i fear for the world i am about to inherit.

ferdi

hi i'm 17 so i dont see to many of you taking me to seriously but i;m gonna say it anyways. i'm doing the LC in june and i fear for the world i am about to inherit.

its not just iraq or 9/11, its just generally, everything in the world is just so BOLLIX

eg: HIV medication being kept from folks in africa cause they cant afford it + loss of profits of pharmaceutical fims if they make the formulea (or whatever) public,

isreal in palastine, and mainly the whole middle-east thing - i just dont see that going away with out alot more Sh!t,

americas policing of the globe - where is the line drawn on that? and comming out of this, isnt a "rouge state" at some stage likely to want to stand up for itself?(north korea)

The EU - where is that going?

The UN's obvious lack of power/credibility

globilisation

fundimentalism of all kinds eg: islamic, capitalist etc

the completely ridiculous economic state ireland is in eg: property prices etc - no one seems to do anything!!!

this brings me to the absolute and total apathy which has a tight grip on everyone, myself included...everyone bitches and moans but no one does ANYTHING. what people should be doing, i dont know so i'll shut up.

basically, i see the world as being pretty screwed and no1 knowing or wanting to do anything.

you can slag off me for having different opinions, but try in your collective infinite wisdom, aquired through your extra years of being, not to patronise me.

i'm just wondering if anyone else saw things like this, in my age group (ie 15 - 24), or otherwise.

cheers

ferdi

mike65

...ah the self-absorbtion of youth!

If you were 17 and siting your Leaving Cert in 1939
you'd be pretty gloomy and I could of course toss out countless other years. Remember its allways been "the end of the world as we know it" and ppl have always thought the times they live in were bad compared to previous eras.

As for now you're proberly suffering an overload of media-induced fear and loathing.

Ignorance is bliss...well not really but you might feel better if you lived in a cave in the south Pacific and did'nt have a Sat dish.

Mike.

ps yes I am as old as I sound.

bonkey

Originally posted by ferdi
try in your collective infinite wisdom, aquired through your extra years of being, not to patronise me.

Just as soon as you stop patronising us with comments like that.

jc

DadaKopf

Ah you remind me of me when I was a girl. Full of youthful pessimism, the feeling that everything was wrong and you knew the answers to everything. Thems were the days.

As bonkey said, though, if you took a look at the boards, for example, you'd notice that many people on this board have been discussing your concerns like a leeched puppy swimming around pole. Maybe it's the spirit of the times and maybe its because no one agrees on here, but you're assuming that there's no way out because your pessimism is so total. Well then you're just conspiring with the rest of the heads to keep things the same.

Why not take your pessimism and pangs of dread, which are certainly valid and urgent, and use this realisation to overcome it by planning on doing something about it before you get sucked into a domestic whirlpool. Pessimism is one hair's breadth away from positive change.

DeVore

I think you give us too little credit and prejudged our reaction to your post.

Personally I'm on record as saying I think the world's fabric is tearing.
http://www.boards.ie/blog/devore/archives/000025.html

I think we do need to realise that only bad news is reported... there are a lot of worthy and good things going on in the world.

DeV.

shotamoose

Originally posted by DeVore

I think we do need to realise that only bad news is reported...

Yeah but not ALL the bad news :eek:

i'm just wondering if anyone else saw things like this, in my age group (ie 15 - 24), or otherwise.

actually at that age, i was skipping school, and getting stoned down by the river. I think the only times i even considered the outside world was just before i went abroad on holidays. TBH, i never really cared abt what was going on in the world, until i hit 24. I always figured that if i minded my own life, the world would leave me alone. Doesn't work that way, as i found out.

Still, looking back, i'd advise you to skip the depressing politics bit, and focus on having some fun. God knows its the age of 17 - 24 when you have the most fun, if you're willing to sieze the moment.

this brings me to the absolute and total apathy which has a tight grip on everyone, myself included...everyone bitches and moans but no one does ANYTHING. what people should be doing, i dont know so i'll shut up

we can't affect the larger issues by ourselves, but we can contribute to the whole. We're not helpless. If you really want to change things, get out there and meet the types of people with similiar ideas.

Irish people are quite lazy, abt what doesn't directly affect us, however i know from friends in the past, thats theres plenty of people worldwide, that work to change things. Find one of these groups, and give it a try.

davelerave

i feel the same way about my young children too sometimes.the last century was a disaster really, 2 world wars and the onset of nuclear weapons and other nasty stuff.so i think young people now can expect to see a lot of these 'smaller' conflicts in the future.innocent people will get killed as well,it's just life and 24hr news stations

o sleep

Originally posted by DadaKopf
like a leeched puppy swimming around pole.

what the f*ck? this is priceless!

as for the world's fabric tearing at the seams, i have some jehovah's witnesses calling around, and instead of shooing them away, i invite them in to talk about religion. they have some crazy opinions, although not all that much crazier than yer average religion. they too see things in apocalyptic terms, and justify it with references in the bible. apparently, the devil controls the world, but his grip on power is failing, which is why the world is being plunged into so much chaos: it's his final hurrah.

then 144,000* of them go to heaven, while the rest of us (good) shmucks live on earth in a paradise sort of thing. and the evil ones (those that don't recognise jesus as a means to salvation) burn in hell for eternity...

oh joy.

