Was there a time when everything was ok?

Plates

Maybe it's the explosion in social media or the increase in the number of "news" outlets that just makes it more visible but it seems to me that a majority of people in Ireland are yearning for some unspoken time in the past when politicians were honest and hardworking, there were no class divisions, fat cats, gravy trains etc etc.


Can anyone point to a time in the past which pleased all of the people all of the time? Or is it just the case that it's same sh*t different decade with the only difference being that anyone with an internet connection has a forum to moan their h*les off and air their prejudices so it appears more prevalent?


Maybe it's just me but the cries of "what about the ordinary man / woman / child", "they shouldn't be allowed to get away with this" etc. etc. is getting very repetitive and only serves to wind people up into a collective frustration that they have bugger all intention of doing anything meaningful about.

wazky

It all went to sh1t when we gave women the vote.

Nodin

Plates wrote: »

Was there a time when everything was ok? .

No.

Davarus Walrus

It's always amazing that the honest, decent, hard-working and frugal Plain People of Ireland always elect the most conniving and incompetent citizens to power. And that the most talentless and greedy gombeens in all of this fine land end up working for RTE.

It's almost like there is a pattern or hidden variable that hasn't been taken into account yet.

Knasher

Yes and no.

Yes, when you were about 10, old enough to notice the world, but young enough that your parents still shielded you from the bad parts. Doesn't matter when that happened to be though.

And no, statistically we are actually living in one of the most peaceful times in recorded history right now. It's just that now publicising the bad things in the world is so much easier. But perhaps it is the ability to publicise the bad parts that is making it more peaceful. When it is harder to hide from the bad things you are doing, people seem more likely to try and be good.

The Master

April 18th 1930

The BBC reported that there was no news that day and played some music instead

KyussBishop

If you want to do something, to be politically active in a meaningful way, you have to get angry/mad first - when people stay placid/apathetic, or just ignore all of the instances of injustice/corruption that go on, then nothing will ever happen.

Complaining about all of this stuff is not negativity, and brushing it off as tedious/boring is just another form of apathy.

It's a bit like as described the 'Mad as Hell' speech in Network

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

(great film)

anncoates

There never was and never will be a utopia despite the laudable and idealistic beliefs of many well-intentioned people. If it's impossible for a large proportion of society not to be utter cunts even in the 'micro' situations of everyday public life, how can you ever expect it at the political/macro level?

drunkmonkey

Dump Sky and the Radio for Netflix and Spotify and the world starts to right itself after a few days. It's also worth nothing that the internet is a fictional place and is never worth taking seriously ever. The boards weather thread is a testament to that.

Duggy747

I think when the Earth cooled down after it was formed and there was just microscopic bacteria things were ok for a while, bit quiet though.

KyussBishop

anncoates wrote: »

There never was and never will be a utopia despite the laudable and idealistic beliefs of many well-intentioned people. If it's impossible for a large proportion of society not to be utter cunts even in the 'micro' situations of everyday public life, how can you ever expect it at the political/macro level?

The problem is though: There can always be better standards, so we should always push for better standards - we don't need to have utopia tomorrow, just take it one step at a time and root out all the corruption and shíte we do know about - which we do (largely) nothing about.

BillyMitchel

Yes, everything was ok when I was a tree.

Drumpot

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

It's always amazing that the honest, decent, hard-working and frugal Plain People of Ireland always elect the most conniving and incompetent citizens to power. And that the most talentless and greedy gombeens in all of this fine land end up working for RTE.

It's almost like there is a pattern or hidden variable that hasn't been taken into account yet.

Political corruption, police corruption, financial services corruption, regulator corruption might be fair game . . But few people will ever be motivated to import garlic illegally into this country and for that I thank god for our legal system for small mercies . .

Shredding dodgy garlic onto my spaghetti would just be the final straw . .

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0309/314490-begleyp/

Bravo Ireland, the system works . .

