Some of what you said resonates with me, but it seems like you're not looking objectively for evidence to the contrary. Some might be generally true, some generally false, and some might be locally true but not society-wide problems.
Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
431–440 of 835 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#432What interests me most about the current zeitgeist is that there is an generalized, or at least spreading, feeling of emptiness. What replaces religion to fill this gap for a new generation who is not religious? (including myself) Something very clear, a philosophy of life of some kind that people can adopt to feel like they are part of something bigger, without that something being a fictional being. And without dev…
I’ve found diamond approach to be very cohesive to a western critical as such an approach:
https://www.diamondapproach.org/blog/introduction-diamond-ap...
No fictional beings, no cult-like features in my experience. Just deep exploration of what is.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try turning off the news, avoiding social media sites (Reddit, Twitter, HN, anywhere people share bad stories), and getting more in person interaction. You don’t need to be invested in the finer details of global politics or stories of violence hundreds of miles a way. Disconnect and recharge. Reconnect with people around you and enjoy the world as it exists, not for some representation of all the terrible things on…
I have a problem with reading too much news, you're right. However, switching it off doesn't lessen the impact on daily life. Fuel doesn't become cheaper because I stopped reading the BBC News reports about the Russo-Ukrainian war. I don't pay less tax because I chose not to read about the government increasing VAT.
How much of that resentment towards fuel prices stems from being told to be resentful about fuel prices?
When we're able to make our own judgments about the goings on in our life instead of being programmed how to feel by the media, life stops feeling like it's all hell.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#434Must be American thing.
Where I live things either do not change much or improve because of tech advance.
Of course I don't know anything about US other than some websites. But I think that US issue roots with disrespect of police. You do remember how you forced policemen to kneel? That looked terrible for me. We don't do that. Now police don't want to work, so you get loud people, stealing, higher crime, etc. Solve that thing. Stop bullying police. Respect them. If they killed some criminal, applaud, not judge them. World is better without criminals with drugs in their blood. Don't treat criminals as heroes. Even if they're of black colour. That does not make them saint.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#435> People are noisy as fuck and dont seem to give a shit. Seems like every night there's someone with loud as exhaust on "sportish" car ripping around the neihborhood. For months this guy would start up his loud car at 7am and no one care when I complained. > Police seem to not give a shit anymore. I've noticed what seems to be total lawlessness going on in my world. Folks stealing shit. People driving absurdly danger…
"normalize $X !!"
$X being antisocial or otherwise reprehensible behaviour.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#436...And no one can write anything without profanity. It's so ugly! Why make the world an uglier place?
Somewhat sarcastic, but I'm making a point too...
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that’s a subjective criteria and one that’s obviously ripe for subversion. What about people’s right to freedom of expression?
Is it a form of expression to walk around in semen encrusted sweatpants?
Obviously. In the same way you are largely able to say what you want even if it’s distasteful.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worth noting that, in a country of 330 million people, you only came up with two examples. Those things are newsworthy because they're outliers .
There are more cases of subtler failures that are smaller in scope, eg. in the Chicago metro[1], or on the UNC campus[2]. I do agree with part of your sentiment. Those two examples are the worst case scenarios where misfortunes happened to align, and there are periods in history, as well as other countries today, where this sort of problem was/is rampant. This is also not (exactly) a recent problem - the groundwork,…
Lead in water pipes is generally fine as long as the water is treated correctly.
With that said, we're now actually putting the money towards replacing them.
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/funding-...
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#439I think you're way off base. It's called rosy retrospection, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_retrospection . As you already mentioned in your comments, you're judging the past disproportionately more positive that the present. If you really want to know if everything is declining, try measure it everyday for the next five years. For example, every day, rate your personal well being, track how (un)happy you are wit…
There is a danger to assigning this term blindly, as it is almost a form of 'rosy ignorance'. We are certainly in an extreme period of societal volatility, and it is absolutely appropriate to examine the causes.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are a bunch of statements that angry people with agree with, but you haven't presented any evidence for your claims, and I think they're mostly backward. We're in the longest period of peace in thousands of years. Check out this cool graphic that puts in perspective: http://www.fallen.io/ww2/ People are mad about politics, but I don't think it's any worse than the cold-war, kennedy assassination, mcarthyism, be…
There's way less trust in our society than they have been in many years. This is something that's been studied with evidence to back it up. You can see this in the week it took to elect a speaker of the house, something that hasn't happened (at that scale) since the 19th century. Globally, nations that become more economically developed shift towards individualism and selfishness.
This is actually what you’d expect from practically any system where wealth and power centralize as a function of time. The pressure will grow until it eventually might pop.