Joined: May 08 2002 Posts: 9565 Location: 10 mins walk from Suncorp Stadium
The arguments about increasing criminality/moral decline are remarkably similar to those used about the apparent decline in the quality of English (spoken and written). Also a generally unsupported personal viewpoint hinged somewhere in the 1950s/60s, and also a view that has been spouted on and off for hundreds of years if not more.
Joined: May 10 2002 Posts: 47951 Location: Die Metropole
Ovavoo wrote:I was born in the 1950's and as you say, bad things happened then as they do now. I'd say though that the main difference between then and now is, back then, most people thought things would only get better and better, they had hope. This may have been because of the tv programme "Tomorrows World" which basically said we'd all have 11 months a year holiday and fly around using a jet pack, or it could have been that following the war, there was a feeling that we weren't going to let the barstewards grind us down ever again. Unfortunately, this is what appears to be happening and Dally may be using the wrong example to show moral decline or depravity.
I think there's a lot of truth in this.
I'd also add that I think that the 24/7 nature of news media and the 'global village' impact of communications technology and social media etc mean that we also know about news events that happen miles away from usd and which we would never have heard of even 30 years ago.
And given that what is 'newsworthy' seems to primarily be negative stories, then that does mean a big increase in negative news that we receive, although it doesn't mean anything about the amount of crime or other negative 'behaviours'.
"You are working for Satan." Kirkstaller
"Dare to know!" Immanuel Kant
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive" Elbert Hubbard
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde
Joined: May 25 2002 Posts: 37704 Location: Zummerzet, where the zoider apples grow
Mintball wrote:I think there's a lot of truth in this.
I'd also add that I think that the 24/7 nature of news media and the 'global village' impact of communications technology and social media etc mean that we also know about news events that happen miles away from usd and which we would never have heard of even 30 years ago.
And given that what is 'newsworthy' seems to primarily be negative stories, then that does mean a big increase in negative news that we receive, although it doesn't mean anything about the amount of crime or other negative 'behaviours'.
This "global village" news thing is not good at all. I've been losing sleep ever since I heard about that lost birthday card in Bungay (linked a couple of pages back), it really is too depressing for words
The older I get, the better I was
Advice is what we seek when we already know the answer - but wish we didn't
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ kirkstaller wrote: "All DNA shows is that we have a common creator."
cod'ead wrote: "I have just snotted weissbier all over my keyboard & screen"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin." - Aneurin Bevan
Joined: Dec 05 2001 Posts: 25122 Location: Aleph Green
Stand-Offish wrote:Things change, they don't get worse necessarily they become different.
The reduction in community is quite understandable nowadays because things are different and that's all it is. There has been no conscious decision to get less 'friendly'..
WHAT are you talking about? "Change" does not inhibit one's ability to reason whether such is for better or worse. Moreover, "Society" is a concept not a sentient entity that makes conscious decisions to become less friendly.
You agree that there is less of a community spirit these days. You claim this change is understandable because "things are different". You have no opinion on whether this loss of community is good or bad (despite admitting social negatives are possible) because your reasons for this are, erm ... reasons for this. To say I'm baffled is an understatement.
Quote:When I was a lad people lived in one place nearly all their lives. Work was local and often in massive industries. Cars were fewer etc etc. I don't need to list all the factors.
So people knew each other better, because they spent more time together.
In a community, yes. I understand that.
Quote:Things are better in many ways and worse in some ways.
Are you the Magic Eightball in disguise? I won't ask how you arrived at this conclusion.
Quote:I NEVER think that this is a sh/t time to live, in fact quite the opposite.
I was born into a little oasis in time which was relatively peaceful, relatively well off, relatively healthy etc. I was and am bloody lucky and know it. People who moan in this country about the state of affairs, given the abject misery elsewhere in the world, ought to count their lucky stars instead.
And yes, the 'things were better in my day' view is a function of growing old/er.
Really? On the face of it the above precludes the possibility that things REALLY WERE better in my day. Let us pretend some future calamity befalls this nation. Say - a war. You'd look pretty silly strolling down the street wearing an idiotic grin whilst berating others for claiming times were better in their days as they're busy scrambling for the bomb shelters.
Quote:There is just something special about salad days that we long for. Shagging like a ram mainly.
Him wrote:I've noticed a distinct lack of Dally on this thread now. I wonder where he's got to. Ahh there he is, defending discrimination on another thread.
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