Are people more miserable?

[Jon885]

Just wanted to know some of your opinions. Are people more miserable than they use to be? I see footage from the 70s and 80s and people just seemed more happy. I hear people say the country has never been this divided over issues, and there's never been this much emphasis on terrorism. I'm not really sure myself. See some things are better like advances in medical technology. But then some things are worse; a whole city was wiped out by a hurricane for one thing and of course 9/11. Those are just a couple examples for both sides of the argument.

So I was interested to see what all of your opinions on this subject are.

[Idlethought]

Of course people are more miserable. We work all day, come home at like 8PM tired as shit no time to chill with the family or anything. Sleep, then get up and grind again. This shit isnt fun at all lol

[Unactuality]

Sure beats being a peasant or serf anytime from 6000 BC to roughly anytime around 1800-2000 AD, assuming you're talking about the common folk.

We had disasters and problems in the 60s and 70s, too. We may worry about terrorism. They had the Cold War and the threat of nuclear armaggedon to fret over. Hurricanes? What about the one that wiped out Galveston in the early 20th century? The only reason it affected less people than Katrina is that there were less people alive 100 years ago than there are today.

From what my wife says (she's older than I), life was pretty much the same as it is now, except for all the nice high tech goodies.

From what my great-grandfather's brother said, we should all thank our deity of choice that we didn't live through the Great Depression. Life is sure as hell better now than it was then.

[setrict]

Ignorance is bliss, and this is the information age.

[Psychochink]

I know I'm more miserable than I used to be. Why just this morning I was all snuggly and cosy in my bed, and now I'm sitting at my desk working. Yep, definitely more miserable.

...What? Did I miss the point..? :confused:

[Anders]

Ignorance is bliss, and this is the information age.

Well put. I think that really hits the nail on the head! Damn. I really like that quote.

[Masa the Masta]

We actually had a discussion on this in my Personal Development class the other day. Nowadays, Americans have more purchasing power, and yet there is a declining rate of happiness according to conducted surveys across the years. People were generally happier in the earlier days..

I'm happy though, dunno about the rest of you. :D

[ruaidhri]

Speaking from my personal experience as an American, misery is nothing new. In the years immediately preceding my birth, America, and the world had been devastated by a crippling economic depression. People all over the world lost their homes and were starving to death, even in America where John Steinbeck wrote about the poverty and flight of the Joad family in Grapes of Wrath. If there is one thing worse than working 12 to 15 hour days it’s not having a job at all while your family starves. That was the 1930’s.

I was born in May 1941. Seven months following my birth, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and America entered the Second World War. Throughout the world, families suffered the loss of their homes, livelihoods and members of their family. During the six years of the war, the economy of most of Europe was destroyed. Following Germany’s defeat, only a few short years passed before the Soviet Union had gobbled up Eastern Europe and threatened the world. In Asia and the Pacific, Japan had committed unbelievable atrocities in the countries and islands they invaded. The war itself ended with America’s introduction and use of what remains even today the world’s most horrific weapon, a nuclear bomb. Just before Japan surrendered, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. This afforded them the foothold in Asia where many of the people responded to the false promise of a better life through Communism. It wasn’t long after the war that the Communists began their quest to capture all of Asia. In 1949, Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China. Millions died. That was the 1940’s.

In 1950, the North Koreans invaded South Korea. The United Nations responded by sending troops to defend the South. When UN troops beat back the Communists and entered North Korea, the Chinese crossed over into Korea and threw wave after wave of their soldiers against the Allies. At the Korean War’s close, no country won or lost. The warring countries agreed to stop fighting and set up a demilitarized zone that still curses the world. In America, Senator Joseph McCarthy was accusing people of being Communists with the same fervor as early day Witch hunters. Labor Unions were fighting management for living wages. Rock and Roll was denounced by churches and considered by many to be the Devil’s music. Imagine Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly as emissaries of the Devil. While this was going on all young men in America were subject to the Selective Service Draft and required to give up a minimum of two years of their lives in the military. That was the 1950’s.

In 1960, John Kennedy won election as President of the United States. He was young, good looking and promised a new beginning with opportunities for all. But it wasn’t long before he was caught up in a failed Cuban invasion and the October, 1962, Cuban missile crisis. With America blockading Cuba and ships heading toward the island, the world was on the brink of a nuclear war. I particularly remember the anxiety of this moment as I was in the military and we were told that we were going to war. I was damned scared and so was everyone else on my ship. A year following the crisis Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John Kennedy. Assassinations became the order of the day. Following John Kennedy were Martin Luther King, Jr. in April, 1968 and John Kennedy’s brother Robert in June, 1968. Lyndon Johnson became President and Vietnam blew up in America's and the world’s face. When the youth resisted the draft and the War, the country was split like never before. The older generation, or as they were known “the establishment," had weathered the Depression and fought in WWI and WWII. They had little sympathy for the protestors. Their opinion was “Love it or Leave it”. Both sides went overboard. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, more young men and women died in a War that appeared it could never be won. That was the 1960’s.

