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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Why is the world so much more VIOLENT now than it was decades ago when I was a kid? More guns? More hate? More corruption? WHY?

Why is the world so much more VIOLENT now than it was decades ago when I was a kid? More guns? More hate? More corruption? WHY?

I remember the threat of nuclear war. Bomb shelters were being built in backyards and stocked with food and water "just in case".

In schools we did our drop drills. Dropped to the floor beside our desks on our knees with our heads down and our arms covering them.

To my knowledge we never were attacked. Don't know what folks did with all that unused food in their bomb shelters. Maybe the wealthy turned them into wine cellars.  

I do not recall gun-related massacres and slaughters in schools and churches or wherever lots of folks gathered. I do not remember racists coming out from under the sheets and marching pridefully naked-faced chanting ugly things and carrying ugly signs and being commended for it by a prez.

It isn't only the US that has become that  horrible horrible horrible thing we only used to see on screen depicted in movies...ALL FICTIONAL. Sad thing is that our reality is far worse than anything ever imagined. Truth is stranger than fiction. FAR SCARIER as well. What the he ** right?

Posted - May 11, 2019

Responses


  • 46117
    Lots more people.  
      May 11, 2019 8:27 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    Thank you for your reply Sharon and Happy Sunday Mother's Day! :)
      May 12, 2019 3:03 AM MDT
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  • 46117
    Yes. You too, Rosie. I am so very sorry to hear what happened in your life. I found out about it through YOU yelling at me that an answer I gave to you about banning someone from a funeral was supposed to SHINE A LIGHT on the fact that your son had passed. LIKE I KNEW THIS.

    Like I would present you with some flip, horrid answer when you are grieving the worst grief a person could experience.  SURE. That is me.

    ????

    I wish you a blessed life and always have.  To strike at me, even in your grief, just boggles my mind.  I think you are harboring some anger towards some answer I gave in the past that you took to heart.  I don't know.  I know that if I could cause you to think this harshly of me, you must have your reasons.  

    I never mean to hurt you.  EVER.  I am usually on here defending you against some jerk.  So why would I do this to you?  

    I am so sorry and will continue to say this until you answer me.  I am more stubborn than you are.  
      May 15, 2019 10:38 AM MDT
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  • The world has always been a violent and hate filled place. The difference is in the more widespread acceptance of corruption. For a human shortcoming to become more prevalent, it usually must be more accepted, excused, with a blind eye turned to it. These things are byproducts of spiritual and moral decay. All of that silliness that we did in school in the name of a nuclear attack response was just government propaganda to make us all believe there was something we could do to give us a chance at survival. 
      May 11, 2019 8:42 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    This is  very clear-eyed unemotional EXCEPTIONAL reply in my humble opinion SC. Of course I shall have to prod you into telling me WHY we have become what we are today? Spiritually and morally bankrupt except for those who give LIP SERVICE to religion and spirituality while simultaneously and concomitantly doing/saying CRUEL INHUMANE things to those and about those they despise? Why do more people despise more people now? Is it simply a matter of the fact there THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE NOW?  SIGH. It  is very sad and hurtful for me, a FIRST GENERATION AMERICAN, to witness what the AMERICA my grandparents/parents fled to for a better life has become. Beyond sad. I am grateful they are not here to witness people supporting liars who have contempt for the rule of law and corrupt hardhearted powerhungry monomaniacal wackadoodles.  Thank you for your reply. :( Sad face is not for what you wrote but for the truth of what you wrote. :( This post was edited by RosieG at May 11, 2019 9:28 AM MDT
      May 11, 2019 9:27 AM MDT
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  • 13251
    You don't remember church attacks like the one by white supremacists on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, in 1963 that killed four young black girls? Wow.
      May 11, 2019 9:30 AM MDT
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  • 7280
    WOW

    Sorry, but that reference belongs in an entirely different category. 

    Civil rights activists made Birmingham a major focus of their efforts to desegregate the Deep South because it was known as a "stronghold" for white supremacists.

    While the bombings were illegal and immoral and had the opposite result on the civil rights movement than that hoped for by the perpetrators, at least the reasoning (although based on erroneous assumptions) behind the attacks was fairly simple to determine.

    Columbine and Sandy Hook; shootings in churches, mosques, and music festivals and in movie theaters---much more difficult to link by a coherent theory.
    This post was edited by tom jackson at May 12, 2019 7:08 PM MDT
      May 11, 2019 10:26 AM MDT
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  • 13251
    But no more or less hateful and violent.
      May 11, 2019 11:46 AM MDT
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  • 7280
    But far fewer deaths---or doesn't that make a difference to you?
      May 15, 2019 10:29 AM MDT
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  • 13251
    It seems that you enjoy splitting hairs. Whatever floats your boat.
      May 15, 2019 11:55 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    :):):) Thanks tom.
      May 12, 2019 3:05 AM MDT
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  • 10449
    It's not.  Just the means have changed

