I often wonder why some people have become so self-centered these days, and not really caring towards other people. There are people who see someone fall and do not bother to ask 'are you okay' or offer help in any way. Or people see someone struggling with packages, struggling to pick up something they have dropped, or struggling to get onto a bus or train and need a little help...I always at least offer to help others. Is it that people are afraid of being blown off when they offer to help? That they fear that helping someone will be 'enabling' that person in some way not to deal with their problem? Or is it that some people are so hardened that they always think 'me first'? Or that some people were not raised to be caring human beings?

Welcome to America

It's just sickening these days that it's every man(or woman) to or for him(or her)self. When did SOME people really stop caring...in the 70's, the 'ME' decade.  I have always been a caring person, who was taught from childhood to not be extremely self-centered...I grew up in the 1960's...when caring for others was the cool thing to do. The 70's and 80's promoted GREED and SELF-CENTEREDNESS IMO. Yes I know I have to care for me first at certain times...but I reach out to others by doing volunteer work...and it makes me feel like I'm doing something positive rather than just wallowing in my mental illness and doing the 'pity me' thing.

After "911/Ground Zero", tsunami wave off the coast of Indonesia, recent hurricanes, People responded with an outpouring of love and caring. But I noticed that people on a daily basis have become more callus and cold towards other human beings. I don't know why, unless it has something to do with Christian biblical prophecy. People like Bill Gates & Donald Trump are an example of meglomaniac's, so perhaps their influencing the citizens.  "You're the missing link" mentality, hey, it's ok to insult people, we deem inferior, seems a way of life. "if only fools are kind....." is a lyric from a 1960's song, so perhaps people are the same now as then.

I miss the other Bush's "kinder & gentler America"; after that fatefull Sept 11th, we as a country had to prove our 'manhood', provng we weren't a bunch of wimps, so,  perhaps that's how this uncaring stuff began.

It is a more cynical world out there nowadays.  Where often, people that take low-paying (but just as hard working) fast food jobs or grocery store jobs are ridiculed for being stupid or not being able to read. (A friend of my husband's came over yesterday, was bragging about his latest raise which puts him into the 70k a year bracket, and he was making fun of the people that work at McDonalds as if because they weren't making what he made, he was somehow superior and they all depended on the pictures on the cash registers to complete his order.)  I tried to state that I admire people that take those kinds of jobs, as yes, they get paid crap wages, they don't get tips, they work more hours (and don't get to play on the internet at work like alot of so-called hard working office workers do) and STILL have to try to make rent or utilities or child care, etc.  He agreed, but it was more of a "yeah I hear you are saying something, but I still feel they are second class citizens" kind of agreement, since he restated his whole point of view only a few minutes later.  ::)  At that point, I just kept my mouth shut since it was a waste of breathe trying to defend the food industry workers.  :-X :-[

My husband pointed out to me before when I talked about how it seemed people were less caring, is it's been slowing happening without much notice for many years.  Shows that have sarcastic humour that degrade another character have been prevelant on television for years and somehow that attitude has become the norm in today's culture.  Shows (even though, I too, liked them) like Family Ties (Alex making fun of his sister Mallory every chance he got) and Mama's family (Thelma Harper being sarcastic towards everybody), RoseAnne being the same way.  Now it's part of today's culture because it's on television.  No longer is is Mayberry RFD or Leave it to Beaver, where people were polite to each other.  It's sad really.

Maybe I'm weird or something, but it really bothers me to see someone else suffering, physically or emotionally..and not really being able to do a dam thing about it except pointing the person to someone or some agency that CAN help them...That's part of what is motivating me to go to college,to study psychology and become a peer counselor...I know what it's like to be a person the rest of the world thinks is flawed, crazy, not all there, 'different', not like 'normal' people...I want to reach out to others like me, especially those who are just coming out of the hospital and are having a hard time adjusting to the outside world...

What's really hard for me to fathom is a mentally ill homeless person who thinks that getting help and GETTING WELL means 'losing their freedom'...

What's really hard for me to fathom is a mentally ill homeless person who thinks that getting help and GETTING WELL means 'losing their freedom'...


Well, I'm not really defending their point-of-view, BUT, some mental health doctors prescribe HIGH doses of these medications that end up zombifying the patients so that they are easier to control and they don't cause a ruckus.  When you or a loved one tries to point out that they may be overmedicating the patient, they state that they are the doctor and that this is the best for the patient.  Meanwhile, the drugs strip you of any personality that you have had, aside from the fact that the medication also causes patients to get diabetes.  I can't say that I necessarily blame people for wanting to stay out of the system.  Not ALL mentally ill people are dangerous to others, they are more dangerous to themselves.  It seems the majority of the mentally ill that get press coverage are the ones that hurt or kill other people in a psychotic state.  Also that the term mentally incompetant gets thrown around far too easily IMO.  It may not be a popular stance to take, but I feel that it is a valid one.

I find we as a society are less bigoted about race and more tolerant of homosexuality and such, but at the same time we are less courteous to one another and less communitarian than we were a generation or two ago.
Ronald Reagan was more successful than anybody at selling greed as "individualism," and with greed comes "I got mine, **** you!"  The popular conservative movement since Reagan got elected has been extremely vocal against the common good.  Social Darwinism (a misnomer, btw) is praised in our popular culture.  There is contempt without apology for people deemed ugly, fat, or poor.  It's not just Rush Limbaugh, you see.  A lot of contemporary social ugliness was exemplified on Seinfeld, one of my favorite sit-coms ever!  There were always lines such as "five percent of the people are datable, the other ninety-five percent get together because of alcohol."  You know, implying that almost everybody out there is not good-looking or rich enough for your time and affection.  Whether or not Seinfeld was satirizing social cruelty is moot.  Either way, it was a trenchant look into the ugliness we accept day in and day out.

Welcome to America


Welcome to France...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051128/ids_photos_wl/r1610376258.jpg

::)

Welcome to France...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051128/ids_photos_wl/r1610376258.jpg

::)


Welcome to Mindlesskneejerkreactionville!

Welcome to Mindlesskneejerkreactionville!


Mindlesskneejerkreactionville ??

Hey, it's a nice place. There's no contempt without apology for people deemed ugly, fat, or poor at good ol' Mindlesskneejerkreactionville. They luvs everybody!

But there are some drawbacks:  they like the GREAT SATAN Ronald Reagan and their only news comes from the mother of all evil, Rush Limbaugh.

And what's even odder is that on any given day only 5% of the people there will find you attractive (not to be confused with the heaven-on-earth, pre-Reagan, 80-90%)

:(

I think people still care.. I know I do.

I think people still care.. I know I do.


But there ARE some inconsiderate ones out there.. there have always been, and always will be. Just focus on the good.