Poll:- life better now or in 1959?
- Thread starter JLM
- Start date
Life's better now, no contest in my not very humble opinion. If you're old enough to have visited a dentist in 1959...
More to the point, I think, is this observation that I read somewhere recently: today, Terry Fox, an authentic hero if ever there was one, would almost certainly have survived his cancer. Today it's curable, in his day it wasn't. His day wasn't 1959 of course, but I don't think that materially alters the point. Most things are better now than they were 50 years ago. And I always remember my dad's comment about the 1930s and 40s: a world without homeless young men begging at the back door for some work in exchange for food, a world without Hitler and his gas ovens, doesn't seem too bad at all, whatever else might be going on in it. He remembered when things were obviously and clearly much worse.
More to the point, I think, is this observation that I read somewhere recently: today, Terry Fox, an authentic hero if ever there was one, would almost certainly have survived his cancer. Today it's curable, in his day it wasn't. His day wasn't 1959 of course, but I don't think that materially alters the point. Most things are better now than they were 50 years ago. And I always remember my dad's comment about the 1930s and 40s: a world without homeless young men begging at the back door for some work in exchange for food, a world without Hitler and his gas ovens, doesn't seem too bad at all, whatever else might be going on in it. He remembered when things were obviously and clearly much worse.
Terry Foxe's illness was mid 70s. The lives of my father/mother andalso grandparents was appalling,(financially with very few opportunities, but in my opinion l959 was agreat time to be alive and just starting out in married life.All of the bad things that were part of my parents/grandparents weregone, the war was long over, automation was sprinting along, andlife was becoming so much easier, jobs were everywhere, and thefeeling of optimism was very evident. More women were working every day,and making their case known, and young people could start out andbe very optimistic about their future. Education was open to everyone,and more and more women were going on to post seconday schools, sureit all took time, but it was a happening time and very enjoyable.Of course technology is better now, and medical treatment, but thatisn't everything, and people do approach this question from differentareas I see, so whatever one deems most important to them, is I guess.There was so much progress up and coming, which proves to me that theopportunities were there for that to happen, and the space program wasjust around the corner, or probably allready starting, not sure.The progress for the present could never happen without the successesof the past, and that will always be.
Agree with all of that, JLM. I'm beginning to think that the only way to clean this up would be to have some visionary politician come along...one who has the magic combinaton of good looks, smooth manners, an ability to avoid offending people by speaking the truth, and so on...all the qualities required to get into a position of power. These somewhat superficial skills or attributes would of course be necessary to appease the flock (look good to the folks who have become detached from reality and thus want and vote for the strangest things).
This candidate would also have to understand how to sell successfully. Courses are available on that. Selling 101 would be based on the old teachings of a guy named Dale Carnegie who said that a successful sale requires the seller to first get the customer's ATTENTION, then create an INTEREST, followed by a DESIRE, and culminating in a CONVICTION (decision to buy, or in this case, get the vote).
So far, the field is wide open for potential candidates as there are a lot of qualified folks like that out there. But then we come to the hard part...
He/she would also need another set of qualifications necessary to fix things, such as common sense, an ability to sort out right from wrong or good from bad, honesty, incredible negotiating skills, a sense of law and order, an appreciation of people and their feelings, oratorial skills supreme, and a burning desire to leave this world in better shape than when he/she arrived in it.
Note that we're looking for qualifications and skills that can get the job done here...the BEST qualified candidate. And we don't care if they're black, white, green, gay, lesbian, atheist, christian, hindu, in a wheelchair, etc. because that has nothing whatsoever to do with getting the job done. These things are just things you can see, and we need those "hidden" qualities noted above to get 'er done. (What was that thing Granny kept saying back in '59? Oh yeah, "you can't tell a book by its cover")
That all might rule out a great number of your conventional politicans...the lawyers, the corporate heads, "public personalities", noted activists, etc., but surely there is one person out there with the magic combination, no?
Put it all together and you have the the package necessary to save us...from ourselves. Being able to walk on water or leap tall buildings in a single bound would be good too, but not necessarily required. :glasses7:
The problem is that anyone who doesn't agree with this person's particular vision will constantly brand them as "Canada's worst PM" for example.
Your wisdom is evident again Talloola. All this progress is nice but a lot of the progress being made is in the area of cleaning up messes we've made lately that weren't previously problems. Sure Terry Fox may have been cured of his cancer today, unfortunately for poor Terry he contracted cancer at a time when it was just starting to get prevalent. BAck in the 50's there was very very little cancer, up until the time I was in my 20s, I didn't even know people who died of cancer, there probably were a few that we just understood died of old age, but it was no big deal, cancer in those days struck very few in the prime of life. In the 60s lung cancer started showing up, but that may have been largely due to smoking and to a larger degree working in mines without proper protection. Now the problem isn't so much cancer as type 2 diabetes. The good part is most of this stuff people can have direct control over by smartening up. Just heard on the news in the past day or so if we don't smarten up within a generation or so 1 out of 2 people will get/die of cancer.
