Yesterday and Tomorrow

[imoldernu]

Tomorrow...
You may enjoy a view of some things that are already yesterday.

BabaMail -17 Inventions that Prove We're Living in the Futur

A time machine that looks at what most of us haven't seen... yet.

Check out a waste basket that follows you around, and internet speeds pf 722Mbps.

 

[donheff]

Recently I read the rational optimist. If you are feeling down about the future, you should read it.
link

Along the same lines,
The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, is a good look at how things are getting better.

 

[jollystomper]

In case anyone hasn't seem this... a humorous take on things:

 

[Meadbh]

Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

 

[REWahoo]

Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

 

[marko]

I keep these handy for when I hear people complain about young people:

Yes, and what happened to those cultures? The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians?

They were at the top of their game and then they got complacent, got too self-absorbed and their civilizations fell like a rock. Now they're no more than tourist destinations.

Maybe those who were complaining about the youth back then were on to something.

We're next, I'm afraid.

 

[MRG]

Great thread. I have fond memories of playing till dark. The older neighbor boys and I would walk a mile to a little grocery, picking up pop bottles along the way. Ours was always paid for by our returns. End of summer LLWS, couple weeks before school started. Mom would drop us off, made sure we had some extra change for snacks and that all important dime for the pay phone. It seemed so ideal especially for boys('60s). Not quite Mayberry, but it seemed pretty close.

One memory (unpleasant), was some stuff that happened, that could have been much worse. I recall being 7 years old taking my first swimming lesson at the Y. A 20 something instructor tried to get the 7 y.o. boys to go skinny dipping, as he was. All refused, but nobody said a word. There was an older man there too, he didn't coherence any of the boys, but he let it continue.

Next class, I threw a major fit, begging Mom not to make me go. She wanted to know what happened, as I had been excited to learn to swim. As I told her she stopped the car turned around for home, think we stopped at a soda fountain on the way home(one of Mom's ways to make things better). Dad talked to me that night to have me tell him exactly what happened, told me he'd teach me to swim. He reassured me I did the right thing, not to worry because right was always right.

Dad was a supporter of Rotary, UW, and the Y, as were many of his friends. The next day he was at the Y talking with whoever was in charge. True to his word, I never took swimming lessons from anyone but him. Mom called the other parents to tell them what happened, every kid was pulled out.

Dad and I did do a lot of activities at the Y after that, father & son breakfasts, bowling but never swam there.

I'm sure both men were fired, but probably just moved somewhere else. Of couse there were no predators then, so who knows what these guys did somewhere else.

Are things better, how do we know?

Edit to add: My best buddy and I in our Jr. Sr. years always had our shotguns in our cars, during hunting season. The Vice Principal knew it, he also knew he had a standing invite to go hunting on the way home with us.

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[38Chevy454]

I do agree that kids should be outside more and have physical active play, too much sedentary lifestyles now. I do think that we have dangers now that were either not reported or at a lower frequency in the past.

One thing I will say has changed, or at least by my observations seems to be different now is there is a significant entitlement mentality that did not exist before. Not to take this down a political path, but it used to be that people would be responsible for themselves and charities would pick up the slack. Now it is big daddy gov't and ever-increasing gov't influence in everyone's lives. When I was a kid in 70's, welfare and other programs were not something to strive for; which now seems to be a goal for many. Living off gov't handouts was not common and few kids at school had free or reduced cost lunch. Now it seems gov't wants every kid to have free breakfast and lunch; and from reports most kids do not like the food and throw it out!

 

[Lsbcal]

Our news sources are a very narrow slice of the Earth's happenings.

Just go out and take a hike. Get away from the chatter. Life is really actually quite pleasant.

 

[sengsational]

Along the same lines,
The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, is a good look at how things are getting better.

I must admit to having tried to read that book. I just couldn't get through it. Too much of a treatise for academics, IMHO.

 

[donheff]

I must admit to having tried to read that book. I just couldn't get through it. Too much of a treatise for academics, IMHO.

I have to admit to skimming. Library book, so free.

