A survey (by Lonergan Research for for multinational eyewear company OPSM) has just been published about what worries New Zealanders about the world, with very different reults:
The online survey of 1000 New Zealanders by Australian firm Lonergan Research has found that 50 per cent of New Zealanders think the world is a worse place today than when they were younger, and only 17 per cent think it’s better.
People who thought the world was a worse place today were asked whether they thought this was because of more automation, less human interaction, people becoming more self-centred and greedy, moral decline, more corruption, people becoming lazier, the economy getting worse, more natural disasters or something else.
The most popular answers were that:
- people were becoming more self-centred and greedy 80%
- moral decline 69%
- the economy getting worse (64%
- less human interaction 60%
Half (49%) still felt part of “a close-knit community” and only 46% don’t know most of their neighbours, implying that more than half do.
New Zealanders’ biggest fears for the next 80 years were environmental:
- 84% were concerned that the variety of wildlife might disappear
- 77% cent were concerned that enjoying the great outdoors might disappear.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/246652/kiwis-think-worlds-getting-worse-survey
No mention of immigration, religion, homosexuality or marriage equality there.
So what should we do about it? Shrugging our shoulders won’t achieve anything.
We could do what we can to improve the world, at lweast in our own corner.
Joe Bloggs
/ February 21, 2013I’m convinced that my grandparents would have said the same about the 1960′s and 70′s…
… and that their grandparents would have said the same about the “roaring ’90′s”, the 1920′s and the 1930′s
Face it Pete, it’s human nature to hark back to our childhood, when times were simpler and memories are treasured.
Nostalgia is an existentialist resource that we use as a meaning-making tool; it’s a physiological comforter; and, ironically, a healthy dose of nostalgia for a simpler past has been repeatedly shown in psychological studies to increase tangible charitable behaviour and to work as a positive resource for the self.
Brown
/ February 22, 2013I think the evidence supports a view that some things are worse. I recall the simpler days when I was a youth. We left our house unlocked, murders were big news, assaults in town from strangers were not a concern, the police left me alone, I perceive i was far more in charge of my own destiny, I could climb up stuff without OSH getting nasty about the colour of my vest, I could walk along railway lines, my weekends were not spoilt by the expectaion I would be available 24/7 by someone who forgot to call me during the working week. The list goes on.
I have more money now, better car, faster motorbike and a big TV but I have step children that the state has decided can be sexualy active at 13 without asking me. I fear that the Maori will exclude me from places I like to go. Work is harder and more stressfull, management has no idea about common sense, I catch my burglar and the police don’t prosecute, police hide to make money out of me, I perceive the politicians I don’t vote for to be increasingly self serving. We do deals with people we have little in common with and buy rubbish off them, we allow minorities to have a say that carries more weight than their numbers should allow, we are spyed non, monitored and counted, our habits watched and tut tutted about if busibodies take offence, I cannot build a home without an army of idiots who have never held a hammer telling me that I need to pay them f(lots) or approval, I can’t cut down my own trees if some nobodylikes it. I can’t have an opinion about gay marriage unless it complies with the requirements to like it. I have to bow to the elite of a race that has an appaling history of violence and land grabs and suck up crap about climate change that we have minimal influence over.
The world has been here before and its gone tits up as decay follows the decline of morals. I think we are on a down trend in the cycle and although there are bright spots here and there we need to wake up and take back those things that made us reasonably free. I can’t see it happening. Its 1984 but the warm frog is comfortable and doesn’t see it.
Eleanor
/ February 24, 2013Many more problems now than 40 years ago. More wars, more civil unrest, religious aggression, more resources and food needed for the immediate future, to feed the billions expected in the next 30 years. Rising water levels, Acid seas from overfishing, loss of forests, extinction of species as their habitats are lost to human expansion, more extreme weather affecting more people. Lack of jobs, more young people unemployed. One of the main answers is that which the world governments generally ignore. We need replacement population growth. Two children max per couple. Any more without good reason is being selfish and irresponsible. There is practically no problem that having fewer people would not fix.m