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Is everything falling apart?

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Re: Is everything falling apart?

#511

Post by cosmic_shame »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #393
captainbland wrote: post #305

Well if Malthusian scientists are to be believed then we only really have another couple of decades at best before the global population level causes society to collapse. So you could interpret recent events to be the first warning signs of that. Personally I remain unconvinced of that, though. Or at least, it seems to me that humans have the unique benefit of being able to problem solve their way out of the issues r…

Somehow we are simultaneously doomed because of both too little and too much population growth

Nobody said that threading the needle was easy.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#512

Post by ryukafalz »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #499
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a real danger in just arguing basically "things have always been a shit show, empires collapse, pandemics rage, etc. etc." for a couple reasons: 1. While true, lets not ignore the fact that things get really, really, really bad during those periods where empires do collapse, or environmental damage causes ecosystem collapse, etc. etc. I mean, yes, you could argue "Hey, the Black Death killed a 3rd of…

>

You cut off a chunk of that sentence and changed its meaning.

> the post-war era up until, say, the 80s

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#513

Post by UncleOxidant »

juanjmanfredi wrote: post #358
boh wrote: post #243

Things collapsing has been a predominant sentiment in every modern generation. It's unprecedented because of our collective amnesia, that regards the familiar as a stable starting point rather than a random moment in a volatile reality. Journalism was a tawdry, un-respectable business since its conception, but experienced a brief period of valor around the mid-twentieth century when industry concentration, Cold War e…

I agree with your first two paragraphs. To the extent that our present time is at all unique, I subscribe to Robert Putnam's thesis that much of what we see today can be explained by the drop in social capital in American life over the past several decades. Less socialization means less trust in other Americans or in the government, fewer norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness, and increased polarization. There are…

> There are various reasons for this, television being a prominent example.

I tend to agree with the Putnam thesis, but I don't think you can lay this all on television. Until the 80s there were really only 3 viable TV/radio networks (CBS, NBC and later, ABC). If you watched the nightly news on any of those networks you got pretty much the same vision of reality. There was more variation in newspapers, but people watched a lot of TV in that era and for the most part they shared a cohesive vision.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#514

Post by mensetmanusman »

Who cares what people feel like is happening? Just look at the data you care about.

For example, I think it’s interesting that many major cultures are dying because they have below replacement rate demographics.

The trend looks like a slow-moving Black Plague, except at the end of the rollercoaster you are left with old people instead of a bunch of young people (that survived the sickness).

This is certainly a new experiment by humanity that hasn’t happened before quite like this, so we are in for interesting times :)

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#515

Post by oicU00 »

Melatonic wrote: post #490
oicU00 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah no doubt; I collate trends into reports for rich investors. Lately they have been focused on youth trends, and some numbers are wacky. 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared. Youth participation in sports, especially full contact sports, had been going down since before covid which just accelerated it, leading to forec…

A lot of those very much do not sound like "things are falling apart" to me

Reality is not unzipping in that the speed of light is different. A lot of inner monologues, sense of belonging, hope for the future, as something like covid makes the masses see a minority who do none of the “real work” as dependents who somehow have far more comfortable lives.

Tech oligarchs who were all “Disrupt!” are now all “Wait not me! I’m a rent seeker now!”

It’s a predictable circle of life given the common and fundamentally unchanged from any past iteration over the last thousands of years, human condition.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#516

Post by UncleOxidant »

b112 wrote: post #273
boh wrote: post #243

Things collapsing has been a predominant sentiment in every modern generation. It's unprecedented because of our collective amnesia, that regards the familiar as a stable starting point rather than a random moment in a volatile reality. Journalism was a tawdry, un-respectable business since its conception, but experienced a brief period of valor around the mid-twentieth century when industry concentration, Cold War e…

Yes, the 60s was far, far, far more disillusioned than this.

That may have been the case among the young (coincidentally the boomers). But it would be difficult to make the case that a significant percentage of people over 30 were disillusioned in that era.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#517

Post by giantg2 »

dv_dt wrote: post #368
ravenstine wrote: post #111

Everything is not falling apart, though certain institutions may be falling apart. In America, there's definitely been a breakdown of belief in its own institutions. Far more people are skeptical of things like journalism and Silicon Valley; it really wasn't that long ago that the former was constantly salivating over the latter, but now it's more of an openly vulture-carrion relationship because that caters to publi…

If you look at life expectancy in the America, it has been flat to reversing. Understandably with added pressure from Covid, but at a rate higher even with Covid higher than all other well resourced major nations. This not because we are unable, but because those with the power are unwilling to engage fundamental issues. Covid is not the only issue for which this is the case - it was happening before covid. Multiple…

"Multiple major issues with scientific and economic root causes are simply being ignored"

Such as?

"but because those with the power are unwilling to engage fundamental issues."

It's possible that some issues they are unable to address because there are legal or practical hurdles. For example, obesity is a massive issue that is dependent on individual buy-in. Things like addiction and crime could use improvement, but they are both highly complex issues and not easy to solve. Of course most systemic issues are difficult to solve in a democracy simply because they need a lot of support to have any momentum, especially if individual and states' rights/liberties heavily protected in the democracy constitution.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#518

Post by UncleOxidant »

crocwrestler wrote: post #456
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything that happened to a Baby Boomer was the most extreme ever. All other generations before Baby Boomers and since the Baby Boomers have had an easier time than the Baby Boomers. Their experiences are the Alpha and the Omega of human experience. When they die, the universe probably will cease to exist.

Well, they did have domestic terrorist groups going around setting off bombs on the regular in the 60s and 70s. I was quite surprised to read about it. https://www.amazon.com/Days-Rage-Underground-Forgotten-Revol...

And going back further there was even more of that going on during the labor wars of the late 19th century into the 1920s.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#519

Post by redmen »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #432
shigawire wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alex Jones spits on people and tells them it's raining.

Quoted post unavailable.

LOL you realize Alex Jones just says obvious shit and takes credit right?

When has he ever said anything profound that turned out to be correct?

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#520

Post by mensetmanusman »

oicU00 wrote: post #252
ravenstine wrote: post #111

Everything is not falling apart, though certain institutions may be falling apart. In America, there's definitely been a breakdown of belief in its own institutions. Far more people are skeptical of things like journalism and Silicon Valley; it really wasn't that long ago that the former was constantly salivating over the latter, but now it's more of an openly vulture-carrion relationship because that caters to publi…

Oh yeah no doubt; I collate trends into reports for rich investors. Lately they have been focused on youth trends, and some numbers are wacky. 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared. Youth participation in sports, especially full contact sports, had been going down since before covid which just accelerated it, leading to forec…

Efficiency is always at odds with robustness, it’s unfortunate that people forget…
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