Plates

KyussBishop wrote: »

If you want to do something, to be politically active in a meaningful way, you have to get angry/mad first -

Don't think all politicians got "angry/mad" - some got inspired or motivated by a positive emotion.


Based on what I've seen / read in recent months there are plenty of angry/mad people out there.

Duckworth_Luas

I remember a time before the second coming of Garth Brooks. According to the thread we're looking at Armageddon.

Akrasia

There is a concept called 'the availabilty heuristic' where people's attitude towards the state of affairs is dependent on how much exposure they have to different kinds of events

It used to be that people only found out about events of the world and locality through direct contact with people. So if someone gets eaten by a wild animal, you'll hear about it if someone who has a direct personal connection to the attack happens to meet someone that you know.

In this communication structure, people have evolved to pay attention to the kinds of dangers and risks that are likely to affect them.

Now we have mass media. It seems that the world is falling apart because we have entire newspapers dedicated to sensationalising every example of human suffering and misery that they can find.

The reality for most people is that things have never been so good. We are extremely lucky to live in this era of human civilisation. It's not perfect, but there was more poverty, more suffering, more disease, more violence, more political corruption for every generation of human to have lived prior to this one.

I say most because there is still pain and suffering in this world. Things are far from perfect and we can still improve things enormously. But the idea of harking back to better times in the past is just short sighted.

Now, we need to get on with sorting our the global economics system to distribute the wealth more fairly. Keep advancing our technology to bring more of the benefits of human achievement to more of the worlds people, and continue to evolve culturally and socially, to finally eliminate all the medieval ideas and practises that are still holding us back

I Heart Internet

Was there a time when everything was ok?

No. Never.

We (humans) have always, for the most part, lived in a world of inequity, hassle, stress and pain.

10,000 years ago it was a question of whether we could hunt or gather enought to eat.
2,000 years ago it was a question of whether we could avoid a famine and farm enough for our family.
1,000 years ago we had to worry about Vikings and famine
180 years ago we had to worry about famine
100 years ago we worried about out young men dying in Dublin and Belgium
75 years ago we worried about Nazi germany
40 years ago we worried about Northern Ireland

Today we worry about Al-Qieda, negative equity and flooding.

I'd say things, in general are getting better for us.

Don't let it get you down anyway OP. Stay happy.

orangesoda

When the Ulstermen held the high kingship, you should let a donegal man rule your state, would sort a few things out

Femme_Fatale

Things were even worse in the past. People (myself included) tend to smooth out the rough edges of the past when it suits, causing memories to be wonderful only.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

It's also worth nothing that the internet is a fictional place and is never worth taking seriously ever.

Popular thing to say, but not true. Plenty of reality on the internet. What about when people meet others via the internet? Are they figments of their imagination? What about when news is reported via the internet?

diomed

When Ireland beat Romania on penalties in the World Cup in Italia 90 things were very ok.

Archeron

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders.

PizzamanIRL

No. Bob Marley lied to us.

wil

right up to and including 999 AD everything was 0k, then it got a bit more.

Don't worry though, 2k is where it's at, once people got over the initial shock.

Sir Arthur Daley

Everything will be ok in 2 15

The Backwards Man

It was grand unti they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Femme_Fatale

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

No. Bob Marley lied to us.

You mean he... didn't shoot the sheriff?

castletownman

Everything was so much simpler when I was 7.

It's scientifically proven and I'm not one to argue with science

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Plates wrote: »

Maybe it's the explosion in social media or the increase in the number of "news" outlets that just makes it more visible but it seems to me that a majority of people in Ireland are yearning for some unspoken time in the past when politicians were honest and hardworking, there were no class divisions, fat cats, gravy trains etc etc.


Can anyone point to a time in the past which pleased all of the people all of the time? Or is it just the case that it's same sh*t different decade with the only difference being that anyone with an internet connection has a forum to moan their h*les off and air their prejudices so it appears more prevalent?


