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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI fear our society is too damaged to repair
I am old enough to remember that it was a good thing to tolerate the other side of politics, even when you didn't agree.
I am old enough to remember when people taught their children to be kind.
I am old enough to remember that if you wanted respect, you extended respect to others.
I am old enough to remember that people apologized when they said or did something thoughtless.
I am old enough to remember when people tried not to purposely offend others in their daily lives.
I am old enough to remember when society was just that - a society. A group who shared this planet.
I am old enough to remember it wasn't cool to be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole.
I am old enough to remember when people respected others instead of making childish jabs at them just because they can.
I am old enough to remember when adults mostly acted with maturity around children instead of acting at their level.
I am old enough to remember when people strived to be positive role models for others.
I am old enough to remember what unselfishness is.
I am old enough to remember what kindness is.
I am old enough to remember what respect is.
I am old enough to remember what integrity is.
I'm not old enough to feel like I belong to some ancient out-of-touch generation because I value respect and tolerance and kindness and I try not to be an asshole. I am 60, not 100 years old. It wasn't that long ago when people were decent and kind just because it's the right thing to do.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Throughout American history, we have always been everything from awful to saintly to each other.
you sure showed him
✌🏻
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Saboburns
(2,807 posts)Humans are capable of anything (not most anything-just anything). And a great majority of people want what they'd prefer to be the truth, be the truth.I and I reckon it 'twas always thus.
SouthernDem4ever
(6,617 posts)to the flying spaghetti monster.
Saboburns
(2,807 posts)nt
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Haven't heard that before. Very funny.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,464 posts)What we have now, 'twas ever thus. Still, we soldier on.
hunter
(38,337 posts)I quit high school at sixteen because I was tired of being called "queerbait" and beaten bloody.
The beatings I could tolerate. It was the words that hurt me.
Fortunately I was safe at home.
I learned how to be socially invisible.
Not a good thing.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)And THOSE are the days Republicans & Libertarians want to take us back to.
For them those really were the good old days.
Even some white, straight, abled Christian women - they weren't at the very top, but they knew they were above many, many others and did what they could to keep it that way because it felt more secure.
.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,464 posts)Elessar Zappa
(14,087 posts)The past wasnt so great.
calimary
(81,527 posts)By now, sad to say, Republicans are on the rise. And I don't see anything stopping them - at least not yet. (Still chilled by the reports out of Florida - that Ron DeSantis is more popular than ever. UGH!!!!)
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)when people at work gathered at lunch time to discuss and chuckle over the latest episode of I Love Lucy, because it was the only thing on TV. But because it was the only thing on, it was something that everyone shared.
But seriously, I am surrounded by kind people of all political stripes who respect each other and treat each other with kindness and consideration. My neighborhood id full of people like that. What I don't do is spend any time at all watching cable news or reading social media. DU is the only site of a political nature I visit, and I tend to visit it more rarely as time goes on and I see the same inconclusive arguments made over and over.
It seems to me that the things that you are complaining about are things that happen online. In that case, I think you're right. But in the real world, the world of the 75% of the adult population (i.e, over 30) that pays little or no attention to social media, it's a different story.
For the record: I'm 76.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Could still be improved. trump losing in 2020 has improved things for a lot of us.
Response to Novara (Original post)
Boomerproud This message was self-deleted by its author.
bucolic_frolic
(43,364 posts)Fewer people are driven by love and cooperation. More are driven by anger and hatred. To them it is a competitive and rational method of survival.
So it really is about the difference between cooperation and competition, an old dichotomy really.
I have no idea how we get out of this box.
padfun
(1,789 posts)just saying...
Those days weren't really good for me. I came from an abusive home.
The best times for me were today and the last 20 years.
Haggis 4 Breakfast
(1,454 posts)and Minded their own GD business.
Initech
(100,108 posts)Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)SouthBayDem
(32,065 posts)In the pre internet days, people could get away with being nice on the surface to their black or gay friends then turning around and voting for anti gay or racist politicians behind their backs.
Today, Facebook allows people to cut toxic racist jerks out their lives.
jfz9580m
(14,529 posts)There may not have been any so-called "good old days" per se, but there is no doubt that we are getting more stressed as a species as our host planet deteriorates. But hang in there..I have been feeling more optimistic lately...an unusual headspace for me..while there are certainly some people out there who are committed to being jerks, maybe most aren't hopeless given a chance to be better..we are living in a diseased world after all..
