why the steep decline in civilizations?

[Lee]

I just saw a DVD titled 'Remembering Chicago' where people that grew up in chicago in the 1930s were interviewed. One thing that stuck in my mind was people said that on a hot summer night people would go down to the nearest park in their pajamas with a pillow and blanket and sleep all night in the park without one thought of fear of any kind. A 15 year old girl could do that all by herself and have nothing to fear. And they could do that in any park in the whole city of Chicago. Of course the same thing was true of all cities big and small in the U.S.(and probably the whole world). People didn't lock their doors when they left for the day and a hard crime like murder was rarely heard of. There was Al Capone and the mafia wars but they weren't preying upon people in parks. Their war was between mafia's. All the cities has true neighborhoods and not like neighborhoods now where people try to make a neighborhood happen but it rarely works.

Now fast forward to Chicago today. Fear is the dominating thought in peoples heads and that fear is even with people when they go to bed at night. At night most neighborhoods turn into ghost towns where once people used to be out enjoying themselves. The old saying nowadays is 'trust no one'. All cities have declined to same extent as Chicago and they are getting worse.

When I think about this it seems WW2 was the pivot point in time when things started going down the tube but I am at a loss to understand why. Maby the subject is beyond the scope of anyone to really understand. I know its a broad subject with no easy answers and maybe we'll never really know. But naybe some people have some ideas. And maybe there are some links that go into this disturbing subject.

[Conman]

I think the major contributing factor would be the population explosion that occurred right after WWII, including the migratory shift of populations from rural to urban

[Alfacentori]

Have a look at the Industrial Revolution and its impacts!

Work life balance shift!

The widening wealth gap

The end of the Welfare state and movement to Laissez-faire style economic and political governance.

These will give you a basic idea of some of the main factors

Alfa

[Sloppy Joe2]

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=120361

[LaoSexMachine]

There's no decline. It's just different . We don't see the future but we always have the past to look upon.

[nullterm]

Urbanization. More people fighting over resources. More people crammed into the same space. Not to say there weren't problems before (there were) but when you have a larger population in a small space, you're bound to have issues and also hear alot more bad stories.

Look on the flip side, we're not exactly afraid of polio or influenza like people were half a century ago. It's all give & take. If the world suddenly decided to switch to a more decentralized life style, then you'd start hearing about all kinds of different problems, while the challenges we face (traffic jams) would disappear.

[ThatHistoryDude]

If murder was unheard of in the US during the early half of the last century it was not because it was not happening just not being reported as gruesomely in the media.

http://www.jrsainfo.org/programs/Historical.pdf

The murder rate now in the US is not all that much higher than it was in the 30s.

I think it boils down more to distrust due in large part to the mobility of the population in an industrial country. We do not spend generation after generation in the same part of the same town like people did in preindustrial civilizations. Therefore we no longer build the same interfamilial relationships as we did in the past. We no longer know and no longer trust those around us.

Media over reporting bad news has no doubt aided this trend.

[Kilgor]

Media over reporting bad news has no doubt aided this trend.

If it bleeds, it leads.

[ronnieraygun]

I just saw a DVD titled 'Chicago' where people that grew up in chicago in the 1930s were interviewed.


Did you say "Hi" to Renee Zellwiger for me? I heard she's quite a piece of talentless ass.

[Zoomie]

It must be the end of the Semester for Lee, as he's posting a lot more frequently, and has a lot more papers he wants us to write for him! woot

[Mu-Meson]

The end of the Welfare state and movement to Laissez-faire style economic and political governance.
I think you have that backwards. I'd point to the massive growth of the welfare state. I'd would hardly say the welfare state has ended in Europe, and it is slowly, but surely growing in America.

[vryhpyammoadded]

I’d say these primarily, less fear of immediate public and state reprisal increasing the numbers of active psychotics, growing irrational leftist passive/aggressive apologist no fault lunacy becoming the norm among the citizenry, the catastrophic decline of the nuclear family and resultant loss of morality education, worse the Hollywood or state teaching morality, the disarming of the individual and erosion of the right to defend oneself and ones community.
It’s a huge list that goes on and on but simply put, it’s all because of the decline of the individual.

