Depressed by the modern world

[LizzieMaine]

I will never understand why people come on here and want to argue with us, Lizzie. This site isn't just for people that like hats and collecting old stuff, it's also a place for people that prefer the lifestyle of that time period. Why can't the naysayers let us be? shakeshead

I'm sick to death of arguing about it, which is part of the reason I haven't been on here as much.

When you give up, the helots win. There aren't many of us left around the Lounge, but that's all the more reason to stick around.

 

[bulldog1935]

prig was the word Tommy used, and was most accurate.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Just like in Mayberry -- except our employees were smarter than Gomer and Goober.

Most people today would find it hard to believe but back then you could actually find smart, competent people working in so-called "low level" jobs. Heck, it seems like you can't even find them in the high level ones nowadays.

 

[LizzieMaine]

prig was the word Tommy used, and was most accurate.

Ah, but I was quoting Walter Brennan.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most people today would find it hard to believe but back then you could actually find smart, competent people working in so-called "low level" jobs. Heck, it seems like you can't even find them in the high level ones nowadays.

The longer I live, the more I think that we don't so much educate people nowadays as we do buff the sheen on their ignorance.

 

[Indyoriginal]

The longer I live, the more I think that we don't so much educate people nowadays as we do buff the sheen on their ignorance.

And charge them more...WAY more, for that nice sheen coat!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Indeed. I have a niece who went to one of the most expensive colleges in America -- a quota kid, so all the upper class people could pat themselves on the back about how inclusive they are -- and she emerged completely incapable of uttering a single sentence that didn't include some permutation of F***.

Now, I'm no prude about swearing, having grown up in a gas station but there's nothing in the world more ignorant-sounding and tedious than the modern voice of F*** F***ITY F*** F***. My eighth-grade-educated grandfather never said that word out loud in public in his life, and he could swear prettier than any one man I ever knew.

Deevolution of the language, there's no other way to explain it.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

Indeed. I have a niece who went to one of the most expensive colleges in America -- a quota kid, so all the upper class people could pat themselves on the back about how inclusive they are -- and she emerged completely incapable of uttering a single sentence that didn't include some permutation of F***.

Now, I'm no prude about swearing, having grown up in a gas station but there's nothing in the world more ignorant-sounding and tedious than the modern voice of F*** F***ITY F*** F***. My eighth-grade-educated grandfather never said that word out loud in public in his life, and he could swear prettier than any one man I ever knew.

Deevolution of the language, there's no other way to explain it.

This reminded me of the fact that F*** is one of the few words (and perhaps the only one in English) whose derivitives can be used to make a complete sentence, as in:

F***! F***ing f***er's f***ed!

 

[Feraud]

Most people today would find it hard to believe but back then you could actually find smart, competent people working in so-called "low level" jobs. Heck, it seems like you can't even find them in the high level ones nowadays.

Ain't that the truth! The level of professionalism in a variety of professions have sunk to new lows.

 

[Flicka]

I'm finding myself integrating more and more "old" things in my life - my flat looks like it belongs to someone's grandmother, I'm getting obsessed with DIY and "make-from-scratch" with everything from clothes to food to soap. And I read nothing but historical non-fic and old books from Gutenberg (with the occasional modern hist fic thrown in). I can't say "oh, I'd rather have lived in another era" because I can't imagine that without being me a different person and who knows what opinions I'd had then, but there are certainly things and values that I am very sorry to have seen go. I'm not talking about "morals", or people wearing hats and not swearing. I don't even mean that people necessarily were kinder. I mean the genuine ideal of kindness, the ability of - to use a horrible modern word - exercise mindfulness and be here and now. There were things that were not great in 1920s. You don't have to tell me that -- I have an extremely realistic view of history, thank you very much -- but it seems to me we threw out the baby with the bathwater and now we're living in this spiral where we consume more and more. Before I've used the expression "we eat cake and wonder why we're still hungry", and to me it sums up the problem with the modern world. We look at everything we have and we wonder why with have this big old hole inside and so we try to fill it with things, things, things, when what we really need is less, less, less.

