The good old days?

[HAL]

What does "this" refer to?

[Skids]

[Morrigu]

Damn born a year too early to be included - ageist!!

[David]

Fixed. (well, kind of � I wasn't game to try to put it up the top!)

[Pies4shaw]

No-one was actually "born" in the 50s - that's an earlier stage of human evolution that involved hatching and pouches.

[Morrigu]

^ well that would explain why I am so passionate about animal rights - I was hatched!!

[stui magpie]

^

WTF was the 30's then?

[ronrat]

I was born in the 50s and before you laugh. I can retire younger than you punks (well I have now) and you can keep working until just before you die.

Mobile phones. Was 40 before I had one. My bosses resisted them at work for years. With good reason. It meant every problem could be solved by ringing the boss and telling him making it his problem. He was at the pub on friday. He couldn't talk on the phone. But was called back to the office. One of them left it in his desk in a locked drawer when he went on holiday. All hell broke loose. His answer. If you can't live 4 weeks without me then you had better pay for my holiday and the wifes. tob be honest they are the germ of all evil. Twitter, unauthorised photos, etc.

[Mugwump]

The good Old days never were, of course. Many things have become far better, notably access to information, travel, the quality of food and face-to-face service and the engineering of things. A motor car from the 1960s is trash compared to today's equivalent. The status of those who are of different race, of women, and the understanding of different sexuality have all improved, which was both necessary and overdue.

Unfortunately, many things have become quite needlessly worse. The rate of serious violent crime has octupled, on the best indicative data available. The use of drugs has expanded vastly. Both girls and boys grow up in a world where vicious pornography sets a sordid template for sexuality, service levels from large corporations are contemptuous, and inequality, insecurity and exploitation of the young via university fees and landlordism are shameful. Above All, the cult of relativism has turned nations into an archipelago of negotiable identities with little shared pride, history, values and meaning. The result of this is a hollowed-out, trashy, sentimentalised, and pharisaical culture which is often serious about trivial things and mindless about serious things.

There are always things which need to change, and which can be improved. The pity is not that we lost a perfect past, but that we embraced such a present.

(1960s, by the way).

[Pies4shaw]

[Skids]

You say "the qaulity of food" is better Mugwump.

The explosion of fast food & soft drinks is a bane on todays society. Obesity at alarming levels, along with diabetes.

When I played junior footy, there were that many kids playing, our club, Bassendean, had 2 teams in every age group. Now kids look at screens all day.

I think participation in sport is something that has declined in recent deacades due to 'progress'

[think positive]

[Mugwump]

∆ classic cars are good, TP - but I doubt you drive one as your main car in preference to a modern car. Even if you do, I reckon the safety and comfort level and reliability is a lot lower !!

[Mugwump]

[think positive]