The Regrettable Changes in Society

[Lirael]

Do you think there have been any regrettable changes in society?

Do you miss any old traditions or old ways of life?

Do you wish older systems were still in place, despite never having lived with them?


I was just thinking today that it's a shame so many shops have expanded from their specialist market. HMV, for example, which used to be a small company whom only sold CDs. I can't remember HMV before it sold DVDs, but I have been inside specialist music stores, and a part of me really wishes that HMV had remained that way... I wish the service had remained more personal, the staff more experienced and knowledgeable about music... The way you're treated is just so impersonal and asking questions is pointless 'cause the staff rarely know anything about the product in question.

The issue of service applies to shops like Game, too... I just wish the staff were experienced gamers who loved gaming. I appreciate that people need jobs, and that a game store isn't the best place for someone to express their passion about gaming, but if it could be a starting place for people who want to move into the gaming industry, wouldn't that be better?



Then I can move on to old traditions, and the way people used to treat one another. There are certainly negatives when it comes to the age of Jane Austen, but there's something incredibly pure in the idea of intercourse only after marriage...or at least intercourse only in a strong relationship. There's no point fighting the fact that society regards sex as less special, but I do wish people would stop treating it like something casual. It's just... a shame.

Do you know what's also a shame? The materialistic culture that now surrounds Christmas. My fondest memories of Christmas revolve around my old school's celebration of the nativity, which was accompanied by the performance of Christmas poems, Christmas carols etc... What I loved about it was the sense of community. The school came together and celebrated a story as one. We performed to one another, and we got excited together. Yes, part of our excitement was due to presents, but some of it was due to the performances we'd get to see and the performances we'd get to play a part in.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

I miss those days we played soccer outside when we were young or play with marbles,pokemon cards etc.
I miss those days every b-day was a whole family get together event. Every holiday was special as well.

These days underaged children have smartphones. These days with all the inflation and bad economy holidays are not that special anymore.

In the past it was mostly about passion for certain things. These days just for the money and power, allure & hype.

 

[Dozer]

I thought the 90s where just better though maybe it was because i was kid

i remember pokemon cards,pogs,tazos ect

pure nostalgia love same with FF7,8 & 9

 

[The Witch]

Honestly, I've always hated that in the last 20 years small shops for fruits and veggies or meat shops and bakeries kinda don't exist anymore. It's all combined into global stores like Wallmart. And that's sucks. I just think it's sad to see so many jobs taken down because of one big company. When my parents moved me and my family to a mountain area I was expecting lots of small stores like meat shops, bakeries, etc etc... but there's not any of that. So this is one thing in society that I think changed for the worse.

Another thing is the amount of sex in everything even in teen's shows. Back when I was younger our shows didn't do half as much sexual crap as shows today do. Full House and Boy Meets World are just two examples. Those shows were really really popular for people of all ages and it didn't include sex at all. But nowadays if it's on T.v they'll include sex in it. Gossip Girl and Glee are just two examples. It's like producers and screenwriters can't make a hit show without showing people having sex in almost every episode. Even the show that was originally created to stop teen pregnancy(The Secret Life) makes all of the characters' lives about sex with their boyfriends.

It's just annoying. Sex has a role in relationships but damn, do we have to show it so much on t.v. shows? So I guess the innocence of t.v. shows is kinda what I miss.

Also, the fact that children nowadays are forced to grow up faster than they should. Back when I was a kid, when my birthday came around I wanted a barbie or a baby doll or even a new deck of Pokemon cards. But now all kids want are iphones or ipads or xboxes and playstations with tons of tons of games. There's nothing wrong with video games or electronics but kids shouldn't just mindlessly target electronics as much as they do. What happened to the days when a kid would go crazy for a box of legos, transformers or a freakin' bicycle? Kids are just... too "grown up" in the things they have and want nowadays. If a kid opened up a gift on Christmas day and saw that it was something other than electrons they'd be angry.

Another way kids are growing up too quickly is how much they concentrate on relationships. I've seen 10 year olds dating and acting as if they're mature enough to even know what a relationship even is (when they obviously don't).. and it's just... ugh

Another thing that bothers me is the lack of pride in our nation. Speaking as an American I see a lot of anti American crap. It's just annoying. If people don't like the country they can GTFO. Seriously. I mean, if you have an American flag on your car bumper it all of a sudden means you're an idiot and people will start ranting about all of the "terrible things America has done" It's like people think it makes them cool to hate on America. Yeah, well, if you hate it so much move. !

