I've been on Earth 48.5 years now

[SHRED]

My perception is that the destructive forces, regarding politics and environment, are accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
Anyone else, who has been here this long, notice this also?
I am truley troubled.

:scared:
:nuke:

[Sean Reynolds]

1. You're old.

;-)

[ThumperDumper]

10. LOL! I was going to do that. You blew it for me! n/t

[Sean Reynolds]

16. Oops!

;)

[JanMichael]

45. 48 is NOT OLD!!!!!!!!

I'll be 37 in a couple of weeks and I could kick the living SHIT out of my 21 year old self.

I'm smarter, faster, STRONGER, meaner and more clever, than my old self ever though he could be.

[smirkymonkey]

2. I am about ten years younger than you, but I was thinking

about posting on this very topic.

I was wondering if people who were a little older recall a time in the history of our country when such rapid, negative changes were occurring?

Are we just better informed these days and noticing it more or is it actually a time of unprecedented upheaval of our democratic system. Sometimes, I can't even keep up with it all - it's like my head is spinning with each new outrage.

[SHRED]

5. I don't know

Maybe we are better informed. Maybe it's because I worry about my kids and grandkid. Maybe it's because I remember growing up in the '60's and '70's in a small town that grew into a mean-spirited suburban jungle.

The whole world just seems meaner and nastier to me now.
Like you, my head is spinning.

[Just Me]

43. Well, we have MUCH more access to information.

Knowledge can be powerful,...it can also be distressing, shocking, disturbing, astonishing.

We'll get through this. I think the hardest part is accepting that, none of what's happening and the fight ahead matches our expectations for something better.

Nevertheless, we'll move through the challenges better than we may imagine at this moment when our knowledge is delivering horrors we expected would, at least, be curbed by now.

We'll be okay. We will survive. In the long term, we will discover progress in spite of the struggle.

[leftofthedial]

3. same here

been around 49.5 and this is the worst it's ever been.

[shanti]

27. 49.5 here too

(11/17) :-(

[Liberty Belle]

4. Tomorrow's my birthday. I'll be 48.

Your perceptions are unfortunately correct. I fear for the future.

[cry baby]

9. It's 12:10 am - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

:party: :toast: :bounce: B-) :beer: :hug: :woohoo:

[Liberty Belle]

31. Thanks!

Love the visual party.

I had a nice evening--went out to a French restaurant and gorged on fine food and wine. ;-)

[SnoopDog]

6. Born 1956 in So Cal...

I remember my dad telling me to go into the shower to 'breathe in the water' to rid myself of the smog. I lived one mile away from the San Gabriell mountains and remembering that many of days I could not see them.

Then reading the World Book Encyclopedias about pollution and the 'population explosion'.

Nothing had been done (or very little).

Our tax dollars go almost directly into the pockets of people like the the idiot * and his kind...

When will we fight for our survival...

[shanti]

28. hey there

socal native (55) from the o.c. and i remember many a "bad smog" day. if you could see saddleback, you were lucky.

[AlienGirl]

7. Only 32 years for me.

I've always known it would get interesting though--I signed up for an E-ticket ride!

Tucker

[cry baby]

8. I am .5 years behind you!

I see trouble ahead for sure.

[Tace]

11. Just Turned 49 -- I Concur

All hell's breaking loose. Gotta' have a positive attitude, though. : )

[SW FL Dem]

12. I'm 47 and I agree with you

I keep trying to be optimistic for the sake of my son, but it is getting harder,

[frogbison]

13. Why despair?

Better to work, within the range of your influence, to make the world a better place for all.

And I'm 52.

Edited for honesty.

[kineneb]

14. almost 47 here

We have been playing a lot of the protest movment from the 60's recently; it is almost as if the whole mess is repeating. Politicians running wars without purpose in far away lands. Soldiers returing in boxes. Perhaps it is time to return to the streets in peaceful protest.

This time is different- the economy is hanging by a thread, and the leaders are far more ruthless.

I think I know how the Romans felt in the last days of their empire.

