leaves me feeling like this. But then I speak to people in RL. I see my friends being lovely and supportive, I see generosity, and selflessness. I see communities flocking around those who are struggling, and so many people bringing light into the the world. It's not all lost.

YABU - society is safer now than it’s ever been - that’s the clear big picture

However - I know what you mean, in terms of very immediate history these are troubling times. Although our biggest problem by far is climate change which you didn’t flag.

The answer to managing personal anxiety is to limit the news to a level you can cope with, and DO something to help - one small positive action, especially if undertaken as part of a community group, will make you feel a lot better, and you’ll be making a difference -

Actually, I need to change some of that. There are also pockets in SM with wonderful supportive communities. The news always leaves me feeling shit though!

You haven’t read your history. Things have been worse - so much worse.

Read Matt Haig how to stop time. Puts things into perspective - each generation faces similar versions of the same problems.

@crazynocatlady

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/eduard]]petiska/pessimismmmakestheeheadlinesbutttheworlddisgettingg_better-255584

Chin up, people, things are getting better!

I totally agree. I've been around longer than most Mumsnetters, and I've lived through a few eras. We're better off now, by far.

I'm by no means an expert, but it feels like we're reaching the end of this period in time. Life has changed too much and the old ways no longer work. Honestly while the unknown is scary, I'm so excited to be part of a period of change! We'll be the old people history teachers show their classes interviews with when they cover it in class. We'll be there in our skinny jeans and slogan t shirts telling the younguns all about it.

I'm reading Bleak House, written in 1852, and the book has long sections which say the same as what is in your OP. (Also there is quite a funny rant about a feckless character which is identical to what people say these days about millennials.)

My point is, people have felt like this over and over about their own time. But objectively, the time we live in is 1000x better than in Dickens's time. So I have a general feeling that things will get better in the long term.

If you asked me the period in history I would choose to be alive in, I would pretty much choose the one I have. I am late 50s.

In my lifetime: no world wars, cold war was scary but less so now, antibiotics, vaccinations, contraception, divorce, cohabitation, women able to have professional jobs more easily, equal pay for men and women, maternity leave, NHS, state pension, racism and sexism not perfect by any means but better than they have ever been.

Would I swap for - Victorian times? 10 kids in a tiny house, losing a couple in infancy, if husband dies or leaves it's the workhouse for all of us? Mediaeval times? Get burned as a witch because someone didn't like the look of me? 1930s, send my sons off to war and sit in a shelter being bombed all night? No thanks. I quite ilike the 21st century.

The system is broken . I'm guessing most people posting saying it's not so bad do not speak to people living in poverty every day like I do. There is no hope for them I'm sad to say. Do we just accept it??

I don't disagree

But to give you hope, just about every generation for which we have records has expressed the same or very similar.

And, yes we do always get through it.

Some of the heartening back arises when things do indeed become overwhelming, and it is a longing for a simpler life with fewer responsibilities, to have child-like freedoms.

And yes - the years in the 00s when the country thought it was rich and spent accordingly seem easier, and we were all younger and a bit more energetic, and our parents still had all their marbles. But it wasn't a golden age - there was, if you look properly and certainly if you look globally, lots going wrong during those years too.

Just as there's still lots going right, right now.

That won't make hard times any one whit less hard. But as I said at the start, the aim was to give hope because it is neither unchanging nor unchangeable

Oh and another wonderful observation I've made, the current generation of young people who have grown up with social media always being there. While it definitely has caused some new issues that 100% we need to be help them with. There's a clearly emerging trend of young people being totally aware of how fake SM is and not taking any of it seriously. They're in fact downright cynical about it all! They have analytical skills with sm that the older portion of young people aren't quite as adept with yet. Same with porn, they're quite comfortable with the fact it's absolutely fake and not to base their expectations of intimacy around it.

Obviously this is anecdotal, but it makes me so happy to see them handling it so well.

@EishetChayil no one has ‘beaten’ covid.

Be the change you want to see.

I'm not on social media (apart from Mumsnet and YouTube), and I spread happiness and kindness to all

Happy Monday Morning Everyone!

