I can’t help but worry
Worry about the state of our government
Worry about the standard/level of policing
Worry about poor education
Worry about general hate
Worry about the internet
Worry about the future financial performance of the country
Worry about the global environment

The world seems to be going down the toilet really f*****get quickly now.
I am tempted to try to emigrate, but love where we love, as does everyone else. On the other hand I don’t want to wake up in 10 years time and realise this place is a complete cesspit!

worry about wrong forum?

BTW worrying about my death soon,

Are you me?

I just stop focussing on the crap, live as fully as possible and hope that there’s a few decent people left (who can post in the right forum!? Edit dam beaten to it).

There are a couple of places I would fancy moving to as they are now but I fear at least one has upheaval to face in the medium term and if someone presses the big red button we would be at least as doomed in the other options as we are now.

I also take comfort in the many many people I meet who are sensible, measured, thoughtful and concerned for the needs of others beyond their personal circle. These people give me hope and better perspective.

Start a revolution. Rinse and repeat. Tis’ the circle of life.

Depends though – how much news/media do you watch/read? I’m sure a lot of it is all intentionally there to put the absolute fear in people. I’m of the opinion that it isn’t quite as bad as the media is making it out to be. I’m convinced there is an agenda somewhere that is being set to intentionally stir up fear and panic to help soften the blow of what is about to happen.

So I stopped paying attention to the ‘news’ and I’m not quite as worried now.

Unlikely to fix your issue, but it might make it a bit easier.

What Dick says.

I worry that too many people are worrying about all this shit rather than investigating the facts and doing something within their community or wider groups to prevent it.

Breathe Dave, breathe !

Yes the world is a bit in the shit at the moment, though in reality we are living in pretty much the most privileged, safe and free time periods in history. It wasn’t long ago that there was no rights for women/black/gay, well anyone who wasn’t white and rich anyway. Medical science is more advanced than ever with ever increasing life expectancy and although we are **** up the environment we are at least now aware of what we are doing and the impact it has.

Hopefully this current downward trend is just a blip and we can start progressing again soon.

And yes, I agree a lot of it is media hype designed to scare and divide people and to keep the bombs dropping!

Most things are better now than in the past. Apart from nostalgia. That isn’t what it used to be.

I started to worry about those things a few years ago – thinking about the future in terms of what our next generation will be dealing with. I managed to reel it in by asking myself the question “what can I do now?”.

With regard to MCTD’s point above, find out about what you could do within your sphere of influence (e.g. lobby your local MP for policies you want to see/change – maybe get on the 38degrees website or go to neighbourhood meetings; car share/ride to work as much as possible; join your local wildlife trust).

Doing something that you feel is positive should reassure you that you’re at least doing something proactive at a level you can influence, rather than worrying about global issues which can be extremely overwhelming.

It’s the little things that we the people can do to generate positive effects on the bigger systems and communities in which we live.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38926406

You probably do not have a lot to worry about. This is just one example.

Don’t worry as long as we’re still in the EU it’ll be reet, at least we didn’t vote to leave.

I think all you can really do is be the best dad you can, make sure your kids grow up educated and well rounded, that they don’t hear any crap coming from your mouth and then they can make their own way in the world. You and they have control over what goes on around you, if they grow up well rounded people from a strong family, then they are likely to be the people that actually give a toss about others and the planet.

It is those that don’t care about others and speak in Facebook slogans that you don’t want.

It’ll be alright.

The world the year I left home (1988) was completely different to the world in the year I was born (late 60’s). And this always be the case.

No point worrying about the distant future as no one knows how it will turn out.

I’m more worried about the pressure being put on kids at school. We went to my daughters Options open evening last night and they were putting the fear of god into the kids. Making them think that if they don’t take an academic root they are ****.

Making them think that if they don’t take an academic root they are ****.

I’m soon to be 45, I was told that at school. I walked out with 5 C grade GSC’s and now I’m a relatively successful person.

I’m with Dick Barton here. Just live your life around you, do your job, look after your family and do what you can to live a decent live and stop worrying about the bigger issues, things you can’t control and the media. As is documented on here I recently suffered some anxiety issues and to a step “backward” delberately, and pick up mindfulness meditation again and I’m already much happier as a result. I’m barely thinking about life beyond this weekend to be honest, which includes riding, rugby and a day out with my son & daughter. Happy days, whats to worry about?

One of the quotes in one of the mindfulness books I have is (approx) “Sit down for the moment. Just sit quietly and think – is anything bad happening to me right now – no? Then you have nothing to worry about”

I dont have kids. Everything is great as far as I am concerned, my biggest worry is what to cook for tea.

EDIT is this going to be another trump/brexit thread….

Doesn’t every generation of parents worry about their kids and think exactly the same?

How life, the world, politics etc. is going to hell in handbasket compared to previous times?

I’m sure they do, and each time their deepest fears are usually avoided. It’s easier to feel scared these days due to the accessibility of information*, but I doubt much has changed in terms of fears for our children, and the future of the world we live in. Ultimately human nature hasn’t changed, there are still fools and still heroes, the rest of us just sit somewhere in the middle.

