I feel sick to the stomach, white supremists speech in Washington.

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Originally Posted by bob10

There seems to be an underlaying current of anger in society nowadays. My parents and their cohorts grew up during the great depression, they had nothing, but as they like to tell us, they were happy with nothing. Their generation go out of their way to help those who are worse off than themselves, always have. It's no big deal to them, just what they do.
Most people today live like kings & Queens, compared to them, back in the day. But people are not happy today. Just look at some of the anger displayed on [ anti] social media. The anger manifests itself in different ways, road rage, random assaults, coward punches, the list goes on. I, too, am concerned about where we are heading. All we can do is ensure our part of this World ,our family groups, and friends, are supported and nurtured, and loved.

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Hey Bob, We have some common ground.
My Grandfather was a Church Of England Vicar in a Parish in South Wales (U.K.) during the great depression. He was the Vicar there for over 30 years.
It was a coal mining area, and an area of extensive poverty, and TERRIBLE working conditions. During the great Depression, during which period, the Communists were trying to gain influence in the area, GrandPa was in charge of the Soup Kitchens which you've probably read about,....VERY tough times. Some people think the Clergy were well off, well paid...????...Let me tell you,..in those days, absolutely wrong,....they did it very tough too, ....they're a lot better paid these days.
Pickles.

Humm, the last few posts here seem to sum up quite a few feelings of old and new, and all very true.
So all we need to do now, is keep posative and hope the powers that be hear stuff like that and do more to help people in general, stay on the straight and narrow. Ensuring jobs and education will help immensely, which in turn will help people stay in control of their lives and keep a good mood with good morals so as not to go out of their way to annoy others.
Ones beliefs can be hard to turn in any direction, and of course, who's to say which direction is the correct one. Everyone feels "they" have the right answers, but we all know that's not necessarily the case.

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Originally Posted by Pickles2

Hey Bob, We have some common ground.
My Grandfather was a Church Of England Vicar in a Parish in South Wales (U.K.) during the great depression. He was the Vicar there for over 30 years.
It was a coal mining area, and an area of extensive poverty, and TERRIBLE working conditions. During the great Depression, during which period, the Communists were trying to gain influence in the area, GrandPa was in charge of the Soup Kitchens which you've probably read about,....VERY tough times. Some people think the Clergy were well off, well paid...????...Let me tell you,..in those days, absolutely wrong,....they did it very tough too, ....they're a lot better paid these days.
Pickles.

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Yes, when we were growing up we heard many stories, along the lines of " you young fellas have nothing to complain about, when I was your age.....".
The men had to leave their families and go on the wallaby- walk for days with a swag, billy for tea, syrup, flour & water, looking for work. The scourge of the outback, the rabbit, kept many a family alive. Bread and dripping was a luxury. Dad had to leave home at 15, and worked on a property out near Birdsville. They drove cattle over the border to a railhead somewhere. He said he loved every minute of it. Didn't get paid, worked mostly for food & board. He said it made him appreciate the good times, when they came. Toughened him up, he said. Just as well, came in handy fighting the Japanese, up north.

Mum can't remember the property he was on, pity. I'd like to see if it's still there. No matter how tough things became in the years after the War, when we kids came along, I never saw Mum or Dad despair. As a matter of fact, that whole generation of Australians were tough. Nothing seemed to phase them , and if they saw a fellow human in trouble, they helped. They wouldn't stand rubbish, woe betide some one who hurt a woman. Or a child.

I remember one of Dads' sayings was " always treat people as you would want to be treated". When I look around at the Australia of today, I reckon a little bit of that philosophy would come in handy. Another thing he used to say, about people being downtrodden was " You can only kick a dog so many times, before he will turn on you and bite". Wise words, especially in our times. Any way, enough rambling.

After reading through this Thread I feel really down. Crikey, there are some dismal views aired in some of the posts, time to lighten up methinks.:)

https://www.google.com.au/webhp'sour...side%20youtube

Right back at you.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk[/ame]

"Do as you would be done by", is what my Mum & Dad used to say to me, & is what I passed on to my children.
Pickles.

Re. road rage, after being in an old taxi driving into Yangon today, I can't understand what Aussie drivers have to rage about. They should get out and experience a real traffic jam. Then they'd realise how easy they have it.
The most mind bending part of it, apart from streams of vehicles jammed together, fighting for space with lumbering dirty battered old buses, was that they drive on the right like Americans, but the steering wheels are also on the right like in Australia! Did my head in it did.


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Originally Posted by Pickles2

So yes, I know the issues, .....and there are no similarities to anything in current U.S.

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you may need to do a little more reading... particularly post 1929 pre 1939

there are plenty of parallels unfortunately including the nationalistic calls to make the nation great again, the rhetoric marginalising one or more sections of the community by blaming them for the current economic woes, talk of isolating other countries, talk of great national projects to get the poor working including building/rebuilding the national road network, the size of the national debt, the rise of localised militia and the list just keeps going on and on.

lots of differences too, to be sure, i agree

but there are many similarities also that are a bit of a worry.

hopefully the conversation will change and your view is the one that wins out in the end but there are many that are concerned with the tone of the rhetoric when a nation that size is perceived to be moving closer to fascism.

time will tell the tale and hopefully there are some lessons that have been learnt.

Well Dave, whilst I do have a somewhat negative, "pessimistic" view of the future, because I see our current standard of living & "wants" as unsustainable, I do not see any risk at all from right wing extremists,..absolutely none,....and I have done PLENTY of reading about the rise of National Socialism, particularly 1933-39, (after that it was just war, no rise of anything,..except horror).....probably one of my main hobbies in my younger days, reading about that stuff,...if you looked at a couple of my book cases, you'd probably think there was a Nazi in the house!!...So yep, I do know a bit about them.
So yes, I do see Aussie going downhill, I've seen it for several years, and I believe that trend will continue.
I ain't gonna start no war, I'll leave that to the people in C.A., but no,.... right wing extremists will be the least of our worries in Aussie, I'll just say that our problems will arise from the exact opposite side of the "Political Spectrum".
There are those on this Forum who are EXCELLENT with "figures", I'm not one of them, but if they're around in 5-6 years time, to compare now & then, well then, whether I'm right or wrong, "the proof will be in the pudding"!
Pickles.

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Originally Posted by bob10

I can't help feeling that if communities came to full employment, a lot of the problem would melt away. Middle America has been promised this, hopefully it happens

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Correct me if I'm wring because I haven't bothered to check, but last I heard 40% of working Americans were living below the poverty line without health insurance, despite many of them working more than one job