Does anyone else feel overwhelmed by how the world is going this year?
I feel like we're living in a Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire song 2.0 (Fall Out Boy did a 2.0 version of the song where they used more recent events.) 3.0 and the events in the song are happening at 1.25 times the speed of the original.
This will probably be the calmest year of the years to come.
Russia, the US and EU are failing slowly, with Russia and the US kicking around in the process. The EU doesn't really know what to do except follow suit to the US, no matter the stupidity.
Aside from these three China seems to be emerging for now, but is running into huge demographic issues that the others already have.
Neoliberal Capitalism is destroying the very foundations of society and leading to a new rise of Fascism as it is ideologically way too deeply entrenched to overcome itself and the mantra of eternal growth and eternal capital accumulation at the top.
On top of all this the climate catastrophe is picking up intensity every year and the effects will cause more and more disruption.
Meanwhile any attempts at spearheading a better world, one of sustainable economies and basic human rights are disrupted by the forces of old, who employ ever more gruesome weapons and tools of mass surveillance while refusing any social innovation.
To answer your question: Yes it is overwhelming and it will probably get a lot worse.
Some days I really deeply contemplate just getting a canister of helium and an exit bag.
Today's tumultuous reality will be the "good old days" of tomorrow.
Someone ... or a new artist should just release a new version of the song with new lyrics every year
But to your question ... I'm Indigenous Canadian, so from the day I was born, I've always been overwhelmed by the world because most of it, especially living in northern Ontario was a government that either actively or passively just wanted us to either disappear, assimilate, go away or just die.
I've always seen the world as falling apart. I remind my friends when we debate this stuff that the human species has been around for about two million years, a species that looks like us was around about 100,000 years ago and the most modern ancestor that could think, act and be like us is about 50,000 years ago. We've only just started our technological evolution about 200 years ago. So when you think about it, we are more designed as prehistoric cavemen and cavewomen who are easily scared of shadows in the dark or what happens after we die. We have only just taken our first step out of the cave we all used to inhabit. It's going to take us a few more thousand years to get to the point where our brains can process and live with the modern world we created .... that is if we last that long. In the meantime, we'll just fumble along trying to become temporary Masters of the Universe on our tiny speck of floating dust in the galaxy.
To put things into perspective ... listen to Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot
Or watch the cartoonist Steve Cutts A Brief Disagreement
The thing that is pissing me off these days is not so much that the world is falling apart ... it always has been for me ... its that we are accelerating the amount of danger we are putting all of humanity ... and for what? a little bit of profit and for a small group of people to say they can rule the world?
An evil person will burn down the kingdom to rule over the ashes.
the thing is, current societal structures have outlived their usefulness. For much of our history we have been groping in the dark, as you said, only within the last 200 years have we really started to understand the world around us as it is. Prior to only just recently, we did not have the technology or knowledge required to ensure that everyone had enough, and we didn't have the connection with other people thousands of miles away that first radio, then television and movies, then the internet provided.
Nowadays I firmly believe there is enough for everyone (if not for fuckheads with multiple yachts), and we could do some amazing things if we all worked together, but the power structures of hierarchical society and capitalism refuse to die gracefully.
Without selective pressure our brains won’t change, and definitely not on the timescale of thousands of years.
Yes, so I am overwhelming myself with good stuff so I don't have as much time to let that stuff bother me.
I joined an animal rescue that I work at every Sunday and busy my butt there. I also started participating in community events with other people through my music teacher, so I've always got new songs to work on. These national protests also have a more uplifting vibe than I'd expected, so I'd like to participate in more of those too.
So I'm feeling better about my own actions, developing more skills, helping my environment, giving entertainment back to my community, and seeing hundreds of other people that also want this place to be a bit better.
Sure the news is still a total buzzkill, but I can only dwell on it so long. I put off doing these things for so long saying I didn't have time or energy, but now they are wonderful healthy distractions, and even if we do pull out of this tailspin, I'd love to keep doing all these things anyway.