The idea was that this "special" person would be able to bridge the major gaps between the different ways of thinking/needs/wants etc. by showing all the folks how a bit of compromise would benefit everyone. Ideal? Of course, but sometimes it's fun to just dream a bit! :lol:
Actually Countryboy I'm not so sure that we need a "special person" with a magic bullet so much as just a few smart people with a bit of gumption. The schools in B.C. are now starting to move in the right direction in baby steps- removing junk food from machines and making P.E. mandatory for at least a token period each day. I kind of like the old British system, where after the academic learning was done there was a compulsory hour or two of P.E., including strenous activities like soccer and rugby. It whipped the kids into shape and they didn't have much time for getting into mischief or getting fat on computers. Some may call me old fashioned. (I'm depriving them of their freedoms of smoking dope and breaking streetlights) :lol::lol::lol:
You sound as old fashioned as me! I couldn't agree more with your approach.
The one little snag that might pop up in the P.E. department is this: If there is one child that couldn't participate (due to a physical limitation), I'm thinking someone in the PTA or on the board would surely be against the entire program because of the long term psychological harm that could be done to the one unfortunate person. This of course would deprive the rest of the kids of the exercise, but no matter as long as "human rights" prevailed, in the strictest sense of political correctness. We see examples of that all over the place these days. I think you would have a PE/PC conflict there.
Speaking of political correctness and life in '59 ;-) I used to love going to Christmas concerts back in those good old days, along with everyone else in the community.
Fast forward to today and I see the venue being changed a bit to accommodate those of non-Chrisian faith (or no faith). We even have title changes (Holiday season concert!) just to appease someone.
OK, back up a few years into the late 80's, early 90s...
The scene: Yokohama, Japan.
The setting: St. Maur International School
The event: Annual Christmas Concert at the school (with my 2 daughters performing, along with all the other kids from all over the world, literally)
The crowd: Approximately 50/50...local Japanese and foreign parents
The reality: About 1% (we'd call that a minority over here, and a visible one at that) of the population of Japan is Christian...one per cent.
I asked some of the local folks whilst chatting with them during intermission why they would attend a Christmas concert. The answers ranged from "We like the Christmas music" to " We like to see how foreigners celebrate Christmas." And all this in plain view of certain Christian religious icons right there on the walls!
Were those non-Christians offended by this blatant and open celebration of Christ's birth? Uh, let me see...NO! They seemed to be eager to learn more about "our" culture.
At the end of the concert, we were all wishing each other "May-ree Koo-rees-mass-soo" (Phonetical pronounciation of Merry Christmas in Japlish) and everyone went home, free to have their own thoughts on the season and all its wonderments.
Over the next 6 years, I had numerous similar experiences which didn't prepare me well for our return to Canada, where I ran smack-dab into a wall of political correctness like I had never seen before. I felt like a "victim of intolerance"...well, no, that's not right...I had never experienced intolerance before, and most especially not while living in a country where I was part of a (clearly) visible minority. And one that is totally void of PC-related legislation.
The people there seem to look for the positive sides of differences in people and their cultures, but they handle it all without the "assistance" of government. They call it "joshiki" which means...get ready for it...common sense.
So as I look at the progress we've made from '59 to '09, I'm thinking that at least one of the victims along the way just might have been common sense.
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That's definitely a problem with people that take one aspect of a system and then judge the entire system by that one impression. Kind of like one individual here when he takes one or two aspects of life now and how good they are, blankets all aspects of life with the same impression of goodness, and then macrocosmically compares it to his dismal, little microcosmic view of life in 1959.
He's also forgetting that someone could kill several people when he was 20 years old, and then be convicted to several life terms consecutively, which means he'd never get out. At a cost of between 90 and 100 gran a year, if he lives to the average , that'd only be $6.5 million. It would have been cheaper to go through the appeals and then inject the bugger to begin with and save the space in the prison for a few people who are only doing 5 year terms. No-one ever considers the price of hanging onto these killers and having to spend money to make space for more.
Apparently so do a lot of people that went through the 50s. They must have been absolutely horrid. I can't see how anyone survived them,. lol
I've listened to a lot of older folks talk about their pasts and after their tales of the dirty 30s and wars, they remember the 50s with a mix of good and bad. Kinda like people nowadays. A mix of good and bad.
If DNA evidence is truly an iron-clad, scientifically-perfect method of establishing who done what, then I'd be in favour of it. (Death penalty for murderers)
And may I respectfully remind you that it's not relevant to mention the cost of things when you're talking about locking up murderers...I've been told that freedom (?) is worth any cost. In fact, I think I heard it right here from some highly-educated individual.
I'm still waiting for that flying car (Popular Science) to hit the showrooms so I can quit buying snow tires!
Oh yeah, the 50s could be horrible, no doubt about that- my brother when he was about 5 went down to a vacant cabin with another young brat the same age and they took a rock and smashed the padlock. Strangely that evening my brother was very quiet at supper and when he was finished he went straight off to bed. Well awhile later the phone rang, and lo and behold if it wasn't George the owner of the cabin and he wanted a word with the old man. When the old man got off the phone he yanked my brother out of his deep sleep and administered one of the worst lickings I've ever seen. My brother is over 60 now, has never been in any more trouble, nor does he whine about rights and freedoms. Yep the 50s could be tough.
Would that be a "highly educated individual" from a very narrow spectrum of learning material????????:lol::lol::lol::lol: