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 Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:15 pm
The Elder of Almost Any Ancient Culture I remember back when things were better than this cesspool we live in today. Back then, things we're runnin' great, people knew their place, and we had some order to this damn world.
From 50's America, to Ancient Japan, to who knows how many cultures, people have pined to go back to a simpler time; to when things weren't as complex, or as difficult as they are in this day, and age. They want to see things back the way they were in their own childhood days, because they want people to see the world, through their eyes.
But honestly, who the hell wants to go back to when most people (you know, 90% of the population) had no rights, people were even more bigoted, and openly racist, than they are today, and people we're dying of the simplest diseases?(and this is an actual question I'm posing)
So, in short, what do you think of modern society, in contrast to the world we live in today?
I'm of the opinion that we basically face the same problems we did eons ago, just under different guises, and in different proportions; and that things were NOT better back then, in contrast to today.
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Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 1:25 am
I voted "not if you do something about it now".
Modern society has it's ills; lots of them, all their own and unique from the past. Some things might be better getting pulled back some, but that does not mean all progress should be thrown down.
Two big ones to keep: Free time (we have lots of it we never had before now by the idea of compartmentalized work), elected officials.
Two big ones to drop (IMO): The concept of massive faceless corporations who answer only to profits, and at least somewhat, the need for massive networked infrastructure to ship food and other vitals (if the shipping networks disappeared, I know for a fact my entire state would be screwed entirely). This is not to say shipping is evil, only that cities should be better able to provide for themselves in case shipping networks collapse, temporarily and permenantly. (We don't have to get rid of cities either, if we do a good job farming on our very rooftops.)
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Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:59 am
I think people just want to go back and keep it simple. Remember that in the 1900s, simple diseases weren't making that much of an effect, compared to earlier time. Many want to go back to the 50s, at most, so that wouldn't be a problem.
Personally, I wanna get rid of Political Correctness. That would make me so damn happy.
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Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:17 pm
Everyone thinks that the "old days" were better because the "old days" exists in everyone's mind as a cumulation of happy TV show reruns and maybe a few key words like TUPPERWARE, BLAMMO, and HULA HOOP....or maybe POODLE SKIRT.
But that's pretty much like saying that the 70s was only about VW buses and peace signs.
Pop-culture is not the only thing that happened in each respective age.
*shudder* Just think, we're going to be remembered by the keywords SNAKES ON A PLANE, COCKMONGLER, iPod, and INTERNET RADIO.
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:49 pm
I miss my good old days....which would be late 80s/early 90s. Mostly because of the pop-culture as mentioned before. There's nothing to watch on TV nowadays.....seriously. I seldom turn on the tv nowadays unless its fridays, world cup, or there's porn razz Plus..is it just me or saturday morning cartoons have gotten worse over the years? Seriously I used to remember getting up very early to watch good cartoons like Sonic the Hedgehog, Ninja Turtles and such. I used to appreciate the little things in life like TV, videogames, and things like that. Nowadays it all seems gone. TV programing has declined, videogames have become a bitter squabble between graphics, new disk formats, HD-TV compatability, and other little things. Not to mention Congress is wasting time and money trying to impose anti-videogame laws. I'm mostly ashamed about Louisiana's. They're trying to pass a law like that when they should have used that money instead to help with the natural disaster that happened recently. Also, there wasnt this overall fear of terrorism in North America like there is now. It also has somewhat turned into a fear of Middle Eastern people, it truly makes me sick how people have become over the late half of the 90's up to now gonk
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:05 pm
I also voted "not if you do something about it now", but I'm not sure there's all that much we can do.
I happen to like living in the past, but not in the usual way. I'm a member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, who are a Medieval Society), it's basically the 16th Century & everything earlier, but with indoor plumbing & no diseases. They're much better that way. blaugh
I think that although it's ridiculous amounts of fun to play pretend, in all honesty I much prefer living today. I would have a lot of trouble surviving without my walkman/discman/iPod/whatever portable music player comes my way in 5 years (unless I had my own minstrel... which would only happen if I was REALLY rich!). Meeting up with people who don't live next door would be a lot harder, slower & significantly less frequent without email, mobile phones & air-mail.
And then there's the whole indoor plumbing thing, which is pretty damn great. Also hot showers... & of course, tv, dvds, internet... etc.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:17 pm
There are some parts of modern society I love. I love running water, electricity, some of the new technology out there (like all sorts of MP3 players, which are great for listening to music and all portable and everything) and how easy and painless it is to do things that used to take hours before.
However, things like political correctness, racism, sexism, discrimination against homosexuality (sexuality-ism?) and all other sorts of things that plague society are things that need to be done away with.
Sure, racism and sexism and other forms of discrimination have been going away slowly but surely, but I wish it would be all gone.
Some people in my school seriously think there is no racism. Most of my community is white. There's a few Mexicans, a few Native Americans, a few Asians, and a few African-Americans. The only ones who don't get any crap are the African Americans because everyone thinks that's what racism is. Racism is more than that. Some guys said to this one really nice Mexican girl, "GO BACK TO MEXICO!" and I just drilled into them. ((Okay, it was more, "You jackasses, how would you feel if you went to another country and everyone was harrassing you and telling you to go back home?" Because they were.)) They also think there are no gay people and no discrimination and all that BUT THERE IS. There is a lot of it. If you're in any way different from white, you're discriminated against. Oh, no, they don't do anything to black people because that would be racism, but that's okay.
One of the reasons I love the GSA at my school is because we can throw away those things and just tease each other for our stereotypes and all that and not be offended. There's a flamboyant health teacher who is the adviser to the GSA at a school not too far away and one of our advisers is Jewish so we were making jokes about that. I like how in modern society there's more acceptance for difference. In the 50s and before, my gay friends would be so fiercely in the closet. Not just to be liked and to have an easy time without being harrassed like many stay there now. No, so they can get a job, a family, and keep their lives. Luckily there are more civil rights toward homosexuals being dealt out, which is what I like.
