A more pertinent question would be what can one do about it realistically? And analysis of why things are declining is generally futile simply because involves societal/govt change that doesn't happen easily.
Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
401–410 of 835 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#402I don't know your age but I'm going to guess 30+. This is just happens when you get old. When you were younger you probably noticed that all the older people you knew pined for some earlier time (say the 1970s or 1950s). And you probably thought they were being silly. Well, now you've become one of those people. The fact is the world always seems better when you are younger, not because the world necessarily better,…
> The fact is the world always seems better when you are younger, not because the world necessarily better, but because it's just more pleasant to be young.
I would also mention that when you're young, you're readily learning and accepting new ideas, and that capability/willingness shrinks with age (at least on average).
As a result, the world seems increasingly a foreign place for you as you age - you understand less - partially on the cognitive level, partially on the value judgment level. It's the world of your youth which seems like your home, where your values align with the trend, where you understand what's happening.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
It only affects people who care about what other people wear, and those people shouldn’t have any sort of societal influence because that’s stupid. Name literally one reason that wearing pajamas in public will cause another person actual harm and I’ll take back this statement.
There are a lot of things that don’t cause “actual harm” (which is itself a very narrow and short-sighted metric to exclusively focus on) but are probably important to worry about. Clearly people care about “cultural things” even if you personally don’t care.
That’s the thing, I do care. I care that people should have freedom of self expression. My daughters are 18 and 19. Some day soon I’ll be the parent their boyfriends will come home to meet. I hope they feel they have the freedom to wear what they’re comfortable in and that represents their genuine identity.
So yes of course context matters, we are social beings, but expectations of what is acceptable changes. I’ve seen it change in my lifetime, and that happens by people pushing the boundaries. Good luck to them.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#404If you live in the U.S., there is a substantial chance your demographic has been affected by lead poisoning. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2118631119
I think many of the problems you talk about can be traced to things like this.
What I see is that after some inflection point in industrial development, a race between stupid decisions and smart solutions began, on a massive scale. Antibiotics is a good example of this sort of thing, but it's not just technology that gets rushed but laws and ways of living. For example the GI bill created a standard of suburban living that we still expect to this day. And for what? We're not in a war.
Ultimately I think we live in highly experimental times. You could have cutting edge benefits or cutting edge annoyances and combination thereof.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#405The economy is just increasingly fake or rewarding foolish scummy behaviour instead of honest cooperative work. People coasted for 10+ years now on "passive income" from printed money along with almost no enforcement action against scams. That gave rise to a chain reaction of people trying to scam each other in a general revenge. Take for example a big slice of the economy - real estate. Honest real estate agents who…
>Honest real estate agents who try to match real needs to real properties were totally displaced (or outcompeted) by agents who spam fake ads in order to secure an exclusive contract with unfair terms and sell you the biggest property you can afford with no regard of your actual needs. The Fed in turn backstops any losses and buys toxic mortgages perpetuating the scheme.
There's lot's to criticize about real eastate agents but this ain't it. Try taking huge commissions for a disproportionate amount of work from the value of the house for one.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#406> Anyone else have other examples? Elected president who is so crass and generally offensive he wouldn't have gotten close to being elected 50 years ago. Elected president who is showing clear signs of age related cognitive decline (so they say) but continues to occupy the office. Elected presidents with criminal behaviour that is far worse than what previous presidents were impeached or resigned for. Mental illness,…
> Elected president who is showing clear signs of age related cognitive decline (so they say) but continues to occupy the office.
Donald Trump is many things, but I really don't think he's seeing more cognitive decline than an average 76 year old.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#407Read Bowling Alone. It was written by a Harvard sociologist in the 80's. The American community is steadily breaking down and he quantifies it over the decades.
I considered myself a liberal most of my life, and still do to an extent, but it needs to be recognized as a double edged sword. Values like "tolerance" must have boundaries if you want to avoid the normalization of negative social behaviors that degrade the fabric of society.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#408I 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…
Also known as "G.O.D." ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_old_days
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
A society is made up of people. The way people act, dress, talk, or do anything else has a pretty direct impact on other people in that society. Unless your definition of society is an extremely disconnected one, comprised of alienated individuals that have no interaction with each other, yes, it does affect other people.
Maybe I have something to learn, but what load-bearing social foundation would public pajama-wearing endanger?
I kinda hop on this bandwagon to recommend the book "The righteous mind" by Jonathan Haidt, specifically the notion that there tends to be 3 main 'modes' of morality: a logic of individualism (Especially in the western word, and doubly so in affluent classes), the logic of community, and the logic of sacrality.
I feel that this back-and-forth about public pajama-wearing is really at heart a back and forth between a logic of pure individualistic moral (if nobody is hurt, then what's the deal), and more community-focused moral (yeah, nobody is hurt, but it's not bad either to uphold some standards in society).
I've never been to America, and I'm also living in Paris, where clothing is kinda important, but honestly I'm a bit shocked at the idea of going out in public in a pajama. I feel that, unless you're in a really bad place in your life, you should put some effort in presenting a 'good' version of yourself in public, and public pajama-wearing would be a huge signal that you're letting yourself down/are having a huge breakdown, or have mental health issues.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
>being a grown-ass adult in pajamas out in public I'm with you about all the other things but people wearing whatever clothes they want to affects you in literally no way shape or form.
Dress how you want in your own house. The public space isn't yours and you don't have a right to dress indecently in the public space. Turns out, some of us want to live in a society that takes itself seriously and gives a shit. Walking around in your Cookie Monster PJs just doesn't cut it. THIS mindset is what I think is the root of all the other listed problems. Somehow freedom has come to mean "I can do whatever I…
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