Maybe it's just me but the cries of "what about the ordinary man / woman / child", "they shouldn't be allowed to get away with this" etc. etc. is getting very repetitive and only serves to wind people up into a collective frustration that they have bugger all intention of doing anything meaningful about.

I'd say the vast vast vast majority of people born on this island over the thousands of years it's been inhabited had it worse than anyone alive here today.

It would take a nuclear winter to try to better the misery the famine caused here and it happened only a few generations ago (grandparents grandparents?). 1940's Ireland wouldn't have been much craic either. Cromwell wasn't a barrel of laughs. The Troubles isn't something remembered fondly by most. Take your pick, people can say it's bad today, but in reality, things have never been less bad if that's how we have to look at it.

Bootsy.

The only time that everything was ok was the summer of 1990.

We were the happiest little country in the world for a few weeks there.

Sir Arthur Daley

Bootsy. wrote: »

The only time that everything was ok was the summer of 1990.

We were the happiest little country in the world for a few weeks there.

We had a heat wave that summer.

Capt'n Midnight

The Master wrote: »

April 18th 1930

The BBC reported that there was no news that day and played some music instead

April 11, 1954 had more potential for news but nothing of note happened

IIRC wasn't there a day in 1953 where there was no news at midday but there was later that evening ?


The 1950's had more scope than the 1930's , no depression and better communications

donegal__road

in my lifetime so-far, things were good between 1993 and 2004, especially the summer of 1995.. that summer will always stand out as being especially good.

DeKing

The 90s were absolute bliss but then again most 30-40 year olds would say that?

Sir Arthur Daley

before the Big Bang maybe?

The Diabolical Monocle

Nope.

But honestly the last 5 or 6 years have been particularly shyte.

Its all economic crisis and middle east going to shyte. (or even shyter).


Yes the 90's up to 2005-ish was much much better.

dxhound2005

The Diabolical Monocle wrote: »

Nope.

But honestly the last 5 or 6 years have been particularly shyte.

Its all economic crisis and middle east going to shyte. (or even shyter).


Yes the 90's up to 2005-ish was much much better.

Any possible connection between what happened up to 2005-ish and the conditions the last 5 or 6 years?

sum41dude

Sometime in 1995 , cant remember the exact day.

Spunge

everything is always ok. you just have to realize it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Plates wrote: »

Can anyone point to a time in the past which pleased all of the people all of the time?

Tuesday.

MadsL

KyussBishop wrote: »

If you want to do something, to be politically active in a meaningful way, you have to get angry/mad first - when people stay placid/apathetic, or just ignore all of the instances of injustice/corruption that go on, then nothing will ever happen.

Complaining about all of this stuff is not negativity, and brushing it off as tedious/boring is just another form of apathy.

It's a bit like as described the 'Mad as Hell' speech in Network

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

(great film)

You posted the inspiration for my username. I was mad as hell about the lack of ADSL = MadsL.

enfant terrible

I Heart Internet wrote: »

No. Never.

We (humans) have always, for the most part, lived in a world of inequity, hassle, stress and pain.

10,000 years ago it was a question of whether we could hunt or gather enought to eat.
2,000 years ago it was a question of whether we could avoid a famine and farm enough for our family.
1,000 years ago we had to worry about Vikings and famine
180 years ago we had to worry about famine
100 years ago we worried about out young men dying in Dublin and Belgium
75 years ago we worried about Nazi germany
40 years ago we worried about Northern Ireland

Today we worry about Al-Qieda, negative equity and flooding.

I'd say things, in general are getting better for us.

Don't let it get you down anyway OP. Stay happy.

Yes apparently we are living in the most peaceful time in world history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramBFRt1Uzk

WilyCoyote

Of course there was/is. First couple of verses:

Ode on Intimations of Immortality


There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

Capt'n Midnight

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Balkans war and Rwanda spring to mind. There has always been awful shyte going on in the world.

Not to mention the recent unseasonableness in the Congo