What is creating so much apathy in this society

Do any of you have any views on what is creating humans to be becoming more apathetic in todays society.

i saw gore state he thinks one of the problems is that people are watching to much tv today, and people hardly ever read the printed word any more.

whether gore is right, he is right about the apathy that is going on today, so what do others think the reasons may be, and if you are into the science of the brain, maybe you could talk about what part of the brain that we may be using more today, to get us into this situation.

Any thoughts

There are many reasons why I think people (at least in the US) don't give a crap anymore...

I think the vast majority of people feel that they don't really have a say anymore. The government is going to do whatever the hell they want to and we are just along for the ride. Not only that but we are so far removed from our government that it isn't even funny. Our leaders are supposed to be a refection of the people doing work in the spirit of the people. Unfortunately, most are extremely wealthy business men and women with only one agenda...line their own pockets.

Secondly, I think that the youth of America has been lulled into the virtual world of computers, video games and television. Who needs to care about the real world when you can just create your own on a computer? People say, "they are just kids..let em' play". Yes, but these kids are one day going to govern this country and make up the rules of the game for all of us.

Speaking of Gore, maybe all of this Apathy is because of him...didn't he "invent the Internet"?

Humans by nature are apathetic. If it's hidden from sight, as is with most if not all current legislation, people won't question it. They'd rather sit in front of the TV all day watching soaps or "real life" TV. Video games have ruined the minds of youth (for the ones that partake). Parenting has slacked extremely bad. Parents should pull their children away from the TV and games, and give their kid a book. Preferably a book on the Constitution, since that is the only thing that "promises" their future.

Originally posted by PrepareForTheWorst
I think the vast majority of people feel that they don't really have a say anymore. The government is going to do whatever the hell they want to and we are just along for the ride. Not only that but we are so far removed from our government that it isn't even funny. Our leaders are supposed to be a refection of the people doing work in the spirit of the people. Unfortunately, most are extremely wealthy business men and women with only one agenda...line their own pockets.

I agree. That is what people think. But the people that think this are wrong, dead wrong. The government we have in place today, whether they like it or not, work for us, the people. We control the government. Tell everyone you know that shows the apathetic idealism they are the reason our government works the way it does today. Don't be nice about it. We cannot be afraid to correct the problems we now have, just as George Washington wasn't afraid to stand up to the King of England. Sure, you will be criticized. Sure you put yourself in harms way, but without spilling our blood (if that's what it takes) for the safety and security of our children's futures... future generations will have nothing... zero... zilch... nada.

Get the picture.

Secondly, I think that the youth of America has been lulled into the virtual world of computers, video games and television. Who needs to care about the real world when you can just create your own on a computer? People say, "they are just kids..let em' play". Yes, but these kids are one day going to govern this country and make up the rules of the game for all of us.

Refer to my 1st paragraph. Unplug the computer, unless, you explain and teach that the computer is a educational tool. Please, by all means, use the internet to research your rights. Make a website. Become active in online petitions. Send electronic mail to your congresspeople. Send correspondence to your local paper via the web. Do what you have to do. Just do something.

Speaking of Gore, maybe all of this Apathy is because of him...didn't he "invent the Internet"?

1968 - ARPA awarded the ARPANET contract to BBN. BBN had selected a Honeywell minicomputer as the base on which they would build the switch. The physical network was constructed in 1969, linking four nodes: University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. The network was wired together via 50 Kbps circuits.
source

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know for sure, but this was the best I could come up with.

Originally posted by PrepareForTheWorst
There are many reasons why I think people (at least in the US) don't give a crap anymore...

I think the vast majority of people feel that they don't really have a say anymore. The government is going to do whatever the hell they want to and we are just along for the ride. Not only that but we are so far removed from our government that it isn't even funny. Our leaders are supposed to be a refection of the people doing work in the spirit of the people. Unfortunately, most are extremely wealthy business men and women with only one agenda...line their own pockets.

Secondly, I think that the youth of America has been lulled into the virtual world of computers, video games and television. Who needs to care about the real world when you can just create your own on a computer? People say, "they are just kids..let em' play". Yes, but these kids are one day going to govern this country and make up the rules of the game for all of us.

Speaking of Gore, maybe all of this Apathy is because of him...didn't he "invent the Internet"?

I could type a response but it would probably be plagarism because this is exactly how I feel. The only thing I would disagree with is not children playing games, but what makes children play games.

When I was a kid ( i know it makes me sound old but I am only 20 years old lol ) I could ride my back 2 miles to the supermarket to buy candy. I could play in the woods behind my families farm. I could ride around the neighborhood with friends, my curfew was when the street lights came on.