@BalloonSlayer

If you asked me the period in history I would choose to be alive in, I would pretty much choose the one I have. I am late 50s.

In my lifetime: no world wars, cold war was scary but less so now, antibiotics, vaccinations, contraception, divorce, cohabitation, women able to have professional jobs more easily, equal pay for men and women, maternity leave, NHS, state pension, racism and sexism not perfect by any means but better than they have ever been.

Would I swap for - Victorian times? 10 kids in a tiny house, losing a couple in infancy, if husband dies or leaves it's the workhouse for all of us? Mediaeval times? Get burned as a witch because someone didn't like the look of me? 1930s, send my sons off to war and sit in a shelter being bombed all night? No thanks. I quite ilike the 21st century.

I am the same age as you and I pretty much agree with this. BUT things are a lot harder in some ways for young people now than they were for us, especially the crazy housing market and job insecurity.

YANBU op.

Read Matt Haig how to stop time.
Oh god things are bad enough without inflicting Matt bloody Haig on people!

I’m with you, OP. My jaw is permanently clenched. No idea of the solutions. I think the future will be about multigenerational living and living more locally, going back to “it takes a village” and reducing the cost of living, and the burden of overwork, through communal living; and hopefully one positive out of Covid and our tech-driven society will be to spread jobs across the country to enable this. (Though at the moment all that seems to be doing is putting shit UK houses with poor insulation out of the reach of everyone, and none of us can afford heat pumps, and will the only happily multigenerational, part-time-working people in the future be those that are rich now?)

I have to say I’m happier since ditching social media (aside from MN and I’m trying to wean myself off). It made me laugh recently when Michaela Cole gave her Emmy speech and talked about turning off and being silent and what you could create in that silent – that quote and her image were screengrabbed on everyone’s feed, without irony. I realised I was completely guilty of performing my life – adding an extra layer of stress and competitive perfection to ordinary things like baking, gardening, making the bed.

In conclusion, don’t vote Tory, don’t have second homes, stop shopping mindlessly, be the “not quite sure what change is needed though something is” change you want to see in the world.

YABU, life is OK or good for most people, it doesn't work for some, but they are probably a lower percentage than ever before apart from a brief window in 2000-2007.

Climate change is going to be an issue, but one humanity will deal with. Again some people will get the worst of it, but we will adapt and survive.

When it comes to society I do wish we were more like Scandinavian countries, more cohesive, paying higher taxes but getting far better services in return. I also hope we can move to a far more fact and rationality based society, rather than the lurch to emotionally driven knee jerk attitudes, wokism, anti science, acti fact politics we currently have.

@niceupthedanceagain

The system is broken . I'm guessing most people posting saying it's not so bad do not speak to people living in poverty every day like I do. There is no hope for them I'm sad to say. Do we just accept it??

The thing is whilst it might be a bit broken for some, for most it works. The majority of people are not living in poverty (and that is before the whole argument starts about relative s absolute poverty). Do we accept that some people have less fortunate lives than others is an emotional question about a complex problem, there are issues that need to be looked at, but there is no simple solution.

It is if you judge the world by what you read online.

YABU. Every period in history has it’s difficulties and trials, ours are just different. If it’s affecting your sense of perspective so much then perhaps switching off social media and the news would help? Constant rolling news/information is at least partly responsible for your worrries. Not to put too fine a point it, shit things have always happened everywhere but we were mainly oblivious. Now they’re rammed down your throat every 30 seconds it becomes very difficult to remain optimistic or objective.
And as a pp aptly put it, be the change you wish to see in the world.

@EishetChayil Oh yes. Look at Venezuela. They are doing really well.

As the Asian side of things, have you actually ever lived in a socialist country? You can only say your opinion openly because you live in a capitalist country.

What @MangoBiscuit said.

We have created a society where instant gratification is King and where we consume incessantly things we don't need to make some richer.

We have also created a society where it doesn't pay to work.

@EishetChayil

Capitalism has spectacularly failed.

It's the socialist countries that have beaten COVID.

Yeah, North Korea definitely hasn't a problem with COVID.