Humanity has always had mass murderers, torturers, and oppressive tyrants. Actually it has less of them today than ever before in history. And respect for fellow human beings rarely existed before, but is more common now. Blissful ignorance is indeed a happy state - if you are cattle.
Blissful ignorance of technology (IT and bloody I-things) in the 60s and 70s suits me better than today.
When you say "nobody" and "our arm", to whom do you refer? Blind, clockwork, capitalist/monetarist policies twist our arms every single day. It is cheaper to junk stuff than to repair it, and since we dance at the tune of cheaper-is-better and, ludicrously, judge the success of our civilisation solely on the basis of "value-for-money", of course our arms are twisted. Twisted at individual, local, national and global levels. If you mean that we, as a species, are not having our arms twisted, I'm sorry, that statement is practically meaningless. For economic purposes, we are not all one species. Taxonomically speaking, our financial structures and practices are irrelevant
Who do you mean, "we"? Much of the wastage that I see is utterly out of my control. Out of local control. Out of national control. Etc ...
I have to agree. I'm not even 50 yet and I remember a time when I would be fixing circuit boards, replacing IC's or power transistors etc. Now manufacturers wipe off component numbers and refuse circuit diagrams. It's cheaper to supply a whole new board. At £700 for a control board I would happily spend a day fault finding / fixing.
I quite fancy being a young man in the 60's. All that free love, new drugs and birth of rock 'n roll...mods rockers..sounds like fun to me!
Not if you got married a few times....... I didn't go.......... Couldn't think of a worse place to have a holiday............(went to Hastings instead).
Every generation thinks that and they always have done so logically it can never be true. That is the curse of self-awareness and the tragedy of the human condition.
"Every generation thinks that and they always have done so logically it can never be true. That is the curse of self-awareness and the tragedy of the human condition". I don't think these times are the best,nor that will life be better in the near future for everyone. Only my opinion of course,and based purely on the things I have seen,experienced,and deduced from the reported actions and behaviour of others Hard-won freedoms and opportunities,(that only became available to the majority in this country from the late fifties to the early eighties),have been eroded by meaningless,endless regulations,designed to "protect",poor Joe bloody Public from him/herself. The greedy middle class has infected the media,politics,and the public sector,their ever-grasping hands demanding more and more financial resources,their huge appetite for more only matched by their openly stated desire to do less for the money. Throw in the unregulated friends-of-politicians,i.e,city barrow boys with their snouts deeply in the average mans pension pot,and average bloke has no chance in this Country anymore. Those who had plenty,back in the day,quickly realised that allowing the majority to have a chance at bettering themselves would come at the expense of their own cosy existences,and pretty soon the boot started to come down on the necks of the great only-just washed. It will only get worse for the majority. And...and... Ah fuck it,I'm glad I'm old,I reckon I had the best of it.
I missed out on lots of things due to my age, I would have loved to see certain things in the 60's > and remember more about the 80's. When I was school, even when I started training to be an engineer, life seemed cheaper (pack of smokes, penny sweets and 10p bags of crisps, car insurance for a young person was semi affordable) At this time the older guys I knew all earned a good wage. Things just seemed more simple even in the 90's, so I guess they must have been in the past. I remember at work the introduction of risk assessments for each jobs by every engineer.. It got into my mid 20's and I hated the way work was changing. I watched several big customers move overseas. There was no longer a job takes as long as it takes attitude, lets do it right. We were given mission impossibles, you have 3 days to install several machines on the moon, and while you are doing it we will send you on a breakdown else where and still expect it done... or get in the office (what about the increase in traffic, speed cameras) Car tax, fuel etc went up and I seemed to have sold my soul to the devil but could barely afford the nicer things that a young man wanted and worked harder for after paying my bills. I could have progressed in that career and earned more money but I had a taste of the office politics and it was not for me. I'm now better off but have more things to worry about, more stress, more red tape to deal with (which is the bane of my life it seems) and I think quite regularly I'd be happier with a more simple life and think about the past, sunny days and my MX bike. A time when my mum could quit her profession and start a business, without all the crazy BS of today and she made all her money when it was easy to do so and has now retired. The only thing is, her money won't go as far as she hoped. We may have more material items these days and lots of other positives but I'm not convinced we are better off.
Well this thread headed in a direction I didn't predict. Ignoring nostalgia and the yearning for a simpler (more ignorant of world affairs) time what do people think about impending water, food, pollution and energy crisis. I'd love to have the knowledge, home and money that I have now, but with a fully functioning (thin) 20 something of my self to live in. Q. Will 99% of the world be vegetarian in 2116? Not through choice, but financial considerations. The world currently has 7.4 billion people in it, double what is was in 1959, by 2100 the lowest credible estimates are saying 11 billion people. We will not be able feed meat or fish to all those people. Q. Will the worlds governments introduce population/reproduction be controlled / limited, like Chinas one child per couple rule? Q. Emission free cars, vans, lorries, ships and motorcycles? And by not watching or listening to the news you will be happier. Bad news sells hence that is what we mainly get served. And when will news channels learn that SPORT is NOT news! I would love for the news just to show the news....if I want sports I'd tune to a sports channel.
Many people say they yearn for a simpler way of life, far from the madding crowd that harks back to an earlier era. How many of them actually go and do it? Because when you examine the options it isn't that attractive in reality. Population: The rate of population expansion has already peaked, the world can indeed feed twice its current number. The issue is not one of supply. Once women in the 3rd world have reliable control of their reproduction this will improve even more. That control comes about from better water, food and health care. Once there is no need to have 10 children, to ensure at least a couple of them are around to look after the old then nobody has 10 children anymore.
Farmers are already looking at alternative fuel resources check out country file. I remember my nan saying the same things as you are back in the 70/80 but it's 2016 and we are still thriving
you could do a lot to improve your inner self by ignoring the news. 24/7 storys of impending doom that leaves you feeling powerless/worthless and does nothing to improve feelings of well being. dump the bum. i have. it's braw. :smileys:
In population terms I think this is a very real possibility and is probably one of the best outcomes we can hope for. 11 billion, a figure quoted elsewhere, is simply unsustainable, for a whole range of reasons.