Don't let jerks keep you down. We can't stop all of it, but we can all find some way to be useful and successful, and other people seeing you carry on will keep them motivated too!
I'm just doing my small part by raising kids who will act like adults when they grow up
No.
The world is run by capitalism, and you have to remember that unhappy, anxious people spend more, while dead people don't spend anything.
Turn off the news. Turn off the social media. Go for a walk. It's nice outside. None of this shit has manifested there.
Well, unless you're in America and you look vaguely foreign. Maybe don't go for a walk in that case.
I don't know if just choosing to ignore this all is the correct response. I mean, it's not overencumbering, but it feels like it also is a way for capital to reign free.
Maybe I'm just reading badly into it.
The correct way to fight against capitalism is to get together with your neighbours and start building communities that aren't reliant on the Big Market.
The idea that we all need to disconnect from reality to stay sane is absolutely making reality worse.
This advice is from Boomer generations that hope to coast by before the world they neglected is no longer livable, while newer generations are forcing themselves to engage with reality because society is quickly becoming unlivable.
We essentially have an oligarchy, or at least a growing list of authoritarian leaders. Kings in many ways except by name. Kings have been perfectly willing to destroy countries in furtherance of their egos, profits or other. Wellbeing of their citizens be damned.
No, not really. I’m more overwhelmed by the fact I knew very little about the past. I deep dived into couple of things and now wonder the sanity of humanity.
Also the fact that people just do not learn from the past. People rather ignore all the things and repeat it again, again and again.
I have even become more pessimistic about humanity than, I already was. Because of this, I tend to avoid the news a bit more to at least keep my mental health in check.
It seems like most humans honestly are not that interested at all in things like history, the value of community, involvement with others, social and emotional support, and are generally just selfish living-perpetually-in-the-moment idiots that willfully ignore the implications of anything they do and endlessly play the victim.
It's honestly a drag to realize how many of our species continue to be backwards knuckle dragging slack-jawed yokels who get positively furious when anyone calls them out on how absolutely fucking stupid they are. How dare you call them stupid and hurt their feelings! It's their right to be a an absolute fucking idiot and you're the one out of line for calling attention to it! They couldn't possibly try to not be a mendacious fucking moron! You're the person who is wrong for noticing!
Well... Yeah, that's just how empires collapse. Anti intellectualism isn't normal, but it comes up historically
I think the capacity is there to function at a higher, pro-social level; but it is severely compromised by societal systems that at some point were shaped by scarcity and real world dangers but have just become obsolete and out of control. We're living a traumatic legacy that we can't shake and just keep dumping on successive generations
Im just curious, would you be willing to share what topics sparked your interest?
Nope.
There's nothing I can do to change it apart from trying to do good in my own little neighborhood, so that's what I do.
Honestly? I think if you had access to social media for any time in the last 100 years you would feel overwhelmed. The nature of the beast is there is ALWAYS something happening. There's ALWAYS something to be angry about.
Of course. It’s not the path you want to take. But I’m old enough to remember similar times and the future isn’t written yet.
I feel overwhelmed by how the world apparently went today
I mean as a Canadian, I knew that was coming since early last year if Trump would win. I couldn't know where we would land on the spectrum between nothing changed and Armageddon. What I did know was that, without fail, I would hear what stupid thing Trump did just about every day in the news, and it would be overwhelmingly exhausting.
I have three pieces of advice. First, connect with the people around you offline, reinforce your ground truth. Second is keep your eyes on the ball of what you want to be better in the world so that you can keep going after it. Lastly, don't let right or left wing online propaganda, or the despair from crises the US, Israel, Russia, China or North Korea stir up paralyze you from taking action on those two things.
All i know is i didn't start this fire
Honestly: no.
There are only so many things I can focus on at once and I’m quite good at not letting the others affect me.
Work, kids and friends take most of my time. My «crisis» of choice to stay updated on is Ukraine. Everything else I read on now and then, when I feel like it.