Sorry, I'm ranting. But I'm somewhat annoyed by how I've been noticing how badly some people have been treating others at school recently for being different.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:38 pm
I think people just think about going back to the good ol' days because all they remember is all the good times and happy memories, while all they can think about now are the troubles, the bills, and the craziness happening around the world. In short, people see the past through rosy sunglasses.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:32 am
Modern society, particularly in places like Sweeden, Germany, and Canada, is the best there's ever been. Period.
I ******** love modern medicine.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:35 am
Spiffy Negligee However, things like political correctness, racism, sexism, discrimination against homosexuality (sexuality-ism?) and all other sorts of things that plague society are things that need to be done away with. Yeah, I long for the days when you could just walk up to someone and call them a ****** and not have to worry about all of that damned political correctness. Now you can't even call someone a retard or a cripple without people giving you funny looks! /sarcasm.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:37 am
Jinzouki I miss my good old days....which would be late 80s/early 90s. Mostly because of the pop-culture as mentioned before. There's nothing to watch on TV nowadays.....seriously. I seldom turn on the tv nowadays unless its fridays, world cup, or there's porn razz Plus..is it just me or saturday morning cartoons have gotten worse over the years? Seriously I used to remember getting up very early to watch good cartoons like Sonic the Hedgehog, Ninja Turtles and such. I used to appreciate the little things in life like TV, videogames, and things like that. Nowadays it all seems gone. TV programing has declined, videogames have become a bitter squabble between graphics, new disk formats, HD-TV compatability, and other little things. Not to mention Congress is wasting time and money trying to impose anti-videogame laws. I'm mostly ashamed about Louisiana's. They're trying to pass a law like that when they should have used that money instead to help with the natural disaster that happened recently. Also, there wasnt this overall fear of terrorism in North America like there is now. It also has somewhat turned into a fear of Middle Eastern people, it truly makes me sick how people have become over the late half of the 90's up to now gonk I watched soem of my favorite childhood cartoons recently, and seriously, they sucked a**. I just couldn't tell when I was five. Back in the 80s and before, there was the overall fear of NUCLEAR WAR and the Soviet Union. Actually a rather bigger threat than terrorism...
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:39 am
Sylphi Yeah, I long for the days when you could just walk up to someone and call them a ****** and not have to worry about all of that damned political correctness. Now you can't even call someone a retard or a cripple without people giving you funny looks! /sarcasm. There's a slight difference between doing away with obviously derogatory terms such as '******', and having to call someone mentally-handicapped instead of retarded. Or horizontally-challenged instead of fat. :] Because they ARE retarded and they ARE fat. For the latter, they're still fat whether it's from slow metabolism or gorging themselves on high carbohydrates all day.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:40 am
NekoIncChan I voted "not if you do something about it now". Modern society has it's ills; lots of them, all their own and unique from the past. Some things might be better getting pulled back some, but that does not mean all progress should be thrown down. Two big ones to keep: Free time (we have lots of it we never had before now by the idea of compartmentalized work), elected officials. Two big ones to drop (IMO): The concept of massive faceless corporations who answer only to profits, and at least somewhat, the need for massive networked infrastructure to ship food and other vitals (if the shipping networks disappeared, I know for a fact my entire state would be screwed entirely). This is not to say shipping is evil, only that cities should be better able to provide for themselves in case shipping networks collapse, temporarily and permenantly. (We don't have to get rid of cities either, if we do a good job farming on our very rooftops.) I imagine that folks don't farm much on their rooftops because water leaking fromyour farm into your building is a bad, bad thing. Not to mention that you're still not going to grow anywhere near enough food that way... You could raise chickens on your rooftop, but that would stink.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:42 am
Tailos Sylphi Yeah, I long for the days when you could just walk up to someone and call them a ****** and not have to worry about all of that damned political correctness. Now you can't even call someone a retard or a cripple without people giving you funny looks! /sarcasm. There's a slight difference between doing away with obviously derogatory terms such as '******', and having to call someone mentally-handicapped instead of retarded. Or horizontally-challenged instead of fat. :] Because they ARE retarded and they ARE fat. For the latter, they're still fat whether it's from slow metabolism or gorging themselves on high carbohydrates all day. Having worked with the mentally retarded, I can honestly say to you that no sane person objects to using the term 'retarded' within its proper medical context. When you use the term outside of that context, to insult someone, it is no different from using 'gay' or '******' as an insult. Also, no sane person has ever asked to be called 'horizontally challenged'. Let's stick with reality, please. Putting up strawmen to justify discriminatory and offensive language against the less-fortunate members of society is just sad.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:47 am
Sylphi Having worked with the mentally retarded, I can honestly say to you that no sane person objects to using the term 'retarded' within its proper medical context. When you use the term outside of that context, to insult someone, it is no different from using 'gay' or '******' as an insult. And I agree with this. However, it IS becoming the thing - at least in the UK - to do away with all these medical context terms - the mentally retarded are indeed retarded, after all - and call them something else because "it might hurt their feelings". I can somewhat understand why the policy is slowly filtering into place, but I still stand by the original medical terminology. Sylphi Also, no sane person has ever asked to be called 'horizontally challenged'. Let's stick with reality, please. Putting up strawmen to justify discriminatory and offensive language against the less-fortunate members of society is just sad. I'll admit to the strawman there; I cannot recall the word i'm looking for to replace it. I'm not justifying discrimination and offensive language: i'm justifying the use of truth instead of lies. A fat person is still fat, regardless of why this is so.
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