Vietnam carried over into the 1970’s. Nixon was President and he had little respect or sympathy for the protestors. His power base was what he called the “Silent Majority” while his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, called his opponents “effete snobs”. Yes, America was polarized. We still couldn’t win in Vietnam despite repeated bombings of North Vietnam. Then, during the 1972 presidential campaign, Nixon supporters broke into the Democratic Party National Committee’s office in the Watergate Hotel. This led to Nixon’s resignation and the installment of a new President, Gerald Ford, who had himself never been in a national election. He had replaced Nixon’s Vice President who himself at been forced to resign. While Ford was President, Americans finally left Vietnam albeit in Helicopters fleeing the Communists who took over all of the country. In 1976, Jimmie Carter won the Presidency and faced a oil crisis at the fuel pumps and a hostage crisis in Iran. Prices soared as the economy plummeted. Stagflation became a new word in our dictionary. That was the 1970’s.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the Presidency. We were introduced to trickle down economics where we give to the rich and what’s left over trickles down to the poor. We saw the Unions and the working stiff’s negotiating position irreparably weakened. We lost John Lennon to an assassin while President Reagan survived an assassin’s bullet. The United Kingdom and Argentina became embroiled in the Falkland Islands War. In Lebanon, terrorists bombed the U. S. Peacekeepers barracks taking the lives of 241 Marines, Sailors and Soldiers. It was in the 1980’s that the world was introduced to a new mysterious disease that’s now known as Aids. The United States became a debtor nation. Companies downsized and many workers lost their jobs never to regain their previous lifestyles. Work hours increased as those remaining in the work force were forced to be “lean and mean”. And, on a positive note, the Berlin Wall fell. That was the 1980’s.

The 1990’s began with the first Gulf War. It was in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. It was short and decisive except that it didn’t remove Iraq’s leadership. Instead, it merely set the stage for the second Gulf War. The Soviet Union and European Communism ceased to exist. The economy faltered and the national debt continued to climb while American elected a new young president, Bill Clinton. The 1990’s saw a drop in the national debt, high stock prices and instant millionaires. Meanwhile most Americans continued to work harder and harder for longer and longer hours. Families required two wage earners to survive. Employees suffered more and more layoffs with older employees having little chance of recapturing what they had lost. Those working had more money and less time to enjoy it. Stressed out workers became the norm. The House of Representative impeached Bill Clinton because he attempted to cover up an affair he had with an aide. That was the 1990’s.

And here we are, the Aughts, the years 2000 through 2009. Are we free of misery? We’ve suffered through terrorism and war. We’ve suffered through a recession and even more job losses. Those still working are even more stressed. Are we more or less miserable today than other decades of my lifetime? We’re only halfway through the decade. The truth probably is that for many people the good times never were and never will be.

[Psychochink]

Everything

Aaand...end thread.

[Jon885]

interesting take on the situation ruaidhri. hey i even got a history lesson in there. heh.

[Collapse]

The grind of life is awfully monotonous. Sleep, study, work, go home, eat, sleep and weekends (sometimes not at all) off.

Yet with all that, I keep my nose off political and social events for the most part. Sure, my life sure sucks but there are times when I am happy in between. Just the way how you live your life without the pressures and the burdens of life.

[mawande]

In my opinion... no. People are not more miserable. People just have more avenues to express their displeasure and of course anyone who's unhappy about anything for the most part will tell you about it. Again, and again.

[kyaa the catlord]

In my opinion... no. People are not more miserable. People just have more avenues to express their displeasure and of course anyone who's unhappy about anything for the most part will tell you about it. Again, and again.

See also: Live Journal.

[ShadowTiger]

Are people more miserable?

1) You buy an iPod.
2) You go through the trouble of finding songs for it.
3) You finally get it up and working, and someone steals it because it's "valuable."
4) You find the very same iPod in a vending machine the next day.
5) You wind up in the hospital from headbanging yourself into a concussion on that very same vending machine.

-20 years ago-
1) You buy a radio.
2) You put batteries in it. *yay*
3) You listen to some nice rock music while eating breakfast.
4) This example is so horribly screwed up and random, that you've just invited your cat to eat breakfast with you and dance the Tarantella. Enjoy. :rolleyes:

(I hate posting in the early mornings. -_- )

[Trump]

Check out the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire"

I think people just like being miserable, and have for a very long time.

[MeneerDijk]

People certainly like watching other peoples misery, just look at all the soaps that exist on TV today. And i'm not talking laundry detergents.

People are miserable through the ages, but it all depends on what you think is miserable... working conditions of 30 years ago may look miserable now, but then they we're the best thing ever. At the other hand people tend to think everything was better in the old days, but they weren't they were just familiar.

[FireWolf238]

emmm quite frankly most people don't have the time or the energy to give a fuck about any global problems. We all have enough shit of our own to deal with, like for example trying very very hard not beat the fuck out of the guy ur gf left you for(2 weeks ago), i tired that, my nuckles still have blood clots from punching concrete beams(that's also from 2 weeks ago). ohh yea, people are probably more miserable now, at least more than 50 years ago, back than no one had time to be miserable, people had to deal with their problems on the spot or end up on the sidewalk

[Lea]

I've thought about this myself, but have always found that every decade had some sort of problem. Life is certainly much better than it was a hundred years ago.

I just think our lives are much more complicated than they were a hundred years ago. We have more inidividual freedom, such as being able to speak our minds, but extremely tight limitations on how we actually live.

[Ardo Zubairu]

life itself is not fair becouse no matter the amount of planning you there are certain things you don't anticipate.

[Varia]

People just think that they are more miserable.

I believe it is because the quality of life has improved, so people have more free time, and nothing to do with it.

The media is also a large part.

Why am I not happy like these people? I just sit around and watch TV. I wish I was happy like the people on TV.

That is a very broad example, but very true. Although you may not like to admit it, how many of you do things like that? I'm not askign you to post, but just to think about it.
________
Gong bongs (http://glassbongs.org/)

[FireWolf238]

well, it's like i said, people have more time now in which to ponder just how miserable they are, before people had to fix the problems imideatly or be stuck with it for a very long time.