I am with you there! Yet I don’t remember being miserable nor pessimistiCc about the future, even with Carter’s “misery index.” I don’t remember my peers being miserable or pessimistic, either.
It may be because we weren’t that far removed from the realities of life.
The “history started when they were born” crowd can’t even comprehend a black and white TV with no remote control and an antenna in the back yard or a telephone attached to the wall and shared with not only the whole family, but on a line shared with neighbors. They certainly can’t remember not having even those things (I remember my family getting our first telephone and our first TV).
I think that information overload also contributes to our problems. Our news came from an evening TV broadcast, a daily or weekly newspaper, and maybe a news magazine. Now “news” from anywhere on Earth is available 4/7/365 and contributes to pessimism.
That, and our “celebrity culture” which makes fancy New York apartments and Malibu beach homes and a party-all-the-time life seem like the norm so that more ordinary lives seem deprived.
It seems that without having real problems people are having to invent them, thus social justice, PC, and the like.
[[I am with you there! Yet I don’t remember being miserable nor pessimistiCc about the future, even with Carter’s “misery index.” I don’t remember my peers being miserable or pessimistic, either.
It may be because we weren’t that far removed from the realities of life.]]
“We were closer to the land” and much more grounded. We were also surrounded in most cases by adults that also went through tough times and always related their experiences.
This is the missing component today. No perspective, lack of self control and too much emotionalism.