h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I suppose if one forgets an almost constant stream of wars of various sizes, natural disasters, man-made disasters, economic crises, and institutionalized bigotry in all its many forms, then yeah, the past was great.

Rose-colored glasses don't come in my prescription, but that's okay. I like it now, and I'm very excited about the future.


HN

I don't think even nostalgia is as good as it used to be. Yes, people left their front doors open. But did they even have much to steal? You try getting a mangle down the street.

People steal traffic cones and furniture all the time. If there's any kind of value, people are going to have a go.
To be fair, I'd like to WATCH someone get a mangle down the street. There's £200 from you've been framed right there.

>>> Yes, people left their front doors open.

I've been told about that alleged golden age. Of course, a lot of folks used to greet any strangers with a shotgun in those lovely days. One never knew if outsiders were revenuers looking for the still, bankers looking to foreclose, or worse.

Even my across-the-street neighbor knocks, and she's got my house key.

>>>people are going to have a go.


Did I ever mention the time we "borrowed" a 400-pound carved wooden bear from in front of the police station to use as a decoration? Took 6 of us to get him in the pick-up truck. (We put him back, good as new, when we were done.)


HN

i agree with the rose tinted spectacles.
i remember football violence in the late 70s and 80s as pitch battles on the streets - scary stuff at any age but especially a child. Also, not being able to go to places in London because of bomb threats....and the overiding stench of stale cigarettes on all forms of public transport. Oh yes, nipple rub from all those nylon shirts...and that disgusting fruit salad in a tin...in fact most things came in a tin - we had two tin openers to cope.
Whilst I hated the socially divisive and inately repulsive Thatcher years I did agree with the basic premise that people didn't have a right to a job - sadly this didn't breed entrepreneurs, rather accountants (when i left uni 30% of all graduates entered accountancy), which bred a kind of voyeuristic greed. I think of the huge proliferation of estate agents and recruitment consultants and investment banking and management consulting - and potentially nice people becoming soiled with the lure of lucre.

i'm encouraged with the globalised world the internet has encouraged - i'm also encouraged by a tendency to value conversation a little more, even if its by way of a message board... i hope i'm not wrong

I think that if there was a statistic that could show populations vs. what may be deemed as an indescent act, that it might show that things have stayed relatively the same. There is just more people in the world therefore more indescent acts arise. The more congested a population, the more innovations arise to do new acts deemed immoral.

Back in the "Old" times through out history, we still had murder, rape, incest, adultery, premarital sex, and any other fundemental sins you could think of.

Look at a 3rd world countrie's ideals and values they deem as the norm, most of our nations were once just like that. We look at those countries as brutal, uneducated, dark aged,and savage by comparison. So the Golden Ages aren't necessarilly better they just wore nifty clothes and we all noted the "Romance of the time" but not all the bad.