[Bringer of Greater Things]

There's no decline. It's just different . We don't see the future but we always have the past to look upon.

Most violent ****** crimes went unreported.
Rape, child molestation, etc. were not talked about.

[Kilgor]

Most violent ****** crimes went unreported.
Rape, child molestation, etc. were not talked about.

Exactly, can you imagine a show like southpark in the 1950's which joked about it ?

[Creampuff]

I think you have that backwards. I'd point to the massive growth of the welfare state. I'd would hardly say the welfare state has ended in Europe, and it is slowly, but surely growing in America.

The welfare state is alive and well where i live. My sister has a university education and has lived off the tax payer since leaving varsity, lucky for some. I find it disgusting really!

[Mastermind]

I call it "omniphobia"...fear of everything. Fear is a controller. "Big Cheese" wants to kill the guys on the other side of the hill...who are really doing nothing of importance, except they might have shat in his cheerios one morning by accident...he convinces his underlings that the folks on the other side of the hill are a threat...makes his followers fear them...then says..."Charge". People tend to kill what they fear easier than killing those who pose no real threat.

Pols today have discovered we are really just so many sheep...we can be made to fear everything...drugs, car crashes, rapists, child molestors, illegals, Muslims, guns, caffien, trans-fats, sugar, sunlight and warm summer weather.. the list is really endless. The more we can be made fearful, the more we can be controlled.

In reality, the world is no more dangerous now than it was in 1930 Chicago. But, we have been conditioned to fear what it really is...a death trap (no one gets out of this life alive). In 1930, we had a much more healthy outlook...we accepted life as it came, enjoyed it, the summer night air, a pleasant after dinner smoke, a friendly drink at the corner pub with friends, greazy hamburgers with cheese, we loved pancakes, eggs and bacon, and even played on monkey bars and teeth removing see-saws, and played games of tag at school, and enjoyed an outing to the local garbage dump, plinking cans and rats. We even enjoyed big fire crackers in July and the smell of burning leaves in Autum. We did not fear the risk of living as we now fear it in every way possible.

I'm so glad I lived when I did...and I am greatly saddened that my Grandkids will never live that life or ever even chatch a small glimpse of it.

Thanks government and ass-hat politicians...thanks for nothing.

[little icebear]

I call it "omniphobia"...fear of everything. Fear is a controller. "Big Cheese" wants to kill the guys on the other side of the hill...who are really doing nothing of importance, except they might have shat in his cheerios one morning by accident...he convinces his underlings that the folks on the other side of the hill are a threat...makes his followers fear them...then says..."Charge". People tend to kill what they fear easier than killing those who pose no real threat.

Pols today have discovered we are really just so many sheep...we can be made to fear everything...drugs, car crashes, rapists, child molestors, illegals, Muslims, guns, caffien, trans-fats, sugar, sunlight and warm summer weather.. the list is really endless. The more we can be made fearful, the more we can be controlled.

In reality, the world is no more dangerous now than it was in 1930 Chicago. But, we have been conditioned to fear what it really is...a death trap (no one gets out of this life alive). In 1930, we had a much more healthy outlook...we accepted life as it came, enjoyed it, the summer night air, a pleasant after dinner smoke, a friendly drink at the corner pub with friends, greazy hamburgers with cheese, we loved pancakes, eggs and bacon, and even played on monkey bars and teeth removing see-saws, and played games of tag at school, and enjoyed an outing to the local garbage dump, plinking cans and rats. We even enjoyed big fire crackers in July and the smell of burning leaves in Autum. We did not fear the risk of living as we now fear it in every way possible.

I'm so glad I lived when I did...and I am greatly saddened that my Grandkids will never live that life or ever even chatch a small glimpse of it.

Thanks government and ass-hat politicians...thanks for nothing.

Very good posting. Couldn´t agree more.