 

[Marquis of Granby]

i think sex is such a casual thing now because for years it was taboo. the reason it was like that is because of religion which is evidently obsessed with sex. you will sleep with these people and you will only do it when we say you can.

sex isnt precious, but it may seem precious to those who are supposed to abstain from it. you dont have to be a slut about it, but if you want to be, its your body and your choice what you do with it or what you let other people do with it. in a sense i agree that it doesnt have to be so prominent in teen tv programmes, but thats just because i'd rather they didnt exist at all. i dont watch much tv, but when i do i specifically avoid crap like that. but to be fair sex is a big thing when youre a teenager. its a valid theme for teenage related programmes, so are drugs and alcohol. ignoring themes like this makes them more mysterious, then people come close to obsessing over them. but equally the same can be said if you flaunt it too much. i think its better to be open about things, and of course if you dont want to see these things you probably shouldnt watch the tv programmes that are specifically intended to cover these themes

the whole "buy now and worry about where the money comes from later" thing is quite annoying. if you cant afford something just dont buy it. if you cant afford to get your kid a ps3 for christmas do not buy it. if you cant afford it, let them know. try teaching them the value of money instead of letting them believe it grows on trees.

a lot of people seem to have far less respect (for themselves and others) now too. scrounging off the dole and benefits. some people genuinely need that support. there are real disabled people. there are people who literally cant get a job (many of them atm). but there are definitely many more who just dont want to work. and if you bring a family up like that, theyll think its alright to live that way. the whole political correctness movement has made things like this a million times worse. you dont want to be too harsh with your punishment of a murderer or a rapist or a paedophile, that just wont do.

ps cali: americans criticising america shouldnt move fair enough if youre of the political mindset that your nation is perfect and no changes need to be made, its ok to believe that. but it also makes you wrong. no nation is perfect, and having nationals complain about their own country is just a reminder that it isnt perfect. if its a foreigner then tell them to fuck off back to their own country, if its someone who is so proud of what their country is SUPPOSED to be (but isnt) then maybe you should listen. in god we trust etc.

 

[Lirael]

Honestly, I've always hated that in the last 20 years small shops for fruits and veggies or meat shops and bakeries kinda don't exist anymore. It's all combined into global stores like Wallmart. And that's sucks.

Oh gosh, yes, how could I forget to add this to my list!!! My family uses a local service who deliver local food every week, and we occasionally go to the supermarket. It's such a shame that most people buy from supermarkets ALL the time.

I appreciate that supermarkets produce A LOT of jobs and can also provide a wide range of food, more so than a local store, but dear God, I HATE the way Capitalism feeds into it. The head of Sainsbury's in the UK earns £900,000 a year. And he thinks that's just about right for his role. I mean, WHAT?! You can buy eight small houses for that, three decent houses, or a bloody mansion. EACH YEAR! No one deserves that amount of money when there are single parents working their socks off in jobs they hate, like cleaning and shop work, just to get by. Some of these parents can't even afford food.

I think people really need to start appreciating every job. Shopwork and cleaning are regarded as menial but they're not. They're as important to the overall running of society as managing Sainsbury's. I'm not saying that pay should be equal, but the massive divide in salary is bloody ridiculous. I doubt someone working in a shop full-time gets much more than £10,000 a year.

Sorry for the slightly off-topic rant...

To bring this back to my main point, it's aided by the fact people have moved away from small stores and local produce. I wish there was a middle ground - I'll admit that there are certain supermarket products I love, like Soya Milk, Green and Black's chocolate - now owned by bloody Cadbury's, which is owned by Kraft.

ONE MORE THING! I hate how these English products have moved to America for the sake of money. The fact so many people lost their jobs at Cadbury after the move is terrible. It is also just another example of a small company becoming too big. Green and Black's started out as a small company which produced organic dark chocolate. Then they expanded to create milk chocolate, which is fair enough, and a few other varieties. But now they're not owned by the founding family at all!

I just hate how small, family-run products and companies are consumed by the big businesses.

Writing this, I would actually consider moving to local produce wherever possible... Time to buy local oats and time to order more local fruit and veg! I don't eat meat...

Also, the fact that children nowadays are forced to grow up faster than they should. Back when I was a kid, when my birthday came around I wanted a barbie or a baby doll or even a new deck of Pokemon cards. But now all kids want are iphones or ipads or xboxes and playstations with tons of tons of games. There's nothing wrong with video games or electronics but kids shouldn't just mindlessly target electronics as much as they do. What happened to the days when a kid would go crazy for a box of legos, transformers or a freakin' bicycle?

Oh gosh, I know. Though the two aren't as closely connected in my mind.

When I think of how kids are growing up faster, I think about the fact they're made to think about their appearance far earlier, made to worry about cosmetics far earlier, and aren't really permitted to just enjoy being kids... They think they have to act mature...

When it comes to them wanting electronics, alarm bells go off in my head. I view it as a very sad, fast movement away from creativity. Parents no longer encourage their kids to imagine and create like they used to. Parents no longer show their kids how to use a shoe box to make a home for their toys (my mum did this), nor do many show them that they can make little animals out of pipecleaners, cotton balls, fimo-clay or paper...

