Posted on 11/18/2018 5:12:59 AM PST by deandg99
What in the world has happened to us? Despite our ridiculously high standard of living compared to the rest of the world, America is a deeply unhappy place. When I was growing up, there were no “smart phones”, the Internet did not exist, if you wanted to buy something you had to actually go to a store and hunt for it, and most vehicles were pieces of junk that completely broke down after a few years. Today, we have hundreds of television channels, we have more movies than we could ever possibly watch, video games have become wildly creative and there is an app for almost anything that you could possibly need on your phone just a few clicks away. We are literally drowning in entertainment, and yet we are far less happy than previous generations. In fact, the CDC says that the suicide rate in the United States has risen by 34 percent since the year 2000…
Men who work in construction and extraction had the highest rates of suicide in the United States, according to a report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For women, suicide rates were highest among those who work in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media.
From 2000 to 2016, the suicide rate among the US working-age population — people 16 to 64 — increased 34%, the report says.
(Excerpt) Read more at dcdirtylaundry.com ...
Spiritual crisis, nation-wide
When you have no relationship with God your life becomes very lonely.
Social capital and communities have been obliterated. People don’t have the support networks they did in previous generations. Combine that with a sense of purposelessness and terrible economic conditions and no wonder people despair.
Smart Phones!
Feminism good for box wine sales awful for women
Jesus says, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world,but loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
The people are being drawn away from first things
I think it’s more than smartphones. People stopped interacting communally even when I was a kid. When I was very young in the 80s I remember going to block parties and picnics with neighbors. Then by the 90s that stopped, now nobody even talks to their neighbors at all. Smartphones seemed to just put whatever is going on in overdrive. We simply do not live in a high trust, friendly society anymore, and I don’t know how we could even fix it at this point.
Throw in dysfunctional families broken apart by high divorce rates.
Compare with the rural Amish community and statistics.
“Of course the authorities are at a loss as to how to solve this crisis.“
Not one mention of religion.
Then the author turns it into a battle against poverty and male lack of complassion for it.
However, all the data is pre-Trump. 3.3 million Americans have gotten off food stamps since February 2017.
People work too hard, there is nothing left when you get home. You sleep in on Sunday instead of going to church. People get married later and may or may not have children. Women work and are as tired as their husbands. They plop down in front of the TV and instead of lighthearted comedy that relieves stress they get ugly nasty programming that insists you are a bad person unless you hate Trump.
We need God. We need to recognize that.
Sun avoidance may also play a role.
It's far more then a spiritual crisis.
Systemic destructive ideologies like cultural Marxism being pushed every single day in media, Hollywood, print, internet by progressives and leftist bent on transforming our culture to attain power and control.
Most Americans simply want to left alone and not be culturally nudged hourly to feel shame and remorse on who they are...
People used to have friends.
People used to have communities.
Now people have “networks” through smart phones and Facebook. It’s not the same. I know people with 500 “friends” and they’ve never met any of them.
People are lonely and they don’t even know they’re lonely.
That's a pretty alarming statistic. Likely a combination of effects, including overprescribing medications that are supposed to cure depression. Basically bandaids over underlying mental problems.
A media that endlessly bleats how bad things are and now has taken to bleating how bad Americans are is also to blame. One can't be barraged day and night by the media about every day being the end of the world without it causing a corrosive effect on ones well being. I see the ill effects with some media-addicted friends.
The rise in the suicide rate parallels the rise in the use of illegal drugs. Scrambling the human brain with alien chemicals is not consistent with mental health. Just another consequence of hedonistic epicurean behavior.
I think all the entertainment media create unrealistic expectations. I can relate to that.
During the 1970’s, TV shows portrayed people living unrealistic lifestyles. One that had an influence on me was the TV show Banecek. He was middle aged, rich, dated beautiful women, drove a 1941 Packard roadster, lived in a mansion in Boston. I wanted to live like that.
As a result, I didn’t marry until I was 53. I lived pretty well, bought a historic townhouse, was self employed, dated some beautiful women, but never for very long, and I have had several convertibles, but I often experienced long periods of time between relationships.
Fortunately, my unrealistic expectations did not make me suicidal, but I can see how they might do that in some people.
Also, fortunately, I changed some of my priorities, and met the love of my life, with whom I have been married for the best fifteen years of my life. As a result of influenza induced encephalitis, I’ve become disabled, had to sell my accounting practice, and review my goals.
People need to constantly review what they want out of life and whether that is realist, and if the entertainment media are showing unrealistic lifestyles.
Also some patience is required in attaining goals. Perceived failure is not a reason for suicide, it should be viewed as a learning experience. Most successful people have suffered many failures and setbacks, and learned from them.
Also, I recently obtained the whole Banecek series on DVD. I’ve realized how unhappy I would be living like him.
TV, entertainment and smartphones do not equal happiness. What is missing is human interaction and trust. I see teenagers walking around like zombies, staring at the damn thing in their hands, trying desperately to avoid interacting with the people around them. Thanks to crime, people don’t trust people who they don’t know.
Human interaction is missing. Trust is missing. There is no public square, where people mingled, shopped, talked and interacted. Facebook is not a substitute for it.
In an isolationist society like this one, yes, many people are unhappy. You cannot act against human nature and be happy.
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