I quite enjoy just touching grass and being in the moment instead of stressing about things I have no control over.
I was brought up by my parents who were both in WWII. I was told on the daily all about fascism until I was a teen. I saw countless media about the war that has not been seen since the 90’s.
I had first hand reports from my mom about when she was at the docks with the soldiers who had returned from Normandy. When she went to help them off the boat their skin would slide off. Who in the world wants fascism again. Sadly quite a few it seems. Most I do not think can comprehend what they are rooting for.
My brain is so fucked up right now. I feel like I am in a fever dream or I got zapped to a different world in the multiverse.
I'm upset by many things going on in the world but I'm not overwhelmed because there are no relevant decisions for me to make. Look at it this way: what's the difference between reading a book that says Genghis Khan killed a hundred more people than you thought he did centuries ago and reading a newspaper that says a hundred people died in some catastrophe yesterday? In both cases, you've learned that total strangers died in the past, there was nothing you could have done, and there will be no direct effect on your own life. It's natural to be more upset by the more recent deaths (and I admit that I would be) but I think it isn't logical.
The exception to that is AI. I think I do need to change my own life in order to increase my chance of thriving in an AI-dominated future, at least because if some jobs will still exist then I'll need to be able to do one of them.
(I suppose "Do I flee the country?" is another decision I technically need to consider, but the answer is "No unless things get dramatically worse." Thus there isn't much to think about on a daily basis.)
The exception to that is AI. I think I do need to change my own life in order to increase my chance of thriving in an AI-dominated future, at least because if some jobs will still exist then I’ll need to be able to do one of them.
I work in IT and have for the past 20 years, and I have 20 more to go. I'm preparing my exit and setting my sights elsewhere since it's obvious this little tower is going to crumble in a fairly short amount of time.
What are you going to do instead?
We will be busy entertaining ourselves, dulling our senses and denying what's happening right until the very point of collapse. "No one" will see it coming.
Since there's fuck all you can do about it, might as well join in the festivities.
America invading the Middle East and Israel committing genocide has been the staple my entire life.
World’s going to shit due to climate inaction.
The only change here is Russia and Ukraine, and that’s been ongoing for years now.
I don’t feel overwhelmed, this all feels normal to me.
The only change here is Russia and Ukraine, and that’s been ongoing for years now.
I dunno, the Russian invasion of Georgia was in 2008 (Russia has actually been involved with warfare on Georgia going back to 1993). They haven't always aimed at the exact same areas and while they didn't invade Belarus, they seem to have a good relationship with the country in a vassal state type of way. It certainly seems that Russia has been trying to regain lost territory for most of the same time period as the wars in the middle east.
A lot of people also don't seem to remember the whole reason that the USA originally sided with and funded bin Laden and his Mujahideen was to kick Russia out of Afghanistan. It's part of what eventually bred bin Laden's distrust and hatred of the US for essentially being used as a tool and then thrown away.
It's not about how we feel but what we do about it
Hoping to get into numismatics professionally. That or teaching. My SO is a teacher and there's a shortage hereabouts, has been for years.
3.0 will be done by the Fallout boys
My fav is the mailman ❤️
I mean this is the year I finally started looking into building a diy NAS, so much more preferable to study guides rather than open the news and witness the despair filled shitshow.
Yeah but I feel this way every year.
I feel like we're living in a [Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire]
I don't understand why you'd say this. The US 100% did start all these fires. Not only did they start them, they keep adding wood to the fire. It's so blatant even a blind person could see.
Billy Joel has great song and I appreciate him as an artist, but I'll he damned if he isn't an imperialist justifier.
Is that how the song should be taken?
I always understood it as him or the speaker singing the lyrics as if the audience was innocent in the events, and the leaders /villains/whoever are not “us” and they did it.
More specifically, singing as the younger generation about trying to live in the world their parents and grandparents seem intent on burning to the ground. And that's not just my perception. You can hear him tell it in his own words (starting at 1:52).