*it's either 144,000 go to heaven, or (something like) 12,000 go to heaven and rule it with god, while 144,000 thousand inherit the earth. i switched off after their (somewhat inevitable) views on homosexuality

bug

Hi Ferdi,

Im 24 and I've felt the same. The thing to remember is that there have been equally serious conflicts throughout history as whats going on at the moment. The world isn't going mad, it always was! My mother and father lived through WW2 and they didn't know what the outcome would be. Throughout every generation there is something to threaten humankind- but the thing is- we always get through. I know this is simplistic, but you have to think like this otherwise you'd drive yerself mad.

Also the media plays a huge part in how your feeling, i'd imagine. Wars are now on television you get every details of the conflict. The world will always be this way. And even if you do something small to stand up against this war, like protest if your anti-war, at least your doing something. Dont' be worrying concentrate on the LC for the mo.

mike65

Just thought I'd add this to back up a few comments made earlier about media influence...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2531157

Mike.

Clintons Cat

Originally posted by ferdi
hi i'm 17 so i dont see to many of you taking me to seriously but i;m gonna say it anyways. i'm doing the LC in june and i fear for the world i am about to inherit.

its not just iraq or 9/11, its just generally, everything in the world is just so BOLLIX

....
this brings me to the absolute and total apathy which has a tight grip on everyone, myself included...everyone bitches and moans but no one does ANYTHING. what people should be doing, i dont know so i'll shut up.

basically, i see the world as being pretty screwed and no1 knowing or wanting to do anything.

you can slag off me for having different opinions, but try in your collective infinite wisdom, aquired through your extra years of being, not to patronise me.

i'm just wondering if anyone else saw things like this, in my age group (ie 15 - 24), or otherwise.

Hi Ferdi.the world might look screwed now but i guarantee that rose tinted nostalgic view of the past is every bit as fraudulent as it seems.

Growing up in the eighties we had Acid rain and CFCs polluting the enviroment,and nobody was doing zip about it.

Israel was in the Lebbonon.Sharron was in Shantilla
McCarthy and Waite were in a cell,as was nelson mandela.

John Lennon was shot dead.The Pope and The President Survived

Africa was staving whilst the eec simply couldnt store its billions of tons of surplus produce.

We had to live with the daily threat of Mutually Assured Destruction aptly known as MAD, and the possibillity of Nuclear Winter to counter the alarm of global warming.

Iron curtain,bamboo curtain,iron ladies not for turning,niether was the General Belgrano.

Juntas in Argentina,Soviets in Afganistan,Billy Joel in the charts

Reaganomics ,Thatcherism,Ayatollahs Aids,plagues and locusts,Bohpal,Giant Killer bees none of whom were robotic.Though thanks to Chernoybl our sheep were radioactive.

Lockerbie,Enniskillen,Hungerford,Hunger Strikers,Strangeways Riots.Brixton Riots,Tiannamen Square.

Vive la Differance

The main thing is we,the people can now communicate in ways that were never possible in the eighties,if peaceful change is to come it will come quietly through grassroot preasure on our elected representitives.
Before we can change the world we must first change the way we think.

The revolution will not be televised.

The Charity record wont be much cop either.

mike65

....boy reading the above I'm sure glad the 80's are long gone!

Mike.

bonkey

Just look at the lyrics of tha Billy Joel song that was in the charts to see how much the world hasnt really changed in the past couple of decades :

http://uploader.wuerzburg.de/gym-fkg/schule/fachber/englisch/joel/songtext.html

It all there - the glamour, the media selling us our next big End of the World fears, the politcal intrigue, the violence, and above all else....the really, really bad music.

jc

Clintons Cat

Yeah the sixties had Bob Dylan and Don McClean for their social commentary in music.
The Seventies had John Lennon and the Jam
Hell even our cousins in the early eighties had Geldof and Springsteen and the smiths.

Who did we the Unloved ba4tards of the late eighties have,Billy frickin joel,even Sting had packed the social commentry in and had taken to touting Amazon Indians round celebrity circles like some middle aged western pimp.

Still in a couple of years we would invent rave and save the world *1

1 Not strictly true

taellad

yeah, there's been a general feeling of end-of-the-world-isms since way back when. disease, earthquakes, massive volcanoes, war, famine, etc etc. remember the bubonic plague? i think it wiped out something like a quarter of the population of europe. and some war that germany was involved (shock horror), maybe with sweden (?) led to something like a quarter, or a third, or three quarters of their total population being wiped out. and this was in something like the 17th century. also, even jesus believed that the end of the world was nigh, he basically led an apocalyptic jewish cult (truly i say to you, before this generation has passed, these things - ie, the disasters which herald the end of the world - will come to pass).

i think our last brush with near destruction was in 1983 with imminent plans of a soviet invasion of europe, which would have led to a nuclear war, no doubt. however, i'm not too sure whether these were just fabricated propoganda ...

JustHalf

Originally posted by o sleep
as for the world's fabric tearing at the seams, i have some jehovah's witnesses calling around, and instead of shooing them away, i invite them in to talk about religion... <snip>

You missed a valuable opportunity. Check out Something Awful for a great feature on what to do when the Jehovah Witness' come round.

o sleep

This article? I was giggling to myself. Unfortunately, I don't have a sense of humour (also, I'm not even slightly touched) so we just discussed religion. It was interesting until they couldn't answer even the basic problems that religion (in general, and theirs in particular) has.