Is it getting worse or is it just me?

[~Shalhevet~]

THanks everyone. I had no idea earthquakes were so common. We have none here in Minnesota.

[oldzimm]

I couldn't help but notice that the 5.2 earthquake in Alaska that happened yesterday did not make major headlines, nor did the Vancouver riots. There is so much chaos happening right now that I don't think the media can even keep up. There are now protests happening in the city I work in. Is it just me or have things been diminishing quickly lately? Anyone else feel it?

Thing is....

I think if you had asked people during the Great war or WW 2, they would have had the same concerns. Think about it, in a way we have it a lot easier than did our parents or grandparents. World wars, great depressions, smallpox, flu, etc.

I don't think things have become worse. I think we have become softer, and as our generations progress, less able to handle hardship like our parents and their parents could.

In this I want it now, I deserve it now, I am free to do what I want now world, we have no conception of true hardship, death and destruction.

We have become soft....

Fez you are absolutely right, generations before us didn't pout about hard times. When times got tough, they didn't sit around and say pity me, they rebuilt, kept living and thanked God for what blessings they did have.

As Clint Eastwood said in one of his movies "When the going gets tough, the tough get going".

[Guest man]

THanks everyone. I had no idea earthquakes were so common. We have none here in Minnesota.

We just had one here a couple months ago. It was only a 2.5.

Back in the 70s, we had one that measured 5.0.

I'm from MN.

[OneLight]

I couldn't help but notice that the 5.2 earthquake in Alaska that happened yesterday did not make major headlines, nor did the Vancouver riots. There is so much chaos happening right now that I don't think the media can even keep up. There are now protests happening in the city I work in. Is it just me or have things been diminishing quickly lately? Anyone else feel it?

Thing is....

I think if you had asked people during the Great war or WW 2, they would have had the same concerns. Think about it, in a way we have it a lot easier than did our parents or grandparents. World wars, great depressions, smallpox, flu, etc.

I don't think things have become worse. I think we have become softer, and as our generations progress, less able to handle hardship like our parents and their parents could.

In this I want it now, I deserve it now, I am free to do what I want now world, we have no conception of true hardship, death and destruction.

We have become soft....

Oooh, Fez... you've gotten me there! I'm sitting here in my nice, air-conditioned house and I can't even imagine what I'd do if I had to live in that heat and humidity outside.

We have it made in so many ways!

It's more than that I think. I guess my age might have something to do with it, but I know the struggle my parents had raising us (financial mostly), and what they had been through. I saw the pictures of where they lived, and know the struggle it was. We, as a family never owned a car until I was about 10 years old. My father used an old ex army dispatch riders motorcycle (BSA), to get to work and back.

They instilled in us a work ethic, and a "use what you have in your hands" (I still really believe that as Christians, that is what we should be doing regarding our gifts and abilities), attitude.

And they taught us to, as South says, "Blossom where you are planted"

If something broke, fix it yourself (I spent hours with my father working on our first car, and that has made me a practical person who can fix most things around the house).

They taught us to "make do". They taught us the meaning of money and saving it.

But I digress.

I will concede that although tougher in many ways, life was also simpler in a way. The pace was, as a necessity, slower, or at least more evenly paced.

So are things worse? In a material, greedy and "I deserve eberything because I breath and Hollywood tells me so", sort of way, yes.

In a get flu and die, I hope my child escapes polio, measles and smallpox, I am hiding in a cellar eating the soles of my shoes while storm troopers look for me to send me away to the Concentration, Gulag, People's republic re-education camp way? We are a lot better off.

We are a spoiled rotten consumer society with an instant gratification attitude who think that a SMS or E mail is being neighborly, when what we should be doing is leaning on the garden fence and talking to each other......

I guess being worse off is really just a state of mind when history is ignored, because those who pay scant attention to history are doomed to repeat it.

"I have seen the enemy, and he is us".

Thank the Lord, for the Lord.

Thus concludes the rant.......

[rant]

I usually don't disagree with you Brother, but what you just described does mean we are worst off. People have forgotten how to live in the elements, off the land, doing an honest days work for a days wage, learning how to make everything last as long as they can. Today, we want everything now. We don't really care how we get it, we just want it now ("we" being the world). The morals of the vast majority have all but disappeared. Yes, the real "monsters" like Hitler are kept at bay, for the time being. Yet, in the US there is no more mentioning God in most schools, no more prayers, the 10 Commandments are not allowed, nor is a picture of Christ. The birth of Christ can't be displayed at Christmas in public areas. Teachers can't teach against the killings of millions of babies (abortion) or against diversified living (LGBT). The meaning of having to earn your way through life has been replaced with welfare. Dishonesty and disrespect is the norm. Kids use language that never was allowed. Try to punish a child wish a spanking and you are investigated by the state Child Protection agency. R rated movies are now PG and sex sells openly everywhere.

These are just a few of the things that make this time worst then having to struggle honestly in life. Years ago, there were morals people lived by. Your word or handshake was as good as a contract. Your neighbor was someone you knew really well and you took care of each other. Yes, to live one had to actually do something. Today, it is handed out freely by the state who takes your hard earned money and give it to someone who refuses to work, not that they can't work, but refuses to work.

[/rant]

[mizzdy]

Fez does make a point about laziness etc. God did say that when we become prosperous we tend to forget who made it all possible. When America went through such prosperity, factories created jobs, jobs allowed mom and dad to buy a bit more eventually leading to what we have today a spoiled generation of children and young adults who do think entitlement programs are their right. If a person cannot get a job he goes to the govt for a handout. Its truly a mental disorder, imo. So many are like the first generation that came out of Egypt whining about no meat, whining about the wonderous things Egypt offered who cared they were enslaved. Theres many reasons the world is in the state its in although truly there is only one reason, people have forgotten to listen to His voice/word first above all elses.

shalom,

Mizz

[joi]

The riots were covered in ABC's newscast in our area, but I had not heard about the earthquake in ALaska.

other one, thanks for the list of quakes.