When I have kids, I am going to make sure they do all of these things. It will be my main method of interaction. I will teach them to create everything I can think of! I will praise them for everything they do and take part. I will use what they make to create a story and encourage them to chip in. We will write stories together.

I'd even consider hiding the games consoles from them... or at least not flaunting them. They could be introduced to them around the age of 8 or 9 like I was...

 

[Dionysos]

I do like the idea of some traditions a lot, and certain values of the past I agree with more than today… However we do tend to idealise these things as a way of expressing our desires to escape our current society, which a lot of people are rarely happy with. It is a human thing, I think, to hate the world you currently live in and to wish certain things to return to how they were in the past, and for the future to return to how it was then. I’m guilty of it myself, and I don’t see any harm in it when sometimes there are genuine issues that we should be angry about.

I do dislike the uniformity in our society, but that would be here regardless, I guess. However, this is itself a tradition, but a bad one, and I refuse to accept it as a cultural one. Culture is dead, I fear. I’d like to throw my football and X-Factor dislike into this, but that would be a bit unfair.

Traditions would get a bit boring when you are exposed to your own tradition for your entire life. Pretty soon you’d find yourself wanting other traditions too. Tradition is only interesting, I guess, when viewing what other people do elsewhere. But with culture dying out worldwide, and our world being connected by global brands and the invention of the internet, we’re all getting quite similar, and need to struggle harder to keep our own little traditions, be it national traditions or traditions local to your own region / city/ town / village / family / subgroup.

Even if traditions are modern constructs and are not really anything like what people used to do back in the day, it still creates something interesting which can be promoted when people visit / can create something to talk about / breaks the routine of what could become a boring life.

I also dislike the casual intercourse thing, but I can’t really say anything about other people’s lives like that. It’s up to them, and they’ve all had different lives and think different things for different reasons in their lives. I am, however, very strongly against the promoting of beliefs that casual coitus is normal, and therefore that people should live like that. I’ve been naïve for a large portion of my life, I accept, and I also never went to relationship-school (a place I’m convinced 80% of the population must have been shipped off to at some point). I do, however (as is natural), think my way is right for me. I wouldn’t suit being a true badass in a pimp hat, or a rowdy drunk who has the swagger jagger and slaps peoples’ asses all night long. That’s just not how I roll.

If no-one else rolls the way I do then I’ll roll alone.

I also agree with preferring smaller shops to larger shops (as in company size / rankings in the world etc, and all that pretentious stuff). I hate seeing multiple stores of the same company within a few streets of each other. They lack character and personality. They just become things I blot out as I walk past, and each street becomes a blur that looks similar when smudged to the last street, and I don’t care for them.

 

[Kahotep]

I don't advocate reverting back to any particular time period in human history, but sometimes I question how long our hi-tech modern society is going to last. It's extremely resource-hungry and will likely grow even more so in the future, but the world has only so many resources. If you've ever taken one of those ecological footprint tests, you would have found out that if everyone in the world lived like we First Worlders do, it would take multiple Earths to support us. The only reason the planet is able to sustain humanity today is because resources are consumed in unequal portions throughout the world; a few people in the First World are hogging up most of the pie while leaving the Third World to starve.

Come to think of it, maybe scaling down our First World technology and luxuries would be beneficial for the rest of the world, because that would divide resources more equitably, but very few of us are willing to make such sacrifices.

 

[Lirael]

Come to think of it, maybe scaling down our First World technology and luxuries would be beneficial for the rest of the world, because that would divide resources more equitably, but very few of us are willing to make such sacrifices.

I would. I'd happily forego any future games, movies and technological developments if it meant food and water for the people in the third world. If it would make a difference, I'd give up a lot of things. :/

There has always been a massive divide in terms of money and general rescources. This really should be changed for the future... Instead, our Conservative government is more worried about making money! Yes, I know we're in debt, but if you stopped supporting the bankers and businesses and stopped taking massive amounts of money yourself, that would make a HUGE difference.

Many people say that the divide between rich and poor is essential for our economic development. Perhaps it is... But I personally think we need to stop putting economic development at the forefront.. It's more important to ensure that each person has the basics before we think about how to develop our materials. A better car is not going to make as much difference to someone's life as food on the table. Building a faster railway track is not as important as ensuring that the ageing population has good healthcare.

I know it's very tricky to settle on the logistics of this, or even come up with a solution, because some people don't try to earn money, but I think that ANYONE who works hard, no matter what the job, should be paid a decent salary which is high enough to live on comfortably.