* Conversely it’s easier to feel reassured too, just choose your source of information wisely!

Worry about the state of our government
Worry about the standard/level of policing
Worry about poor education
Worry about general hate
Worry about the internet
Worry about the future financial performance of the country
Worry about the global environment

Apart from seeing them all over the news and letting them infiltrate your brain, how much have these things actually effected your life? How much difference has any of it actually made to your day-to-day living?
I suspect not a jot.
So stop worrying and get on with life.
Simple.

So long as things are ok at home, it doesn’t much matter to your kids what is going on in the wider world.
You like where you live, you have healthy kids, you have a good relationship with the other half? Then you are truly blessed.
Lots of negative threads on here, and I notice I tend to get down in February. Spring not so far away…

I never watch the news or read newspapers but you cant help but hear about some of the shit that’s going on. I gave up on the news some significant time ago because it made me worry about all the things you mentioned.
Someone once said ignorance is bliss, they had a point.

I left school in 1984 – the year that Reagan nearly started a nuclear WWIII by accident (with operation Broken Arrow), acid rain was destroying Europe’s forests, the famine in sub-Saharan Africa was getting into full swing. We had the National Front in local elections…
I’m sure my Mum worried about me as well

I grew up seeing public information films about the role of the Royal Observer Corps during a nuclear attack.

Puts a lot of todays concerns into perspective.

Being a parent = worry.

Things are ‘challenging’ at the moment for left thinking, people – the West swings left and right, Trump’s an idiot, but I grew up with Reagan in power over there, started as an actor and furthered his career by grassing up fellow actors as Commies. Started the war on drugs that’s still causing all sorts of problems now, cut every bit of public spending he could to increase the military – took an ememy and made them seem much scarier than they were.

Over here we had Maggie proving she was tough by throwing her weight around, rattling the sabre and playing to people’s insecurity.

Cold War, The Troubles, Miners Strike, 3m unemployed, house prices tripled in a decade.

Challenges, but whilst I’m sure my parents worried, we made it through and it was still a great time to be a kid.

The things the OP lists affect us all, whether we realise it or not. This is especially true if you take a wider view of things beyond your own family and friendship circle. You could argue that much of the media actually underplays some of the mess we’re in. Poke around a bit and read about Liam Fox and his proposed deals with the US – horrifying. And I’d put money on the likelihood that within our lifetimes (and certainly people’s children’s lifetimes) a free and functional NHS and social care system will be pretty much non-existent as we know it. No big deal if you’re comfortably off, perhaps, but otherwise a potential disaster for millions of people. Mental health issues among kids and young folk are soaring, and they affect every demographic and income group, while resources are in rapid decline. For me, all of these are things are concerning, regardless of how it directly affects me and my close family/friends. If you have kids, I’m not surprised you’re worried for them. And I haven’t even mentioned education, social media, fake news blah blah. I hate to be negative – and there’s much that’s worth celebrating about our times – but burying heads in the sand rarely ends well.

That’s all true wl, but I would also suggest there is a spin put on it for whatever reason. For example, recorded mental health issues are soaring, but are they simply being recognised and recorded more? Previously kids would’ve been branded introverted, difficult or similar. Now there are formal diagnoses and treatment options for Autism, ADHD, etc. It’s not necessarily true that these things are getting worse.

I completely agree about not burying your head in the sand, and the under resourcing of the NHS and social care. However, I think that is different to some kind of significant generational change, as P-jay says there were significant issues when I was the age of my kids, and I’m sure there will be when my kids are my age.

I dont have kids and everything looks to me like it’s going to shit. Lots of reasons but here’s two to start with.

In the UK we have a deeply fragmented society. A stagnating economy that shows no sign of picking up has led to a hardening of people and a meanness of spirit that feeds far right politics and erodes everything positive about human nature.

The environment is gradually becoming more hostile and even if we had a plan to resolve the issue we lack the international cooperation to enact it. The tiny slither of hope that we might have kept global temperatures within the margin that we needed to avoid the most serious consequences vanished the day Donald Trump got elected. If anyone thinks the migrant issues caused by a couple of regional conflicts is an emergency wait and see what it’ll be like once crops begin to fail consistently across huge swathes of the globe forcing millions on the move.

My hope and it’s a remote one is that someone can come up with a breakthrough in energy production. Whether that’s nuclear fusion or some other technology, if we could develop a boundless low pollution energy source and make that technology freely available throughout the world we would stand a chance, without that I think we’re doomed © Cressers.

Peyote – talk to anyone who works in mental health and it’s clear that the situation is grave, not just because of more reporting or over-diagnosis (which I agree, both happen). Also, yes, there have always been major worries to trouble parents and non-parents, but some of the things happening right now are things we have more control over. They’re also affecting (possibly irreversibly) our most important and wildly used institutions, partly by stealth. They’re also the institutions that help the most vulnerable people in our society. What’s happening to the NHS and social care is horrendous, and it will affect pretty much everyone in some way, at some point in their lives, if it’s not stopped. As far as I can tell, the vast majority of senior figures within these services acknowledge this.