Yes, the modern world makes me depressed. Most of all because I cannot see that we are moving towards a better world, but one less compassionate where people are nothing more than "income-generating entities" and where we treat them with the same callousness as we do our plastic toys and Nature's resources. Après nous la déluge and all that...

My response is to do what some people suggested in the beginning. I fill my life with books that feed my head, real homemade food that feeds my body, and with people who feed my heart with positive energy. I rarely watch tv. I slow cook and read in the evenings. The only thing I won't ever give up is my internet. Because without it, I'd be trapped in Stockholm 2013, surrounded by bad tv, bad music and bad people. The internet allows me to live a life full of news I'm interested in (most of which is brought to me by my historian friends on Twitter), communicating with people who are like-minded rather than the local eejits and provides me with books and source material I would usually have had to travel across the world to get my hands on. Project Gutenberg + my Kindle = True Wuv.

That is my one resolution for 2013: focus on the positive. I'm not going to be sad. I'm not going to be angry. I am going to build a world for me that is just the way I'm like and just put most of the "real" world on ignore. I can't fix the whole world, but I can fix *my* world. And isn't that how you can change the "big" world anyway - one small world at a time?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I Before I've used the expression "we eat cake and wonder why we're still hungry", and to me it sums up the problem with the modern world. We look at everything we have and we wonder why with have this big old hole inside and so we try to fill it with things, things, things, when what we really need is less, less, less.

Yes, the modern world makes me depressed. Most of all because I cannot see that we are moving towards a better world, but one less compassionate where people are nothing more than "income-generating entities" and where we treat them with the same callousness as we do our plastic toys and Nature's resources. Après nous la déluge and all that...

Sums it up very well. If people turn up their iPods loud enough, maybe it'll drown out the deafening emptiness of modern civilization.

 

[rue]

When you give up, the helots win. There aren't many of us left around the Lounge, but that's all the more reason to stick around.

I know, but it gets so old.... this constant bickering between us and moderns. I don't go on their sites and tell them that they're stupid, so why do they do it here?

Oh and I won't be leaving, I've just been taking a break

 

[rue]

I'm finding myself integrating more and more "old" things in my life - my flat looks like it belongs to someone's grandmother, I'm getting obsessed with DIY and "make-from-scratch" with everything from clothes to food to soap. And I read nothing but historical non-fic and old books from Gutenberg (with the occasional modern hist fic thrown in). I can't say "oh, I'd rather have lived in another era" because I can't imagine that without being me a different person and who knows what opinions I'd had then, but there are certainly things and values that I am very sorry to have seen go. I'm not talking about "morals", or people wearing hats and not swearing. I don't even mean that people necessarily were kinder. I mean the genuine ideal of kindness, the ability of - to use a horrible modern word - exercise mindfulness and be here and now. There were things that were not great in 1920s. You don't have to tell me that -- I have an extremely realistic view of history, thank you very much -- but it seems to me we threw out the baby with the bathwater and now we're living in this spiral where we consume more and more. Before I've used the expression "we eat cake and wonder why we're still hungry", and to me it sums up the problem with the modern world. We look at everything we have and we wonder why with have this big old hole inside and so we try to fill it with things, things, things, when what we really need is less, less, less.

Yes, the modern world makes me depressed. Most of all because I cannot see that we are moving towards a better world, but one less compassionate where people are nothing more than "income-generating entities" and where we treat them with the same callousness as we do our plastic toys and Nature's resources. Après nous la déluge and all that...

My response is to do what some people suggested in the beginning. I fill my life with books that feed my head, real homemade food that feeds my body, and with people who feed my heart with positive energy. I rarely watch tv. I slow cook and read in the evenings. The only thing I won't ever give up is my internet. Because without it, I'd be trapped in Stockholm 2013, surrounded by bad tv, bad music and bad people. The internet allows me to live a life full of news I'm interested in (most of which is brought to me by my historian friends on Twitter), communicating with people who are like-minded rather than the local eejits and provides me with books and source material I would usually have had to travel across the world to get my hands on. Project Gutenberg + my Kindle = True Wuv.