Moving back to the third world... well, I don't know how much we've prevented their development, if at all. I know very little about that. :/ (Time to do some research!) Even if we have had no effect on them, we should be kind enough to help them get clean water. In fact, you know what, we HAVE affected them, by not paying them enough for the food they grow and by exploiting them. Even Fairtrade companies don't give an amount that's proportionate to the increased price. Fairtrade is like a form of propaganda. It encourages you to pay more but doesn't quite tell the truth.

In this post, I suppose I'm noting how a lack of change in equality is regrettable...

I am starting to discuss a lot more than I set out to discuss. So if anyone knows more about this stuff, please PM me! I would really like to learn more about it... I really shall stop ranting now.

 

[Will Graham]

I do not see what is so great about tradition, I would stab tradition in the throat if I could. If the old ways were so great then we would have stayed with them, but for the most part they bit the dust because they were fucked by progress

I will use my country as an example but I am sure something similar can be applied to most countries. People say they miss 'traditional Ireland', which, to me, is an absolutely moronic statement. Traditional Ireland consisted of

+Savages who went to war with each other bollock naked, in the name of some 'Gods'

+Famine

+A culture of clerical paedophilia that was accepted and swept under the rug

+Mass diaspora

Why people do not like the way society is changing is beyond me, the advent of technologies and corporations are not bad things. Luxuries are becoming widespread and cheaper, the quality of life is improving. We are leaving behind quaint and insipid ideologies in the name of freedom and science

trdtion 4 fagz 2k11

Thug Life

 

[Squid]

The only regrettable change in society that I really care about is that there are so many paedo's and Murderers and rapists out there now that children can't ride a bike to school or play footy on the streets or camp out with mates without the 'rents going crazy with worry.

 

[Richard B Riddick]

I think it is regrettable.

The thing many seem to miss is that someone actually benefits from these things.

The more food businesses sell, the higher their profits. They intentionally design food products to be unhealthy and fattening, because obese people consume more food thus driving up profit margins.

Predatory business practices where the little guy is screwed and put out of business are done in the name of consolidation and centralization which in turn increases profits via market share.

In a corporatized sense, the more people believe they're not special the easier it is to treat them like slaves under unfair working conditions. Thus, perhaps you have the attempts at dehumanization and treating people progressively worse to make them feel less valuable.

All of it is regrettable and perhaps none of it is truly progressive though some may view it as such.

In a sense, its all a massive corporatism spiel whereby the highest income bracket earners attempt to change the world and living conditions in such a way as to suit themselves at the expense of all...

I do not see what is so great about tradition, I would stab tradition in the throat if I could. If the old ways were so great then we would have stayed with them, but for the most part they bit the dust because they were fucked by progress

Traditional maxims like 'no sex before marriage' are intended to curb negatives like teen pregnancy.

Lax attitudes towards sex aren't necessarily so much a result of progress as they are people being bombarded by advertising, television, pornography & other things which convey the idea they should be having sex as much as possible.

A good part of the reason for the economic meltdown of 2008 has to do with america abandoning traditional banking and real estate practices.

Glass-steagall is a somewhat traditional measure separating investment from commercial banking. That traditional measure was repealed as people forget the reasons for its inception shortly after the Great Depression. Less than ten years later you have the mess we're in now. The same may apply to a certain degree on social and society based precedents.

 

[Shael-BurizaDo]

I regret the rise in snitches...snitches in all ways, men and women, and otherwise...

The more people, the more snitches...the lies and deceptions manifest themselves in different ways as society changes...but i hate the rising number of snitches. People occupying themselves with business that is not their own.

I feel like secrets were never kept very well, throughout history, but for example...George Lucas kept the secret of Empire Strikes Back and Darth Vader, and i do not think something like that is even possible anymore...

That's just a minor regret, i think society is not doing terribly, at least.

 

[Richard B Riddick]

An example of how attitudes and views have changed for the worse.

In 1959, a scientist named Bertrand Russel was asked what advice he would give to people of the future. He gave 2 bits of advice. The second thing he said was people should be tolerant of differing ideas and beliefs:

The moral thing I should wish to say…I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don't like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet."

...

Fast forward about 50 years & you have scientists saying things like: "islam is one of the great evils in the world"...

50 years ago Bertrand Russel said tolerance was the answer to dealing with differences in religion and similar issues, and most scientists and people of that era probably agreed with him.

In the present day, we have scientists who are oftentimes exceedingly intolerant towards those with differing beliefs and ideas. In the case of Richard Dawkins who appears to be anti-religious and intolerant, hes more or less the complete opposite of Bertrand Russel.

So, yeah, one might say that people have becoming increasingly absolutist, intolerant, and disrespectful over time. We're too young to have experienced the changes personally, but if you look back over the views and ideas which were mainstream in previous eras, there may well be a very noticeable difference.