The question is how much time do we have on the environment front..?
MerryBlooms
(11,773 posts)If I only let the news influence my life, yeah, I'd probably just give up. However, all those years we grew up, there were just as horrible things going on, we just didn't hear about it 24/7. Plus, people are seeking out the worst of the worst, then sharing it. Every horrible human tragedy, animal abuse, child abuse... It's plastered in our headlines. Never good news stories, you have search those. There is still Way more Good in this world than bad, I encounter it every day, and am a part of it every day.
I have faith in average people. Do good every day. Help someone every day. You know what, you might make a difference, if you don't, you still helped someone. Just help someone every day. Family, strangers, co-workers, donations, wildlife, it doesn't matter, just help them. Do something for someone. Take your focus off yourself.
Tree Lady
(11,514 posts)Way for my dog walk, where I live I can go in all directions different neighborhoods. And I met so many nice strangers. I live in a conservative town, not horrible its about 60/40 so our side is there and I know a bunch of the people I meet and talk with are republicans.
If we can get past our labels we find we do have things in common. We love spring time, our dogs, the sun, the gardens, snow on the mountains.
Someone said in a class I was taking few days ago that bringing us back together as a people is reminding us of the things we agree on not disagree which pulls us apart.
My older daughter decided to change to republican few years ago, at first we were fighting and I could feel us pulling away from each other and we used to be very close. I didn't want that to happen. Luckily she doesn't breathe politics or even pay much attention just votes that way, so I made sure I never talked about it and spent time talking about things we both like and love, yoga, books, hiking and now we are close again.
We really can't let politics tear us apart.
LuckyCharms
(17,463 posts)I both agree and disagree to an extent.
It a lot of ways, our country is better, but in some ways it's wildly different, and worse.
In my mind, the major difference boils down to this: I now think that a significant percentage of people in this country are either clinically insane, dead stupid, or both.
I never had that perception years ago. Of course, that doesn't mean that it wasn't the exact same way years ago, I'm just talking about my perception here.
That being said, we've come a long way regarding human rights issues, but sometimes it feels like were starting to go backwards again. Not moving forward in these issues, in my opinion, means the same thing as moving backwards. Our current presidential leadership is moving forward in big ways. But our country as a whole? Not so much.
old as dirt
(1,972 posts)
when a Republican Governor could actually make me proud to be an Iowan.
snip
In October 1979 Governor Ray and five other governors went on a trip to China. Organized by the Council for U.S. China Relations and the State Department, it was part of the effort to normalize relations with China. But Southeast Asia got on the agenda when the governors added a side trip to several refugee camps in Thailand.
At one of the camps Iowas and Governor Rays reputation preceded him and First Lady Billie Ray. Governor Ray recalled, We walked in this little placeas I recall looked almost like a log cabin and there, inside, there on a wall was this Department of Transportation map from the state of Iowa. It had little pins where people had been resettled in the state of Iowa.
snip
https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2687/robert-d-ray-iowa-governor-humanitarian-leader
old as dirt
(1,972 posts)
when I read an lengthy retrospective article in the New York Times, where, deep down in the article, the journalist recalled his time in a refugee camp when refugees kept coming up to him and asking him what life was like in Iowa.
He was somewhat taken back at all the questions, since the refugees in the camp were apparently under the impression that Iowa was a major region in the USA, and he didnt really know what to say.
My state has shrunken considerably since those days.
But there was a time when, in the eyes of the world, Iowa loomed large, indeed.
Demsrule86
(68,715 posts)I remember going to a water park in Virginia in the 80's where despite the law they wouldn't let people with dark skin in...my racist old aunt said it was good I was a blonde because with my tan they would let me in haha... yeah right the nasty old bag.
I remember when my mother's friend was beaten by her husband and the cops wouldn't even come.
I remember learning what it meant to die because my older sister's friends lost their brothers in Vietnam
I remember being a complete brat to my parents and not respectful at all.
I remember having a boss put his hands down my pants and when I complained, I was told he was a producer and I was a secretary (one of the reasons I went back to college) and I would be fired if I couldn't "get along".
