You know guys/gals, so many people think the 60's were truly the decade of happiness, and everything began a slow, but accelerating decline starting with Kennedy's death in '63.

I get the feeling that there really was NOTHING extraordinary about the 60's. Since 1929, people lived with grinding poverty. Since 1940, war. Since 1945, horrific memories and burying of self in work to purge those memories. But of course, after a few years of the money rolling in, and a few years after the horror, people want to let their hair down. And they did.

Simply speaking, for the first time in 30 years, life was GOOD. But comparitively, the decade was outright tame compared to the adrenaline rush that followed.

You simply had millions of people worldwide who finally wised up and remembered it was time, FINALLY, to party. But how things went south. As Vietnam ended, Opec jacked up the price of crude fourfold. Bang, recession. And again in '79. Boom/bust cycles. Cut to 2000, we had NEARLY beaten the cycles, and entering a new era of prosperity. What happens? Bush fixes the elections, and a few months later, a couple of airliners decide to take passengers direct to their offices.

Do we crave conflict or what? Do we NEED kicks? As shit gets worse, we try to intensify our pleasures to compensate. Where is the peace? I can see what Tyler Durden meant in 'Fight Club'. He claimed that a little short-term violence "turned down the volume of life". Inner peace, of a sort.

When will the volume be turned down? When will things just be GOOD? Why does this world teeter from one crisis to another? When will mankind ever get its shit together? Why can't we just co-operate? Can't we consign conflict to a specified time and place so we can deal with it clinically?

Call me naive, but I've already bought into the dream that one day, we WILL all live together harmoniously and happily. Either that, or in a few hundred years the aliens will land on Earth to find a bunch of inert corpses with large traces of Bio-toxins.

My niece came into this world a couple of years ago. I want her to be safe, happy, loving and loved. Why must the fight for all these things be so fucking hard?

Since I was a kid in the 70's, I've seen images of people being happy, communing in peace, be it at the beach, or a barbeque, or a pensioners home. Such harmony should be the rule, not the exception.

Shit, it's the same damn piece of rock, and NONE of us gets more than 150 years on it anyway! Why don't we realise that our happiness, while it rests ultimately with ourselves, is still linked with others? That to treat others well causes happiness in ourselves? Why are there still people who don't get it?

AAAARgh!

Ignore me. I'm just a guy. If I were a good looking babe, I could have done the same thing that ex-pornstar Italian MP did in the first Iraq war. She offered Saddam a night of mind-blowing passion, withdrawing from and reentering her if only he withdrew and DIDN'T reenter Kuwait. I'm sure he'd have mellowed out enough.

Man, she had the right idea. Make love, not war.


Jaybee.

Today it's the poor babies and what they had to endure at that school in Russia that have my heart in shreds. Pick on someone your own size.

__________________

The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
~>My Scribbles<~
==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas

Or better still, pick on nobody. Tis the best policy.

And it's those young teens that inspired the spirit of this thread.


Jaybee.

Amen

__________________

The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
~>My Scribbles<~
==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas

And...Amen!

On the other hand...(*being the devil's advocate*...there are some really good things happening around us too! What about those conjoined babies who have just recently been seperated and have gone home to be nurtured as seperate entities?

I was going to list more good things...but I think I'll leave that up to whoever enters this thread next. Come on Pixies! Unite! And let's find the good to counteract the bad! List something topical and lift jaybee's spirits!

(((((jaybee)))))

__________________
Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Old habits die hard. Lots of these things are tribal and vendetta based. You hit me and I will hit you and your loved ones. A number of years ago they did research to see how long it would take for your average modern person to deal with the sudden fall of modern civilization. They worked out it would take 4 days for the average person to become a hunter, gather. Or a savage.

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Half of a set :halo:

Sorry I was typing that as Lixy was doing hers. Such fast fingers you have. There are good things as well. It is the media that doesn't talk about them as much as they do the bad stuff.

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Half of a set :halo:

Don't worry, you just did!! )

I'm fine, really, it's just that when 9-11 happened, I was a footloose, fancy free young guy of 33 who had plenty of time, and few worries other than what colour convertible to buy. Still have that convertible, but I wonder what the heck happened to people using the phrase 'quality of life'.

On top of that, life is really going well for me recently, and it's a gorgeous, unusually warm night in London, and who wants to go for a few drinks? No-one. Stuck here by myself.

"Busy, taken on a new client, how about tomorrow?"

"Love to, but wife's expecting any day now".

Just my luck. I'm always getting phone calls for fun stuff when I'm snowed under, and when I finally get some time and the weather's fine, who wants to play ball?

What should I do? Yeah yeah, I already know:

1) Quit worrying;

2) Get laid.






Jaybee.

Wish I could go for that drink with ya! Why not mosey on down to the pub and see who's shooting darts or sitting alone and could use a chat? Never know...she might be a keeper...or a quickie! LOL!

__________________
Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

There's usually a lot of "little things" that happen that are good. I remember on a trip to Texas one time in our mini-motor home ... a wheel bearing went out seven miles from the nearest town. I'd gotten out to walk to the town leaving my family in the van when an elderly gentleman and his wife stopped ... took me into town and insured that we found a place that could tow our van in and take care of it. Don't know their name, but they're truly great examples of what's good in this world (not to mention the service people that fixed the van on a Saturday staying past their normal "closing" time. Just hope I'd be willing to do the same if the need ever arose.

Jaybee ... I also wonder why there has to be so much hate and violence. Especially sad that so much is done in the name of religions that don't advocate it or hates that go back hundreds of years or for causes that are allegedly good. Hard to figure.

I think a group hug would make more sense.

I have decided that for now, on not only am I going to speak out against the injustice around me ( and things that just piss me off) but I am also going to acknowledge when I see people do kind things, or just when I notice that they make the world better some how.

__________________

The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
~>My Scribbles<~
==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas

This is a wonderfully, thought provoking thead. (((((Jaybee))))) you did good.

I agree lets have a group hug.

__________________
Just when the caterpiller thought the world was over, it became a butterfly!

Owning Pita, by my JassWolf!!
My Story~ Friday Night Spanking

Does anybody remember that movie....think it was called "pay it forward"? My philosophy is sorta like that....seems to be such an overwhelming task to try and change the whole world but if each person just tried to make their own lil piece of it a better place .....wow, what a world this would be. I have no control over others but I do have control over myself. And I conciously choose to be a nice person......now don't get me wrong, i'm not a door mat....
but it seems the world has turned into such a "me and my rights" kinda place....nobody is willing to put another person above themselves....that's the sad part to me.....just because i'm considerate of someone, doens't make me less of a person or belittle me....and i see others who think doing that does make them smaller somehow....by my thinking, not being considerate makes them a very small person, indeed......oh dear, i'm rambling again.

:hug: to jaybee for being such a caring person.....wish i could meet ya at the pub and buy you a beer!!!

Thanks for the jaybee. It's inspired me to do more volunteering.

Sudan is turning into another Rwanda and it's truly unbelievable. I'm going to draft a letter to my MP before bed tonight & look into joining my local Amnesty Internation chapter again.

i blame the media, mostly TV