[MADem]

15. You're a whippersnapper!

In the mid/late 40's/fifties, it was pretty ugly, too...BE PATRIOTIC OR ELSE. Christianity ruled, prayer in school was par for the course, greasy foreign-looking Americans were being rounded up for being commies, people were ACCUSED (Lucielle Ball got the "treatment" and had to grovel; hell, that is how Nancy met Ronnie--she was MISTAKEN for another with the same name who was a commie). Puerto Rican separatists tried to assassinate Truman. Same stuff, different scale. There was less "news" but that is not because less was necessarily happening--it's just that every murder and child abduction was not broadcast on a national scale. You had to be famous, like Superman, to get your name in the paper if you ended up dead by gunshot wound. There was no 24 hour news, it came on at night, at the dinner hour. There was a local news later in the evening. Not everyone had TV, either. If you didn't question the ole USA, were nice and patriotic, not too 'foreign-looking' or suspicious for some other reason, you were fine. If you were at all different, or outspoken, you had real reason to be afraid.

In the 60's, there were news programs AND "news magazine" shows, White Papers, Special Reports. They were good, in color...Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, powerful stuff. And then there was that divisive war, with crew cut dads who were proud to serve in WW2 yelling at long haired sons who hated the war, burned their draft cards, demonstrated--talk about a war, there was a war in many HOMES across the country over that misadventure. When they killed Kennedy, everyone freaked out, but then when Bobby and Martin took it also, people thought the world as we knew it was on the brink of disaster. Riots in the streets, demonstrations...a shitload of pure vitriol. Enemies lists, break-ins of political offices, subjugating the Constitution, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate...those were pretty emotional times, too. Who thought it could get worse? That was no fun, either.

And J. Edgar Hoover, sticking his beak in throughout....

This is a pretty rough time too, but taken as a whole, those other blips in our history were not a walk in the park for anyone on the "wrong" (per the government) side of the issues. The difference is, it is easier to find people, they are all on the web, privacy diminishes every day, it seems. Hard to hide, even if you want to!

[omega minimo]

19. wait a minute waitaminute waitaminute waitaminute waitaminute

:hi:

"When they killed Kennedy, everyone freaked out, but then when Bobby and Martin took it also, people thought the world as we knew it was on the brink of disaster. Riots in the streets, demonstrations...a shitload of pure vitriol. Enemies lists, break-ins of political offices, subjugating the Constitution, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate...those were pretty emotional times, too. Who thought it could get worse? That was no fun, either."

The age group that is the focus of this thread were children during this crucial period that MADem invokes. Continuing from Watergate-- the WATERGATE HEARINGS, BICENTENNIAL, DISCO SUCKS, PUNK ROCK, IRAN HOSTAGES AND RONALD FUCKING REAGAN...........

All caps to dramatize the impacts of that particular era. My question is: are folks in this age group surprised at where we are, or have you been watching this come down the pike since Reagan's arrival in the White House? When did you start to smell a rat?

:nuke:

[MADem]

21. I think the rat comes and goes

We had eight decent years under Clinton. Who thought we could recover from Reagan? But we did...

Unfortunately, the stink of rat is pretty strong right now. Hopefully it will start to recede by 06, and be gone in 08.

[omega minimo]

24. Yes, there is a continuum

and we all view it from our particular place on the timeline.

Which is why I am curious about what these 48-ish folks see from their perspective, bridging the Boomers and GenX.

Comments here, including the OP, seem a bit puzzled about "is it as bad as it seems or is this how it always seems" in history. And yes, old folks advise youth that "it's always something."

I do not agree that we "recovered" from Reagan. We are still on a direct trajectory of the Reagan Era, which followed immediately (and as a reaction to) the fiery times you mentioned. Clinton was a blip on the screen, and continued the rise of Republican power and Republican Lite Democrats-- with Ending Welfare As We Know It, 1996 Telecom Rip Off, NAFTA and GATT and the wishy washy 90's Congressional Democratic leadership.

And here we are.



:kick:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. I think it's been down hill since Reagan

Clinton was too much of an appeaser to counter most of the damage that Reagan and Bush Sr. did to our country, and the Republicans saw his weakness and went after him.

By 1992, the country was going off a cliff at 30 miles an hour. We needed someone who would make a sharp turn to avoid the cliff, but Clinton merely slowed down to 15 miles an hour. Now Bushboy has speeded up to 60 mph, and the Dems need to lay some nails down on the road and put up road signs to ways to avoid the cliff, but instead, they're disunited, with some going so far as to say, "Well, maybe we should slow down to 50 mph" and those who say, "We need to make a sharp turn" being called "dreamers, idealists, unelectable, out-of-touch-with-the-mainstream" and other dismissive epithets.