My hope and it’s a remote one is that someone can come up with a breakthrough in energy production.

i’m sure we will.

just once someone has worked out how to make a ton of money out of it first…

Worry about the things you can influence. Forget about the rest.

If you think about it, its always been thus. I grew up in the 80’s at the height of the cold war, with the threat of nuclear armageddon hanging in the air, and Margaret ****ing Thatcher at the helm.

Take the positives. The way I look at it the present Trump/Brexit cluster**** should galvanise all the people who aren’t mental, racist **** and shake them out of their complacency to react

Somethings are better, some are worse. And we have arsed the planet up for them.

I worry for my kids too, but all I can hope is that they forge their own way through challenges using their own abilities.

Our kids and us have not had to face challenges like WW1 or WW2 or the kind of social unrest that has intermittenly spread across Europe. We ma look back on 1966 to 2016 as a time which was uniquely secure, and if you did the right things, life was ok. But that, in history, is the exception not the norm.

My hope and it’s a remote one is that someone can come up with a breakthrough in energy production. Whether that’s nuclear fusion or some other technology, if we could develop a boundless low pollution energy source

History suggests these kind of technological leaps happen during times of greatest stress – famine, conflict etc. I hope that we can learn our lessons from the past.

but some of the things happening right now are things we have more control over.

Yep, I agree that the dismantling of our healthcare and social care system is something we do have more control over compared to, say the threat of MAD in the cold war era. I’m more than happy to do my bit in protecting these institutions.

Jeez, this is getting kind of depressing now, I’m starting to agree with OP.

just once someone has worked out how to make a ton of money out of it first…

That’s the thing. it needs to exist for the sake of humanity, a gift to the world otherwise it wont help. A bit like the Volvo seatbelt story whoever develops it needs to basically open source the technology and that’s the bit that I have very little faith in. The two most likely regions for development seem to be China or America and i can’t see either of those nations acting with altruism.

Peyote – ha, know what you mean. When you think about it, it is quite bleak. There’s much that’s good about our times, though, which is a comfort. Still, a bit of anger about what’s going on in other areas is no bad thing. The hard part is turning despair into productive anger. I need to do more in terms of campaigning or something. This NHS thing is totally bloody nuts, and much of the media only reports the half of it.

Jus Chill

It’s pretty obvious now, that the uber-rich will be releasing a virus to wipe out 99.9% of the worlds population, once the robots have enough A.I. to become their unquestioning servants.

So unless you are migrating to pitcairn island you’re pretty much screwed anyway…

The hard part is turning despair into productive anger.

I’ve not cracked this at all. I’ve written to MP’s several times but not once have I received anything more than a standardised fobbing off letter. The last march I went on was the anti Iraq war march which I believe was the biggest seen in peacetime Britain yet that achieved nothing, so I kind of gave up on marches. I try and engage family and friends on issues but we are either so polarised in our views that we fail to find common ground or they take an ‘I’m alright Jack’ approach and just don’t care about the bigger picture.

I try and do my tiny bit but I really don’t know how to make things better, and that is what’s truly depressing.

samunkim – Member
Jus Chill

It’s pretty obvious now, that the uber-rich will be releasing a virus to wipe out 99.9% of the worlds population, once the robots have enough A.I. to become their unquestioning servants.

99.5%

what’s the point being rich if you don’t get to urinate on a poor person every now and then?

@ ahwiles

I presume the A.I.s will have some kind of feed-back to enable them to feel pain. This should be enough for the Prince Philip types to still get their kicks

I think it’s true that every generation feels the same… But one thing is, this generation doesn’t seem to have faith things are going to get better.

In fact a lot of people are completely comfortable or even pleased about things getting worse– “The last few years were the exception”. “It wasn’t sustainable”. Members of the richest and most fortunate generation of all time often seem to delight in telling “snowflakes” that they can’t have the same. The skeletal grip of a corpse’s hand around eggs trying to hatch.

Pessimism and stockholm syndrome and lethargy seems to be the driving force now. In the 60s, automation was going to make our lives better and give everyone more free time. In 2017, automation’s going to put everyone out of work and make us poor (because work’s all a person’s for) The UK came out of a world war with a battered country and a generation in grief and built the NHS, now we say we can’t afford it going… “Fair” means shitting on lots of people equally. You want a pay rise? Why should you, I didn’t get one. And so nobody does. Think yourself lucky you have a job. And when you snap, it’s sheer wanton criminality. The Great Depression led to the New Deal. The Global Financial Crisis led to… Well, it led to expending incredible effort to rebuild the failed sustem so we can have the same Global Financial Crisis again, with the people who oversaw it still in charge and everyone else paying for it. And the most powerful propaganda machine since the invention of christianity strains all of its muscles to convince you this is how it should be.

So yeah. It’s not the current outlook that bothers me, it’s the acceptance of it. “If you want a picture of the future”.