Tendencies

I remember the cars of the 90s. A bit chunky but true. The food was not full joke yet, and you could get a decent restaurant with no more than 15 tables. Concerts were inspiring, girls used the mirror, not FaceBook and having a cat in home did not meant $$ to spend for covering legislation and such.

We think we upgraded lifestyle for the past two decades, but did we?!

Isn't it all the same like a phone OS upgrade, where usually you lose all functionality of the phone apps after the upgrade installed(referring Windows mOS 8.0 -> 10.0) Isn't it like one big Hindi drama where in the end of the movie you are more confused than the beginning?! Is it not just a red blood sauce on my pizza instead of the regular tomato with basilicum?! Why the bar down the road closed, and now I have to slide my finger over a screen to speak to someone with a sense in his head.., a pathetic feeling.

Fake news, false food, false cars. Can't brother to trust my eyes anymore. And what is our solution now - Gearing the young to survive the madness of the old... Oh...

Where and when we went wrong, god 👎?

I agree completely. It feels like we have been held back the past almost 20 years now. Honestly, and I have said this for years and years, it all feels like on 9/11 is pretty much when it started. Every thing seems stagnant, soulless, sanitized, and it all feels off. And it seemingly permeates every possible aspect.

a reply to: Argentbenign

I could not agree more.

I also agree with Sconnie77 about when the wheels really came off. But there is a little more to it than that.

The timing of the financial crash was almost perfect in some respects. It made us, the people, weaker when compared to those who were running the show. It stopped the people from being the power, because we had so little of it after the crash, that we could barely home ourselves, leave alone keep a proper track of the comings and goings of the powerful.

Further to that, the events of 9/11 were used to justify massive declines in personal freedom and liberty all across the developed world. Many nations turned over certain responsibilities to their security services wholesale, while pretending to their citizens that they still had a voice. Repeatedly, it is has been shown to the people in a passive manner however, that no matter what they do, what they believe, or how hard they work toward a goal or a shared endeavour, be it financial or political, that they have no power, that the only power that matters any more is wielded by people we are not permitted to know the names of, leave alone criticise in a public forum.

The process by which government derives power is no longer what it ought to be, and because the people no longer have the freedom and liberty that living in certain societies is supposed to afford them, it is little wonder that things taste grey, that life is less colourful. When we taste the world with our wrists bound, we do not enthuse so much about its flavour. When we see the world through a bag over our heads, it is not surprising that things look less appealing than they used to.

Perhaps when the shackles are removed from us, when we are no longer looking up at a controlling edifice which saps our strength and damages our resolve, perhaps when society is run by the people, rather than the individuals who desire dominion over them, we will once again feel that the lives we live are in high definition, that the food we eat tastes of something wholesome, rather than something unnatural and strange. Perhaps when we are free, we will once again feel as if we are.

a reply to: TrueBrit

They will not let such control go so easily. The public figures are naught but puppets.

It will either be by their hubris, that leaves us in a smoldering crater to scrape out the beginnings.

Or

By the people putting government back in its place in such a manner that it makes sure that no future government makes the same mistake again.

Personally, I'm for the latter. Let us all come together and end the madness that holds us down like black boots on our necks.

Maybe then we can begin to live again, rather then merely exist.

a reply to: Argentbenign

I remember the cars of the 90s. A bit chunky but true.

I'm always confused when people say cars nowadays are somehow inferior to those produced 20 (ugh I almost said 10, I'm starting to feel old) years ago. They're faster, they handle better, they're safer, they get better mileage, they last longer, they require less maintenance...

I paid like $32k cash for my car. It's awesome. Does 0-60 in 4.7 seconds (or did when stock), gets pretty good mileage, has 4 doors, leather, airbags and crumple zones all over, super easy to work on, all wheel drive, handles great (needed a few tweaks for that, but even stock it was no slouch). I think she's also a lot prettier than most things produced in the 90's.

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You get what you pay for or make yourself with food. There are plenty of nice non-corporate restaurants out there with amazing food that don't break the bank. They also don't necessarily have more than 15 tables.

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I hate Facebook, no arguments there.

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I think we've certainly upgraded our lifestyle. That isn't to say there are jobs and things haven't become more expensive, but pretty much everything has improved. We are now AWARE of all the shadiness governments pull, but that is also an improvement. They now grope you when you want to fly, I'll give you that. There's a lot of Orwellian crap going on, I agree. The UK seems to be the poster child for this, arresting people for harassing speech and the like, it's disgusting. If I want to tell someone I think they're a _____ ________ing _____ I should be allowed as long as I don't threaten them.

Crime has dropped dramatically, life expectancy is up, literacy is up. Women can vote, black people aren't lynched for dating white women, gay people can marry.

My impression is that every generation feels like it's getting worse. I dislike the majority of music being turned out right now, but I'm sure that's the same with every generation. 30 years from now the stuff I think is crap will be old school and remembered fondly, kinda like how I consider old pop songs that my parents probably hated as being classics.

Upgrades exist for a reason, and you can also upgrade your apps.

a reply to: Domo1

Domo1...

I do not know what modern cars you have worked on, but I will tell you for a fact that if you said to me "TrueBrit... here is a toolkit, an engine hoist, and a manual, have at it" and pointed me at a modern vehicle, I would say "Sod off, theres a good chap".

The reason for this is simple. Modern cars are NOT easier to work on. They have stupid things like engine management computers, they are not simple mechanical objects but data structures. Cars were simple to work on when the only wiring was for the radio, the lights and the ignition, but these days its lojacks, GPRS units, black boxes, massive in car audio systems, and some of them have computerised brakes and gear boxes.

The hell with that! Good cars require a hammer and a wrench to fix, and never fail because a piece of code has been corrupted. They also come with chrome, boatloads of it.

a reply to: Domo1

RE: "life expectancy is up"

I read somewhere that about 1/3 of baby boomers are not making it past their 60s. Hard living comes at a cost.

a reply to: Argentbenign

I think when the tech stocks crashed March of 2000 things have never been the same. Then tack on $140/barrel oil causing 100% inflation in buying a large plain pizza, well, that about does it. Gasoline is still hyper-inflated supposedly to take into account the risks of terrorism. Even if gasoline return back to $1.50 gallon where probably should be it would take years for prices to return back to normal. So until then, the cost of living is insane.

Heck, before and after ACA my healthcare insurance premium has been going up 20% for the last 30 years. That means it doubles every 5 years. By next year or the year after my insurance payment will be more than my mortgage. Oh well, life is tough.

I said this many times. It really doesn't matter what you pay in taxes. What does matter is the purchasing power of your take home pay. I make a lot of money. But I still feel like I'm practically living in poverty because food and healthcare cost so much. My problem is if I lose my job I'm 3 or 4 months away from missing my mortgage payments. I'm not getting any younger and every year it gets tougher to find jobs that pay well. Age discrimination is going to force me into lower paying jobs at which point I will probably have to sell my house.

a reply to: Argentbenign

you know i hear what your saying and i personally prefer a more durable automobile myself, but it must be mentioned that the reason they now design cars to break so easily is so it doesnt break the driver instead, they intentionally design cars to crumple reaaal easy so as to spare the driver from being the part that crumples....

a reply to: Domo1 Can't blame you for trying to look from the bright side of life, bright side definitely exist. If a person is feelin' fine in this world setting, I can be only happy for him/her. Yet personally I am very demanding personalty and I am in no way satisfied with the averageness of human style and the general contempt with it. My own problem, of course.

When cars were real cars...







Nuff said.

It feels as though everything is going backwards anymore. We aren't upgrading anything.