[SHRED]

40. We need...

strong, truth telling politicians. Ones that DO NOT compromise reality and are fearless.
You are correct about Clinton. As Mike Malloy says, "He was the best Republican President we've ever had."

[omega minimo]

42. Hello Truthseekers

Yes, I think I heard Malloy say it again on Friday. And the '96 Telecomm giveaway is HUGE-- considering the crushing, consolidated, criminal, crafty power of the Big Media monopolies and their influence on the hearts and minds of American non/voters....... speaking of lemmings......

What if what we need is "strong, truth telling" citizens who "do not compromise reality and are fearless"?

Compromised reality is precisely what we have had since Reagan. We are in the fix we are because people don't call the kettle black, and now the mindfuckers are in charge; the populace is burnt out on Doublethink.

The age group on this thread remembers populism-- and when "the times they were a-changin"-- when "if you ain't part of the solution, you part of the problem."

We know better than to wait for the Shining Knight to appear.

(But if she does, don't be surprised when that visor goes up).

:hi: :kick:

[omega minimo]

41. OMG Lemmings with horsepower!!!!!!

B-)

[Ernesto]

38. I'm pretty much wid you on dis one, ol' timer

Of course I'm very close to 60 yrs old.
I just finished "Truman" by David McCullough. I was amazed @ how much the politics then sounded like today's.

[MADem]

44. Yeah, the only difference is that there were no

****minorities**** on TV, except as servants or "exotic types." They usually ended up being either the criminal, or the victim. And all mothers stayed home and vacuumed the house in high heels and pearls, and the worst thing a kid ever did was leave dirty socks under the bed!

The only upside to today is that there is more color on TV, in every respect, and if the news get too depressing, at least we can flip to a movie or the Comedy channel!!!

Good book, that TRUMAN. I'm midway through MASTER OF THE SENATE, but I am on the road now, and forgot to bring it with me, doggone it!

[bobthedrummer]

17. I'm 55 and your perceptions seem spot on.

[mattclearing]

18. I presented this same question to my Dad a year or so after 9/11.

And I'm a skeptic on that whole thing.

I asked him if it was ever this bad back then (during the Cold War, basically).

He said, "Are you kidding? They had us convinced that we could all be annihilated at a moment's notice by a nuclear holocaust. It was at least as bad as this terrorism thing."

It just goes to show that the names change, but the game remains the same.

Keep on fighting.

[Eloriel]

36. But they didn't install a tyrannical dictatorship while we were afraid

They didn't foment a coup (well, it could be argued that the Kennedy assassination was a coup -- and I'd concur). They didn't make the whole rest of the world at once afraid and resentful and horrified by us. They didn't pass the Patriot Act; they didn't pass the Bankruptcy Act; they didn't rather openly change the rules to make torture somehow not against the Geneva Conventions; they didn't change the rules in the House to make an unethical Congressman from Texas okay; I could go on.

Don't you all GET it? This is SO MUCH WORSE. It may be the same trajectory, it IS in many ways the same people, but THIS TIME there's no upside, no way out, no way to defeat them, no way to get them out of office.

NO WAY TO GET THEM OUT OF OFFICE. "You can't vote 'em out if you didn't vote 'em in." THEY OWN THE VOTING MACHINES.

And for all practical purposes, there's also no opposition -- a Howard Dean here, a John Conyers and a Henry Waxman there just isn't enough. NOT when you give a protest of thousands or even hundreds of thousands and no one reports it. NOT when you've got a simpering, increasingly smarmy Hillary Clinton giving away the store and a Joe Biden and a Steny Hoyer selling it to the highest bidder. NOT when the mainstream media can't ask the simplest question about the most blatant lies from this administration and is suddenly considering someone like Gannon a "journalist."

Dear God, people, wake up. It's NEVER been this bad -- not since Nazi Germany has it been this bad in the Western world (not including USSR). In the U.S. it's NEVER been this bad, never.

[lonestarnot]

20. And the seasons are changing too...don't be troubled. It's part of the

game plan.

[MarianJack]

22. 2 Months From 50!

It sucks now, thats for sure, BUT, the tide WILL turn!

[The Traveler]

23. I'm 49

And, like, I think you're right. The pace is quickening. Getting close to time to run or take a stand for real.

[Melynn]

25. I'm the exact same age you are

and I fear that the worst is yet to come. I hope I'm wrong.