Now, it is child abduction after child abduction. While the actuall numbers have not changed, our paranoia has.. kids cannot go out side any more.. parents don't let them stay out as late, cannot ride as far for fear of some men grabbing you from a van on the side of the road. Who knows, maybe we will be all homeschooled in 20 more years because slutty teachers keep trying to have sex with our children.

I think we rather issolate our selves in our own little imaginary world where no troubles can get to us, and when they do, ignore them.

I believe the answer to your question is floride.

Maybe because 5% of the population is rich and the rest of us are stuck doing jobs day after day. Maybe because we watch so much porn and we aren't getting laid. Maybe because our family members are dieing in Iraq. Maybe because our government doesnt give a # about us.

There are many parts to the machine, each vital and unique. One rule of thumb is to keep the populace dumb: the education system, TV, religion, fluoride(study its toxic effects), etc.

Maybe because we are lied to by the people we are supposed to trust. And the truth is as elusive as a spirite.

It's so much more comfortable to live in a personal lie than one manufactured for you by the elite. But for some the manufactured lie works just fine.

It takes a lot of energy to see thru the lies and most just resign themselves to a fantasy life that has just enough reality to make day to day living tollerable.

What is causing the apathy in our society?

All the junk and poison that we are taking into our bodies everyday with or without USDA approval.

Overstimulation through entertainment media and advertising of products that seek to divert us from facing the deeper issues in life and focus instead on short term solutions.

Educational standards and bias.

The internet is also pumping so much specialized information out there than one can literaly become so involved in their personal self interests that they cannot socialize outside of the internet medium.

No one talks in public anymore, coffeehouses - once the haven of scholars and intellectuals - are now full of trivial chatter and talk of people who think espresso needs to have whipped cream on it in order to be palpitable.

We are becoming softer, more self centered and more arrogant than any previous generation - and we're being sold this ideology en masse.

We ask for substance, we get fillers and substitutes.

[edit on 15-1-2007 by GENERAL EYES]

Well, I really don't care.

Seriously, most Westerners are nowdays rich and comfortable and entertaining, and they have plenty of freedom as long as they don't push the boundaries too much.
Life is comfy.

Life is a Long Quiet River. Why feel the need to rock the boat?

As has been said, I do agree with the thought that people are being deliberately distracted with entertainment.

90% of people have television, it's reminiscent of the days of the colluseums; no one gets too awfully worked up, because they're being actively distracted.

We are apathetic because we simply are alive. You work 9 to 5, get off work, have some food, get whatever non-work related tasks you can get done (which never seems to be enough) and then you go to sleep again to start the process over again. Do that five times a week then when friday evening rolls around your brain wants only to be in neutral, because you've been busting ass all week to get things done and make money to pay your bills that obviously wont go anywhere.

If we all stopped and got involved in all the things other than work and survival we would find out very quickly that employers don't much have a need for us if we wont work, thus being out of a job and out on the streets quite quickly, so then what good would the time invested bring us?

Seriously, most Westerners are nowdays rich and comfortable and entertaining, and they have plenty of freedom as long as they don't push the boundaries too much.
Life is comfy.

I really have to point out the terrible inaccuracy of this, most 'westerners' such as those of us in the US are far from rich, in fact last time i read up on it the top 1% of earners in the country made more than the bottom 99% combined, which given the severance packages awarded to CEOs and similar benfits they get its not out of the realm of belief that it still remains the same to this day.

People don't read or watch the actual useful TV (news, history, etc) anymore because we can't take the overdose of absolutly depressing things being fed to us at a blistering rate. Child abductions, murder, rape, political scandals, war, terrorism, etc is just too much to absorb in 24x7 and that is ALL that media is these days, the worst of the worst. Why should we subject ourselves to such terrible things day in and day out, just so some company gets better ratings or makes a bigger return on their newspapers?

As I stated earlier we are apathetic because we are alive and struggling to tread water, our free time has better uses than absorbing ourselves in something that doesn't care what we think outside of elections, and generally does what it wants irregardless of our stance on things. I don't know about anybody else but staying employed, having a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my stomach and the bill collectors at bay are my primary concerns; not a government that never has listened to me and never will...

Life is comfy.

Life is a Long Quiet River. Why feel the need to rock the boat?

First post here , feel the need to finally give up being a lurker and join the fray

I'm an Australian and far from being a " long quiet river " , life here is comfortable for maost but full of undue stress , most of it caused by the tv , radio and newspaper media .