    With the advancements of media we hear about more things than we used to.  We have access to news in the palm of our hands (smartphones).  No more waiting for "news at 11'", now it's live. 
    There have always been evil people whose main goal is to hurt or destroy other people.  For some twisted reason, people seem to enjoy hearing/watching atrocities.  We'll slow down and rubberneck at traffic accidents hoping to see a body or come other carnage.  Our most watched TV programs are about people killing other people.  When some sicko shoots up a school we follow it for days.  The media squeezes out every little detail they can about the "suspect".  What better way for other whacklos to get attention than to be on national TV!  Shoot up a school and you'll get national attention.  Bomb a church and you'll get national attention.  Commit hate crimes and you'll get national attention (they'll even show your hate graffiti - blurred, yes, but still quite legible).  Want instant attention?  Stream your atrocities live on social media so all the world can watch as you commit it.

    When we hear of another school shooting, what's our response?  Is it exactly the same response we had the first time we heard of a school shooting?  Or are we a bit more numb to it.  Almost as if it's inevitable.   "We had 3  school shootings in just one week.  Why, I remember when we only had 2 in an entire year".   I'm not saying they aren't tragic, but that we're getting used to them.  Instead of taking care of the problem we just accept it as "how bad the world is".

    Furthermore, we don't take care of the problem.  That might interfere with someone's "rights".   Murders have rights.  Criminals have rights.  Rapists have rights.  Why, I bet even guns have rights!   If someone is guilty of shooting up school kids, they not only forfeited all their rights, but their life as well (regardless of their age).  Let other sickos know that if they do the same they will receive the same punishment.  Not life in prison.  Not some lawyer saying they're insane.  Justice.  
      May 11, 2019 10:45 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    I'm not convinced of that Shuhak. Something has changed drastically. The racists who used to hide their identities under white sheets now walk open-faced proudly in places like Charlottesville. That is new. "They" installed a prez whose support for WHITE NATIONALISTS FASCIST RACISTS is unmistakable. I don't know whether it's because he has no soul and just went for the dregs of society that would be the only ones who would support such an evil corrupt soulless person or if there is something more that lies beneath far uglier and more frightening! The ease with which the sb prez has sucked millions in to his wackadoodle beliefs shocks me. In fact I'm gonna ask a counter question. Not "why is there more violence" but why isn't there more good? Why couldn't more people have brought more good to the world rather than bad? Is that the nature of man? Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday! :)
      May 12, 2019 3:12 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    Terrible things happened in the past, child abuse was covered up, (still is to some extent) and domestic violence was ignored.. but, but, but.. I do agree people seem more cruel now, more callous and I do see this every day..

    Little things like, when driving, there are rules and etiquette such as when it's your right of way, the other person waits.. people seem not to be doing that anymore and I think this all ties into a kind of selfishness and lack of compassion that allows people to treat others as if they don't matter.. only what they want matters.. 

    There's some support for this argument as they are finding that among the young they are considering actually teaching them compassion and empathy as some seem to be growing up without these qualities  
      May 12, 2019 2:25 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    Maybe the quality and character of parents has devolved Addb and they no longer instruct their children about being polite respectful kind caring considerate. I am at a loss to explain the change for the worst in homo saps. Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Mother's Day  Sunday to you m'dear! :)
      May 12, 2019 3:13 AM MDT
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  • 6098
    There are a few factors which I think are important.  Among them are, first of all, the concept of time.  Which has been unnaturally skewed by our dependence upon entertainment media.  Which wraps up and settles whatever it brings up in a matter of hours or sometimes even minutes.  So when people want what they want - now they want it NOW.  Immediately.  Not willing to wait and work and hope and pray and sacrifice and learn and get to know how to handle people and  become the masters of their own fate.  All of which naturally make us powerful as individuals we can respect ourselves and we feel we have control over enough of our lives. So lacking these things which take time and effort to acquire and still desiring power they seek it by means of a gun.  Which equals the power over another life.  Just get a gun and threaten others to get what they want or blow people away if they do not cooperate in giving them what they want.  As you would say - "easy peasy". 

    The more people lose religious faith the less reason they have to respect one another.  Until they come to see themselves as "god" and come to think only in terms of themselves as the center and purpose of the universe.  So if course if they see that as true then anything they do justifies , any means,  justifies them because they have set themselves up as the only authority. 

    Another aspect is that many people love and are attracted to violence.  If that were not true then there would not be a paying audience for so many violent motion pictures and DVDs and Blu-rays.  It makes their lives interesting and worth living. So TV networks and newspapers pander to this interest by giving them ever more and more coverage of violence - often as it happens.  So they become inured to its baleful effects and just accept it as normal, inevitable, and , sometimes, useful. 

    So people can get the kicks and stimulation they want  from the violence and then feel they are compassionate by mourning and despairing over the victims of violence.  All of which gives them a chance to feel ways they want to feel vicariously even if they don't participate directly in the violence they are deriving things for themselves from it. 
      May 12, 2019 6:21 AM MDT
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