What blindsided you today?

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

I'm not sure how I would bring up the subject. Maybe mentioning it to her mom would be best. Let the mom talk with her.

Definitely avoid the "Your dog is dead." approach. Best to ease into it with a "You know how Rover loves to chase cars? Well the other day..."

I honestly think a lot of folks are decompensating. After years of living in denial in a completely insane world where duplicity seems to be the norm from the news media to politicians to advertising to wacky economic policies that allowed things like the housing bubble and CDOs, and the encouragement of creating massive personal debt by using the buying of crap we don't need to impress people we don't like to anesthetize ourselves from just how divorced from reality we've become, I think people are just flailing in a sea of despond and desperately clinging to whatever they think will keep them afloat.

Either that, or she might have some sort of hormone gland thing going on.
(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor though I did play doctor as a child)

[SamIam]

I think Foot is right. A few years back there was book published called when "Society becomes an Addict." It's thesis was pretty much what Foot posted. We've got tons of shiny objects, but nothing of real substance. People fill that hollow space inside with alcohol, designer drugs, the biggest HD TV, the latest gadgets, or an extra marital affair. When our drug of choice suddenly vanishes, we have a tendency to go into serious withdrawals, and we'll do anything to get just one more "hit."

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I honestly think a lot of folks are decompensating. After years of living in denial in a completely insane world where duplicity seems to be the norm from the news media to politicians to advertising to wacky economic policies that allowed things like the housing bubble and CDOs, and the encouragement of creating massive personal debt by using the buying of crap we don't need to impress people we don't like to anesthetize ourselves from just how divorced from reality we've become, I think people are just flailing in a sea of despond and desperately clinging to whatever they think will keep them afloat.

I agree wholeheartedly. The question is why? Why have we become this way? Was it the Industrial revolution-that thing that took a man or a woman's pride of work away? Made people into cogs and forced people to fit the machine rather than the other way 'round? Ergonomics? Gimme a break! Is it mass production or something more, something else? There are waaaaay too many people on this planet and most of them suck.

eta: when I told someone I worked 7pm to 7am two days in a row, one off and then one on again he said, "That's inhumane," and when he said it, I knew it was true. It was the first time that ever occurred to me-that we could have humane jobs, humane economies! What a revelation! Kinda changed my life b/c I was like, "Yeah...you know, you're right. that IS fucking crazy." and I quit.

[Trilby]

I wish someone would try to answer my above post

there are some really smrt people here-WHY do you think people are doing all the nasty things they are doing lately? WHAT is going on?

Or having I been watching too much of the H2 channel?

[Lamplighter]

I wish someone would try to answer my above post

OK, try this on...

I don't believe "people" are any different now than they were 50, 100, 150 years ago.
They want a living, a family, reasonable health, etc.

I suspect the person's POV depends on when they became an adult,
and started seeing their world from an adult perspective,
and started comparing that world with the smaller "family" world they came from.
Of course, moving from agricultural to industrial changed how they lived.

My adult world came into view with the Korean War. My family was among the millions
who moved off the farm and into Michigan to work in the automotive industry.
That was a good move for them.
Good pay, good working hours, creating a product they were proud of,
medicine was improving health, infectious diseases were decreasing,
... the outlook was good and people were optimistic and "happier"

To point to a single event that changed all that is either extremely difficult or to the point of being trivial.

For example, I could point to Ronald Reagan (who everyone worships now as a great President),
as the beginning of the down-turn in all that happiness and optimism.

His attitude towards welfare (welfare queens driving pink Cadillacs) made people dislike and distrust the poor;
whereas before just being poor was not a bad thing.
It was just something to prod people to want to work hard to change.

His attitude towards unions made people hate the union movement.
Communism was the epithet that "socialism" is used by politicians today.
But the 8-hour work-day, a safe work place, a good wage, medical benefits,
and sick time off work without being fired, vacation time with family,
retirement pensions, a minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, child labor laws...
all of these came from the union movement.

But look at people's attitude towards the unions now...

Right to Work states, politicians demonizing the workers,
telling people they are lucky to have a job, fighting cost of living increases,
stagnant minimum wage, or working for $1/hr + tips.

What sort of attitude would you expect from a nation of people who
are in a menial service jobs, for minimum wage, being told when they must work
and with no recourse to disagree with their employee except to quit.

If you are having to work "7pm to 7am two days in a row, one off and then one on again",
then I would point you back to Ronald Reagan and his attitude towards unions,
and his first killing of a union, the Air Traffic Controllers.

And Reagan he did it with a smile and movie star personality,
and a "There you go again"

But for me, Reagan was one major pivot point that was not for the better.

[Trilby]

Thanks, Lamplighter, for that informative post.

yeah, I hated Ronnie, too. Anybody who cozies up to Ms. Thatcher is no friend of mine!

(get it? 'mine'?)

seriously, though; yeah, he DID demonize the poor and Nancy was a total...Nancy. Hated her even more than him, "Just say NO," my ass, woman!

Least helpful first laydee ever.

[footfootfoot]

*shakes head*
There you go again...

That right there was more damning of the shallowness of the American public that Ronny himself.

[Lamplighter]

??? Which that right "there you go again" ?

[footfootfoot]

I can only watch about 2 seconds of that.

[infinite monkey]

It would've been a Mega-meme© if it had been a few years later.

[Clodfobble]

My cousin killed himself last week (not the one who got stabbed in the neck by a crazy coworker, and not the other one who got cancer at 37, a different cousin...) He and I weren't very close, but I totally didn't see it coming. The cousin who is close to him (his half-brother, aka cancer-cousin) very much did see it coming, and did everything he could to prevent it, but with the backstory he has now revealed to me I agree that there really wasn't anything more he could have done.

But as I was hearing the news from cancer-cousin, and listening to him describe everything that was going on that the rest of the family didn't know about, the thought came to me clear as day that, "That's going to be my brother someday." My brother is very, very much like suicide-cousin. Minor depression, moderate drinking problem, but full-blown, lifelong expectations of what the world owes him. Ultimately this cousin killed himself because the universe never lived up to his ego, and this is 100% the path my brother's heading down.

Welp, dude's 33 and everyone's tried to help him and he listens to no one. We'll see, I guess. Still sucks pretty hardcore for cancer-cousin, though. He knows he shouldn't feel guilty but one always does.

[glatt]

So now that you have had this moment of clarity into the future, you need to figure out what you need to do to satisfy yourself that you have helped your brother as much as you can.

[Gravdigr]

Man, that sucks.

One the Auntiesdigr passed earlier this week. She had developed cancer and wouldn't let her family tell anyone, and they didn't. They called us when she went into the hospital, when her kidneys started failing. She died about a week later.

Fuck cancer.

[classicman]

Condolences to the Clodfobble & digr families.

[fargon]

What classic said.