BTW, you're not old. Not by a long shot.

[shanti]

26. we've only got

7 more years till the end of the mayan calendar, so you may be onto something :tinfoilhat:

[superconnected]

29. no, I don't think the destructive forces are accelerating

I think they've always been here and always will be here - they are called mankind.

I think the good forces are here too - also called mankind.

I don't think the attrocities we see now are anything like they were a thousand to two thousand years ago - and I believe it's better only because of MASS MEDIA COVERAGE.

[markus]

30. I think were all somewhat infected with the pollyanna optimism

of the 60s (and even of the 50s, althought that was largey a propaganda initiate of the TV writers and film strip producers of the world).


We lived to see civil rights, the end of a war through popular uprising, and an explosion of openess in the human spirit.

And we have lived to see people rise up to turn all of that back.

What's not to be angry or depressed about?

P.S. Born June 7, 1957

[tabasco]

32. I think the last time the repugs were in control was 1929-1930

Things declined rapidly then, too.

I am 47 and share your perception.

[Roland99]

33. 38.5 for me...almost exactly

:)


And, yeah, I see the same things. A friend of mine says I just pay too much attention to the news and look for things to be upset about.


Well....duh!


If we don't look for these and inform ourselves and do something about it, we can never effect any type of change.

[jdj]

47. isn't that disturbing?

you want to say something like, 'well you can walk around with your head up your ass til you find out you have colon cancer and then where will you hide?' or something...

[Zynx]

34. I think they are cresting and that's why it seems scary.

Don't be afriad though. This too shall pass.

[Eloriel]

35. I'm 9 years your senior and I concur

In fact, I've had a difficult time warding off depression probably not caused by but certainly excacerbated by the simple fact that as hard as I look (and I'm pretty good at looking beneath the surface and sensing these things), I see nothing to feel hopeful or optimistic about. The sole exception is that if/when it ALL comes crashing down, sometime after that we can start to rebuild.

I see nothing that shows the side of goodness and mercy, truth and justice, fairness and comity, beauty and light, are gaining ANY traction at all.

There has been scandal after scandal after scandal that SHOULD have brought down this administration. Zlich, zip, nada. A small blip here and there. Tanking approval ratings don't even matter.

Further, everywhere I look is some "fresh new hell," some new horror, some new tyrrany planting itself firmly into the fabric of our lives and government and institutions, all of which will be SO difficult to correct and change at all, let alone quickly.

And I'm a person who believes in miracles -- who has seen miracles in my day (the Berlin Wall coming down, Mandela's release). So as cynical as I usually am, there's a really strong predisposition toward optimism at a foundational level.

Well, not anymore. Maybe I've just gotten too cynical in my old age.

But I keep looking for signs of hope, and not seeing ANY. All I see instead is, as I said, another fresh outrage or another gathering disaster (i.e., global warming, peak oil, etc., etc.) on the distant horizon.

It doesn't feel like what I signed up for for this incarnation. It doesn't feel like the hope and optimism I felt as a teenager and all through my adulthood, even despite Nixon and Reagan and Bush 1. This is way, way, WAY different -- this has the heavy, oppressive feel of tyrrany pressing down upon me and all the rest of us, while our attention is occupied elsewhere. It feels inescapable, larger and stronger than anyone can imagine, and undefeatable because it's everywhere, in everything, controlling everything.

Jesus, they even picked an oppressive fascist of a POPE -- one with Bush family ties!

:shrug:

I'm just twiddling my thumbs trying to figure out how to keep myself busy while keeping a low profile AND not spending so much time looking at all this that I get quite so depressed. Gardening helps. That's good because I feel a significant urge to make as big a garden as I can this year and prepare for an even bigger one next year -- see how close I can come to providing for most of our food.

[orpupilofnature57]

37. 47, And shrub has turned progress into something to fear.3.7 Yrs. *. *

[nolabels]

46. Never fear for it just sounds like the mythological SHIVA is here

At 47.4 yrs I don't believe in any of the hocus-pocus but these very old teachings do have their ways when it comes to the predictions of trends



Lord Shiva : Shiva is the third deity of the Hindu triad of great gods, the others being Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is often referred to as the Destroyer, but it might be better to think of him as the God of Transformation, since he is often associated with creation that comes out of destruction.
(snip)
http://www.siamese-dream.com/reference/shiva.html

[evlbstrd]

48. 48 and 11 months

crap