 

[Walt34]

But while I am on the subject of jungle gyms, at least they society improved by putting rubber or wood chips underneath them. Ours growing up was concrete. Always seemed to be blood stains somewhere all the time on the concrete.....

At least they knew better than that where I grew up. The bloodstains don't show nearly as much on asphalt.

 

[Live Free]

It is all a matter of perspective. Back in the "good ole days", blacks (even decorated veterans) couldn't vote in a lot of places and could be lynched on a whim, birth control was illegal in some states, cops used to beat up "queers" just for the fun of it. Women had to quit their jobs when they got married. God help you if you were an unmarried woman that "got" pregnant.

Sorry, but I'll take now over then.

Amen! Not too long ago my mom (born in the late 30s) was telling me about how she couldn't wear pants to work (!) and had to hide her pregnancy from her employer or she would be let go. Women had very limited career options and their entire financial security was tied to their husband. Yikes. While the thought of mom staying home to raise the kids can be considered idyllic, there are financial risks in doing so. I believe today the choice is far greater for women (and men, too).

Maybe a lot of folks on this board live in the city. I'm in the suburbs and their are tons of kids playing outside all the time. Mine included. I volunteer judge at science fairs at our local HS and I am blown away at the talent and vision of these kids. They are way ahead of where I was in HS. Recently I attended a sustainability design competition for university students and again was very impressed with the technical capabilities and overall vision and solutions these kids brought to all kinds of environmental problems. Don't despair! Our nation's youth are doing just fine.

As for our political system - well, that I have less hope will be fixable. It is broken.

 

[Mulligan]

At least they knew better than that where I grew up. The bloodstains don't show nearly as much on asphalt.

I bet there was some deep conversations back in the day deciding which to install under the monkey bars....is the softer asphalt worth sacrificing the smoother texture of concrete?


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[MRG]

I bet there was some deep conversations back in the day deciding which to install under the monkey bars....is the softer asphalt worth sacrificing the smoother texture of concrete?


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They continue today, now the debate, is the rubber mulch harmful.

Personally I liked the concrete. Let you claim a piece of the playground, "that's my blood!"

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[Mr._Graybeard]

Mom was born in 1914 on a farm in North Dakota. Her father died when she was about 4 of complications from a mastoid infection. She had two stepfathers as she grew up, both of whom also died young. When she turned 16 she moved to Chicago to work as a live-in nanny because there wasn't enough food in the house for her to stay there.

I believe there was an attempt to take advantage of her sexually while she was a working girl -- she hinted at that a time or two but didn't go to detail. Fortunately for her, she was a mesomorph who had experience handling a team of draft horses. A wisp of a girl, she was not.

As she became an adult, she got a job at the old Stewart-Warner factory, built a nest egg and bought her own house. At that time is was rare for a single woman to own real estate. I believe she had to hire a man to act as a co-signer in the transaction as a woman couldn't buy property on her own back then.

 

[RonBoyd]

At least I didn't need to be concerned about this kind of foolishness when I was 19 or 20 years old:

"We just won a national monetary policy competition!"
"What was your policy?"
"It was a three pronged approach recommending data dependent forward guidance, continuing with accommodation because the balance of risk is weighted more heavily toward tightening too soon, and a modification to the longer run goal strategy to explicitly state the symmetric nature of the inflation target. Anyway…. we beat Princeton!"

Humans of New York

 

[audreyh1]

Well said. As a woman, I can't say I recall this "idyllic" time in the past which trumped the current day in any way.

+1

Women 10 years my senior weren't "allowed" to be engineers. They had to settle for math major and be an engineer's assistant. Thank God that had changed when it was my turn and I only had to put up with incredulous questions about why I would want to.

 

[audreyh1]

I keep these handy for when I hear people complain about young people:


“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates 469 – 533 B.C.E


"The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them".
Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274


"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
Plato, 4th Century BC


"When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint".
Hesiod, 8th century BC


"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control."
Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

Great list, thanks!

It's somehow reassuring to know that curmudgeonly griping goes all the way back to 6000 BC - although that last one is maybe a little suspect since the actual tomb is not listed.