Society has regressed

[J. Stew]

Yeah we got smarter made cooler stuff like Xbox and nuclear weapons but look at how fake we are. Hollywood is fake, politicians are fake, most people are fake to some degree. Religion tries to tell you how to be not fake but it sucks because it goes at it backwards. It says well when you have 'realized your potential', like joined with God, that you become a compassionate/loving/a good person, but then people try to be those things first and they get [censored] up.

When society was 'dumber', they had a way better time cause they weren't stressed out about all the stuff that society has come to be overdramatic about. Now there's some much [censored] to think about that you just about can't help yourself and the stink of society infects you too. You're like, well everybody's fake like this so maybe I should try it a little and then you become crazy like them. Either that or you're like [censored] this and you become an island for the rest of your life and that sucks.

So I dunno society sucks these days. Republicans are kinda shady and Democrats are whiny and that stuff trickles down into society and then ends right back up there so basically we're [censored]. Laws are great, we need laws, but look at how many freaking laws we have, and how descriptive they are. We only need such intricate laws because people are shady and selfish and want to manipulate things in a way that benefits them, right?

I like rap but there's some dirty ass stuff in there and that affects people in some sublte way, it changes people, look at white guys growing up in suburbia before eminem came out. They looked ridiculous. Eminem came out and then there was a white person doing real [censored] that 'his own kind' could relate to and that helped break some of the [censored] that white kids copied from black gangstas, but still there's some bull that comes out of rap. And rap is like on top of the charts right now.

So society has regressed because people have lost the ability to be self-critical without being obsessive and neurotic about it.

[Pauwl]

You should read The Catcher in the Rye

[bobman0330]

[ QUOTE ]
You should stop reading and rereading The Catcher in the Rye and read something else

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[PoBoy321]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/timetogetridofsomethings/phony.jpg

[hmkpoker]

Care to explain why you believe civilization is becoming more "fake"?

Granted:

- the decrease in work requirements for a comfortable living
- the increase of secularism and decrease of theocracy
- the higher literacy rates and greater access to information
- the radical changes in culture and arts over the past century

...it seems unlikely that people are becoming more "fake" than less.

There will always be some "fake" people, that is, persons incapable of breaking conventional thinking to a degree that enables them to realize a greater level of emotional, spiritual and intellectual fulfillment. Just don't be one of them.

[soon2bepro]

Sounds like J stew is just mad at how society is now. There is no basis to suggest that those things he says he doesn't like weren't worse in the past; in fact it's just the opposite.

I guess some pessimists will always look down on the present situation and to hide their pessimism they'll argument that the past was better. bs I say

[dark_avenger]

how do you know people weren't always fake? You assume that things were "simpler" before, but what basis do you have for making this assumption? The victorian era in particular seems like the epitome of fakeness to me

[evolvedForm]

NH

"He's a phoney! A big fat phoney!"

[J. Stew]

Political correctness made it socially okay to be fake and because it was socially okay to say one thing and mean another, society started slipping, more so than before, down the slope of delusion.

[pooh74]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You should stop reading and rereading The Catcher in the Rye and read something else

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

hahahaha! nh

[J. Stew]

[ QUOTE ]
Care to explain why you believe civilization is becoming more "fake"?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because people cover up their problems instead of dealing with them directly. People aren't self-reliant anymore, we're addicted to possessions as well as our own thoughts and that creates delusion which sets the stage for fakeness. People take short-cuts instead of sticking things out and when they do that they don't learn the lessons of perserverence and become shallow as a result. The high divorce rate would be an example of this. Life is dirty some of the time and people don't want to get dirty so they make stuff up to make themselves feel better and because they don't address their problems honestly they manufacture the inclination to be not-honest in their minds which results in having a fake or deluded mindset. People lose the ability to be real when they are fake with themselves. It's the oh what a web we weave when at first we deceive thing.

[J. Stew]

I'm not a pessimist, I just saw the 'real world' for what it was and it's ugly, doesn't mean I don't see all the stuff that trumps the ugliness, just that this post was about the ugly fake side and I'm not about glossing over that to satisfy a need to feel good, are you?

[PoBoy321]

J. Stew,

I understand why you think people are "fake" today, I'm just curious why you think they weren't "fake" in the past.

[Rduke55]

J. Stew, you're one of my favorite posters.
Do you ever post whe you're not high?

[madnak]

Dark_avenger made a good point about the Victorian era. Fakeness has been strong in human culture since at least the ancient Greeks. When you say society has regressed, do you mean since the stone age?

[Sharkey]

Sure it’s fake, but there’s so much more of it!

[J. Stew]

no and you're avatar is trippin me out

[J. Stew]

I think there have been fake people all the way back but before there was only one guy in the tribe who was a duesch bag, now it's like half the tribe and I think political correctness played a role in that so I would say recently we've been on a social downswing in terms of realness.

[J. Stew]

I mean that recently we've been getting faker because of political correctness and wishy washyness.

[J. Stew]

that's pretty funny but I still hate you.

[12AX7]

I wonder if *those* are fake? LOL!

[oneeye13]

[ QUOTE ]
people have lost the ability to be self-critical

[/ QUOTE ]

and so we see posts like this

[Leaky Eye]

It sounds like your idea of the past is pretty fake.

[J. Stew]

Sure but that doesn't discredit the op. And if you think that is true then that strenthens my argument that people are crazy.

[Rduke55]

[ QUOTE ]
no and you're avatar is trippin me out

[/ QUOTE ]

MINDTAKING!

[Darryl_P]

[ QUOTE ]
I think there have been fake people all the way back but before there was only one guy in the tribe who was a duesch bag, now it's like half the tribe and I think political correctness played a role in that so I would say recently we've been on a social downswing in terms of realness.

[/ QUOTE ]

One counterexample comes to mind...I think dating and relationships have become a lot LESS fake over the years.

In the old days everyone was playing their role to satisfy society. There were all sorts of fake rituals and husbands and wives didn't discuss much emotional stuff with each other.

Now people are more open in the dating game and there are guys like Dr. Phil who go deep and tell it like it is in a lot of cases. To be sure, he's got a lot of fakeness too, but it's a lot more subtle than in the old days.

[J. Stew]

Yeah you're totally right.