Our biggest threat down under is the drought we are suffering and all the media can comment on is the occasional few who flaunt our household garden watering regulations , it's got so bad that on one of our current affair programs ( Today Tonight , A Current Affair ) they champion a bloke who dobbed in his neighbour who used his lawn watering sprinkler for a couple of hours more than the current regs alllow

The real solution to this problem is better water regulation upstream , ie - get rid of cotton farms and rice paddies in Queensland , massive amount's of water wasted ,and better irrigation teqhniques downstream in the Murray

Just wait till the Big Brother state finally emerges and the boat really does get rocked , friend v friend , neighbour v neighbour will be the norm .

Live free do not get caught up in this media manipulted sham that is reported as western society

Peace - NB

Its a combination of TV "programs", video games and flouride.

Dumbing down and controlling the sheeple!

Fluoride.


No joke, the Nazi's used it on the concentration camp prisoners to keep them from having a mass riot and killing all the guards.

So, when the Nazis left germany for the USA after ww2, they took alot of their ideas with them.

And you just know big government cannot stand idle by and let a good idea lay down and die... So fluoride for the masses it was...

and the rest they say is history.

I'd venture an opinion, but I'm just too lazy.

Depression is epidemic - or so the drug dispensing stats say. Maybe people aren't so much indolent as shell-shocked, habituated to suffering they feel powerless to change and alienated from the actions of the government they elected to represent them.

It's true many people are working two/three jobs just to get by and most families need two incomes to have enough money to raise their children. Under those circumstances - maybe it's exhaustion.

i don't care...

honestly i blame the HIPPIES, the wise sage Cartman is so right with his hatred of the hippies. Hippies were the anti-society, anti-whatever, it feels good do it.

First of all our present government is the problem of the way today society has evolved. Infoholic because our government has evolved also into a self-centered entity far away from the principles that our founders were envisioning.

Rockpuck again you point out to another problem in our evolving society.

When the government tells to American let the government take care of you, they actually mean let America be taken by your government.

We work two and three times more that our parents used to 40 years ago and they were able to do it with only the male parent and did ok.

Therefore, we have become a nation of tired, anti depressant, big spender, propaganda manipulated, prescribe drugs induced ignorant society.

In addition, our government likes it like that, so we the people do not made to much fuss to their dealings and their affairs with the word that will benefit the elites in powers while stepping over the people that they swore to protect and defend.

But is not only us, many governments in the world has done before to their own citizens but as usual with disastrous ramifications when the people wake up and fight back.

General eyes

I agree with you in your post. But also that this has to do with the education that our children has been receiving in the last 25 years or lack off, while suppressing the individuality of our children will ensure a more submissive and afraid society that Governments can manipulate at will.

Then when our children rebels against the unatural state they put them through they become victims and the trouble makers.

No only our nation has been, manipulated, but turn it against each other while keeping the citizens so blind by ideologies that they cannot grasp the real issues behind the manipulation.

Why governments keep bringing rules and laws to control populations? Because they are afraid of the free thinkers that will wake up the sleeping masses.

Our society vilified free thinkers and tags them troublemakers, anti government, anti Americans and a danger to the rest of society, because they force others to open their minds and to see things in a different way.

The best way to control is through the media also, after leaving school children are bombarded by media geared propaganda that enforce already what has been drilled into them at schools.

While we know, that is something wrong with our society and the way our nation is run, we still fear retaliation because we have been told that to rise up and vocally complain is not right, it only brings violence and are severe repercussions for it.

Fear and the teaching of what is right or not by others that are all into the control and manipulation of the masses is working to keep us with our mouths shuts and our feelings hidden.

But we are after all humans and we are just part of the animal kingdom, when an animal is kept in captivity but thinking that is still free while teaching the animal to behave and to be tame and respect his master . . . sooner of later the animal either die of apathy, sadness or end killing up his own masters.

American society is in the border of either dying of apathy or fighting back.

That is how nations die and other flourish.

It looks like there is a lot of consensus here. When are we gonna change something?

We just have to admid that the things we sometimes trust or like the most are changing peoples moods and behaviors. It's a manipulation industry. That's the media, the news, advertisings and politics wich are all in the hands of secret societies. Or societies with secrets, as they like to state it.

Turn of your tv, radio and don't follow any unlogical rules or laws. Laws, regulations and rules are mostly created behind closed doors. After a bombardment of arguments by the media. If you resist you probably get in trouble with the powers that be. The elite has been ruling for thousands of years, and they have manipulation techniques you can not even imagine. It's not only the governments of this time, it has been al governments since the beginnings of time.
As I said, it's a industry that creates the people they need for their agenda's.
Do we want a New World Order, as stated by senior Bush?
Maybe if they explain in detail what they mean. But they don't..

How many of the members here share this idea?

[edit on 16-1-2007 by buddhaLight]