That is my one resolution for 2013: focus on the positive. I'm not going to be sad. I'm not going to be angry. I am going to build a world for me that is just the way I'm like and just put most of the "real" world on ignore. I can't fix the whole world, but I can fix *my* world. And isn't that how you can change the "big" world anyway - one small world at a time?

:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

this constant bickering between us and moderns. I don't go on their sites and tell them that they're stupid, so why do they do it here?

You have to consider the source. One of the forums that disparages us apparently sees nothing wrong with one of their members using an image of male genitalia as an avatar. :eusa_doh:

 

[rue]

You have to consider the source. One of the forums that disparages us apparently sees nothing wrong with one of their members using an image of male genitalia as an avatar. :eusa_doh:

Well, that's just classy stuff right there V.C.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I'm not depressed by the modern world. My reason -- I ignore most of it. I never watch TV and I could care a rat's patootie less about modern "celebrities" and popular culture. The only reason I know of some things is because of people posting it on FB, but most of the people on my FB are just like me. I just ignore crap that I don't like. It's very easy to do! I then surround myself with stuff I *do* like. I only frequent a few Internet sites, I only have music I like in my iPod, and I really only associate with people who feel the same. I don't rudely snub "modern" people -- I just don't know very many by not frequenting their "hangouts", I guess. That said -- I'd probably be judged on appearance as a very modern person because I have dyed pink hair and I'm covered in tattoos, but I'm a genuine lover of anything 20s-40s with a little rockabilly on the side I surround myself in my own environment and it's what makes me happy.

Also, like AtomicEraTom, I grew up in an isolated farm area that hadn't changed much since my dad was a kid on the 40s. When I was a kid I used to like to have my mom take me for rides to look at the old houses and buildings. Something I still love doing today (although I take myself these days!!) I'm sure that has contributed heavily to my love of the 20s-40s. And like LizzieMaine has been saying -- in my town well into the 80s there was that "small community" vibe going on. Nothing but small businesses. Main Street Market was our local grocery store and you'd always run into your neighbours there! I think all the local teenagers worked there at one point or another! If you wanted to shop in chain stores or if you wanted to avoid anyone from town (!!) you had to travel an hour to the Philly suburbs. In 1995 they brought a Wal-Mart into town and ever since it's been constant development in the bigger city of the county (though the outskirts remain untouched farm and marshlands). All the mom-and-pop shops were torn down and replaced with chains.

As for levels of vintage -- do what you like best. Fully submerged with no modern equipment? Go for it!! Just a passing interest? Nice. Someone like me that loves being here, but loves to admire and learn from afar.....nothing wrong with that. No use arguing over what time period was better. As I see it, both had good and bad.

 

[BigBoiBrady]

You have to consider the source. One of the forums that disparages us apparently sees nothing wrong with one of their members using an image of male genitalia as an avatar. :eusa_doh:

There's a rival forum?

 

[CharleneC]

For what its worth (no pun intended) $30 in 1950 is equivalent to $286 today which is what a comparable bike sells for nowadays.

According to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ $30 in 1950 dollars is actually worth $477 in 2012 dollars. So a bike selling for $286 now hasn't even increased in price equivalent to inflation from 1950.

 

[Feraud]

Probably one of those silly fashion forums.

 

[Touchofevil]

The longer I live, the more I think that we don't so much educate people nowadays as we do buff the sheen on their ignorance.

Sometimes, I feel that there are many who have decided that if they set the bar low enough then they don't really need to put forth much effort to feel successful. Unfortunately this belief system seems all too common in the area wherein I work. One day maybe they will see the light, but until then I will continue to pound my head against the wall hoping for a change for the better.