Is our precious Western society screwed?

[16 tins of Spam]

This morning, I had a phone call from my panelbeater. He told me that the reason the paint on the roof of my car is chipping and fading is not because he bollocksed up the job originally, but because someone has poured a caustic substance on it - possibly brake fluid, paint stripper, battery acid, or the like. The original reason he painted it was because some scumbags jumped on the roof while it was parked at the train station, caving it in.

This morning on the front page of our city's primary newspaper, there are two main stories. In one, a gang related drive-by shooting has taken the life of a two year old girl. In the other, a drunk at an out of control party has driven his car into a crowd of revellers, killing two girls and injuring eight others, apparently because he was about to get his butt kicked and wanted to get in there first.

Personally, I still can't decide whether antisocial incidents like these, which seem to occur more and more often these days, are the symptoms of an uncaring, selfish and disrespectful society in general, or if things have always been this way and the media are just really good at telling us about it.

Is society eating itself? Discuss.

[BoyBrumby]

It's pretty ****ed up, but I suspect it may always have been.

Only today I saw this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/6627729.stm

A student murdered at my old alma mata in the very Halls I lived in in my first year. A "fairly prolonged physical attack."

[nibbs]

the sooner we stop raping the earth, the better...

[Smudge]

This morning on the front page of our city's primary newspaper, there are two main stories. In one, a gang related drive-by shooting has taken the life of a two year old girl. In the other, a drunk at an out of control party has driven his car into a crowd of revellers, killing two girls and injuring eight others, apparently because he was about to get his butt kicked and wanted to get in there first.

Yeah, I woke up yesterday morning to those two stories leading the 9am radio news and thought to myself 'that's rather a lot to take in on a Sunday morning'.

The concerning thing about that latter story is that it's the second such attack/murder in recent years in NZ, with that girl up north doing something similar.

As for the gang drive-by, that's a tragic case of an innocent girl caught in the crossfire of two sets of utter scum.

[Richard]

It's pretty ****ed up, but I suspect it may always have been.

It's pretty ****ed-up in many ways, but there have always been 1,000,001 things about our society that have been ****ed-up - only a couple of decades back homophobia was ingrained and acceptible in most places.

As some of the more obscene things have been cured (in some places - while they of course live on in many others) other things have taken their place.

But compared to the society of the 1870s, for instance, I'd say we go pretty well, TBH.

[Mr Casson]

It's pretty ****ed-up in many ways, but there have always been 1,000,001 things about our society that have been ****ed-up - only a couple of decades back homophobia was ingrained and acceptible in most places.

A bit digressive, but what's changed?

[silentstriker]

But compared to the society of the 1870s, for instance, I'd say we go pretty well, TBH.

But it's cyclical. Homosexuality was much more acceptable in Ancient Greece. It moved back a little bit after the Romans took over, and after Christianity became prevalent in the Roman Empire, it went the other way completely. It would be a huge fallacy to assume that it will keep going that way, and in fact, I would bet anything that in the next fifty years, we will go backwards in some areas, and forward in others. 'Race' as we know it wasn't as big an issue in the middle ages, but class was a much bigger issue than it is now. I think humanity takes two steps backward for every two steps forward, in terms of social issues. IMO, that's just part of being human, and I don't see that changing.

[Johnners]

Personally, I still can't decide whether antisocial incidents like these, which seem to occur more and more often these days, are the symptoms of an uncaring, selfish and disrespectful society in general, or if things have always been this way and the media are just really good at telling us about it.

Is society eating itself? Discuss.

Society is ****ed up, and afaic it is due to the first reason you offered. IMO the biggest problem society faces is a simple lack of personal responsibility, we've always got to find someone else to blame, or try to pass the buck, instead of just growing some balls and taking responsibility for our own actions, which intern leads us to be an uncaring, selfish & disrespectful society.

[Matteh]

But it's cyclical. Homosexuality was much more acceptable in Ancient Greece. It moved back a little bit after the Romans took over, and after Christianity became prevalent in the Roman Empire, it went the other way completely. It would be a huge fallacy to assume that it will keep going that way, and in fact, I would bet anything that in the next fifty years, we will go backwards in some areas, and forward in others. 'Race' as we know it wasn't as big an issue in the middle ages, but class was a much bigger issue than it is now. I think humanity takes two steps backward for every two steps forward, in terms of social issues. IMO, that's just part of being human, and I don't see that changing.

Only because transport wasn't as good at the time. 400 years later or so when ships are actually circumnavigating the world does it really come into play for the first time.

[Craig]

Bring back National Service, the cane and the death penalty I say!

And burn those Civil Liberations.

[Johnners]

haha gun poll options btw (Y)

[Dasa]

RE: Is our precious Western society screwed?
Yes.

[Barney Rubble]

No, society is not screwed. We're just more aware of the ****ed up stuff that goes on these days because of the press.

[pasag]

No, society is not screwed. We're just more aware of the ****ed up stuff that goes on these days because of the press.

Yeah agree with that and Richard's post more or less.

[vic_orthdox]

Not letting my painting of our fence go unrewarded. It's damn white.