I remember being raped and spending a couple of weeks in the hospital because I was pretty badly injured and my parents told their friends I was in a car accident. There was no prosecution because I went to a bar with my girlfriends. Just asking for it don't you know
I remember my Analytical Chemistry professor telling me I should drop his class as there were men with families who needed my seat. At the time I was a single mother supporting myself and going to school.
You get the picture. There has never been a utopia and there never will be. But we must strive to improve our situations and that of others.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I know it is something that you will probably never completely get over, and I am both angered at the injustice done toward you and saddened that it was something you ever had to endure.
FakeNoose
(32,823 posts)... many of us can say that we had great, loving, wonderful parents who taught their children right. We were their children and we learned to take responsibility, we learned to be considerate, to do our household chores, to get our homework done before watching TV. We were told to treat people with kindness and that's how they would treat us. We learned by our parents' example that if we worked hard and studied hard, we'd get ahead.
Somehow there was a disconnect ... because today's parents aren't teaching their kids those same things. Today's parents may not even understand how they should behave, and many aren't setting a good example for their kids. Where did the disconnect happen? I don't know. It might have been us, maybe we Boomers grew up to become not-so-great parents. Now our kids are the parents and they're completely lost, so it seems.
Wednesdays
(17,450 posts)Or are you just going to give up?
Cheezoholic
(2,042 posts)SleeplessinSoCal
(9,156 posts)Like treating women as lesser people than men. He joked about Martha Stewart when she was sentenced to prison. And likes Joe Arpaio. Which considering how much he uses undocumented workers is pretty galling.
Meowmee
(5,164 posts)but as I recall there were a lot of awful people as well, truly awful. I do feel things have changed though. It seems so many more people have no regard for humanity. So many more people are very badly behaved for the most part imo. Maybe it is just the fast flow of information that has made us more aware.
H2O Man
(73,637 posts)I sometimes struggle with those exact thoughts. Surely, we are currently heading down the path to not only authoritarianism, followed by the extinction of our species. That is one option. But it is not the only one we have.
One of our Good Friends provided me with the link to your OP/thread today, which I surely appreciate. I had posted an essay that you might find worth reading. Its title is "Beyong the Valley of the Vallows."
Cheezoholic
(2,042 posts)to remember my grandfather saying the same thing you're saying. And I will say when it comes to your last 5, those were the things that bothered him the most, more than 45 years ago. I am also your age.
My point is, it seems to me, especially since the first half of the 20th century there seems to have been a steady generational decline in overall basic social interaction amongst people in this country. Whether its a Jeffersonian generational form of constitutional governance or the result of the "I want a better life for my kids" part of the American dream it seems unbridled capitalism over generations doesn't divide but it isolates via an Ayn Rand extreme libertarian form of individualism which is contradictory to the social values of human society since the day we figured out being in groups increased our individual chances of survival 10's of thousand's of years ago. The isolation caused by unbridled capitalism sold under the guise of "individual freedom" is, in IMO, going to result in a human tragedy, maybe even an ELE, before climate change has a chance to invoke a check on our species.
Stuart G
(38,453 posts)Did most of us "respect that President"?
.
Was that fellow an example of "kindness"?
So, We, in time, elected his Vice-President as President........Is that fellow also kind & have integrity?
Does the present President care about people?..
So this is not the distant past, this is ...NOW!!.....and those two guys, reflect the very best of the U.S.A.
And they are in the ............NOW.....NOT THE PAST.....and if the current fellow needs help, he will, of course, ask
the Afro-American to help. (and the two will work as one)
Are those two currently ..."unselfish"...are they "positive role models for others"...........Well this is NOW, and these two
represent the best, and they represent the ....NOW!
Well, this one is positive...(ain't it).......wait .one more please...Did this Biden fellow have a Vice President who is ...female?
....................Is that correct....or do I have another mistake in my mind?....Is that person the highest ranking female in all of U.S. History?....Is that today?..NOW? (not the future, but ....NOW!) Look for the good not the bad.
So, I disagree with the original post. The repair is in progress right NOW slow and steady as we go...
got another moment?...then read the quote below of President Eisenhower. (the two in charge, RIGHT NOW,..... would they help they help "hungry and those unclothed?".)..think about that one if you will.
Raine
(30,541 posts)I'm still hopeful and not ready to give up on society being too damaged to be beyond repair. There are still more good kind giving people then rotten selfish evil ones.