It's 2025, so how are you feeling about the future?

[ShinyPink]

Well, this thread is not what I was expecting....

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Well, this thread is not what I was expecting....

the options on the poll are very one sided @kenny
over 50% of the US population are not well represented

 

[Starstruck8]

That's a pretty negative list, Kenny. I'm a glass-half-empty sort of person. And the prospects don't look good. With Trump, Xi and Putin in charge, what could possibly go wrong? But...

I was born into the cold war and didn't get nuked. Remember this?

Didn't happen.

In the other direction, I also remember the fall of the Berlin wall, the supposed 'end of history' and the internet optimism of the 1990s.

But the 'end of history' ended in the 2000's. Since then, we have muddled through.

The moral: the future rarely turns out either as well or as badly as it may have seemed at the time. That said, occasionally it does (WW1, Great Depression, WWII) ... You just can't tell.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Kenny why so negative????
Im broke and have covid and your options are too depressing even to me.

Get well soon Karl!
And by a lotto ticket?

 

[jordyonbass]

Personally, I would say I'm cautiously optimistic. While things have been a poop-show for the last 4 years, I'm hoping 2025 is going to be better.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Personally, I would say I'm cautiously optimistic. While things have been a poop-show for the last 4 years, I'm hoping 2025 is going to be better.

yes, me too

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Not a popular opinion but when things are going well and running smoothly, yes, more people are good. However, when things turn bad (examples with the pandemic or natural disasters or shortages or what have you) you see people’s true colors and the behaviors we see is pretty dismal.

And with all due respect, if you don’t see that, if you think otherwise, then you’re either living a very insulated life (not aware of what’s happening to others, not subject to any type of discrimination) or burying your head in the proverbial sand.

No offense meant. Just stating life as I see it. I am not cynical. I’m a realist. I am a cautious optimist and a realistic one. I don’t see the world through rose colored glasses. Rather, I see it as it is. Not how I want it to be. But how it actually is.

i must agree in that im appaled at societies general behavour since the pandemic, its like people have forgotten manners and decency

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

i must agree in that im appaled at societies general behavour since the pandemic, its like people have forgotten manners and decency

Really? Vera and me have been in your country at least 4 times since the pandemic, and we find your folk to be as nice as pie!
What I have noticed, here in Australia especially, is a lot of people forgot how to drive. Many younger people became super cautious. They seem not to know what to do when they arrive at a roundabout - of which we have thousands - thanks to a US architect town planner Walter Burley Griffin.
However, here is the but! We have noticed a divisive polarization in your politics. Perhaps that's weighing on some minds? (please don't let that start a war!)

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Really? Vera and me have been in your country at least 4 times since the pandemic, and we find your folk to be as nice as pie!
What I have noticed, here in Australia especially, is a lot of people forgot how to drive. Many younger people became super cautious. They seem not to know what to do when they arrive at a roundabout - of which we have thousands - thanks to a US architect town planner Walter Burley Griffin.
However, here is the but! We have noticed a divisive polarization in your politics. Perhaps that's weighing on some minds? (please don't let that start a war!)

thank you, that is good to hear
im glad you had a friendly experience Garry
i dont want to start a war either
but in our house we are fine with how things are from that perspective

i must say on a one to one basis people are fine
im just going on what i see on the news, a lot of horrible headlines

last week we were inundated with Aussies here in Wanganui, some ex pas coming home for xmas but a lot of actual Aussies, they really really like our meat pies and some took pictures of our donuts, some from Perth and Darwin who were enjoying the cooler summer (although that was before this very strange cold snap we are having)

a very happy new year to you Garry

off on a tangent but the weather has been dreadful since xmas
was had snow flurried on the desert road two nights ago
also Wellington and the Cook Strait have been terrrible

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

thank you, that is good to hear
im glad you had a friendly experience Garry
i dont want to start a war either
but in our house we are fine with how things are from that perspective

i must say on a one to one basis people are fine
im just going on what i see on the news, a lot of horrible headlines

last week we were inundated with Aussies here in Wanganui, some ex pas coming home for xmas but a lot of actual Aussies, they really really like our meat pies and some took pictures of our donuts, some from Perth and Darwin who were enjoying the cooler summer (although that was before this very strange cold snap we are having)

a very happy new year to you Garry

and a very happy new year to you too Daisy - and to everyone else!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

and a very happy new year to you too Daisy - and to everyone else!

thank you Garry
im not sure if this worked before but check out the swell

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

thank you Garry
im not sure if this worked before but check out the swell

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

Wowza - I would not keep my dinner down on that ride! Hope the captain was not one of your lady navy captains!

 

[kenny]

... Kenny.....you're here! Do they still kick you out every once in while? ...

Great to see you @Regular Guy!
Welcome back ... from this irregular guy.
Hope you stick around.
What's up in your life????

No, I haven't had a PS "vacation" in a long time.
I'm still a butthead though.

Hi Kenny.
I am going to say, I really want you to have a happy new year, and plenty after this one. ...

Thanks @Garry H (Cut Nut) .

BTW, that cyanide pill mention was just Kenny's usual dark and sarcastic humor, not a person signaling suicide.
But thank you for your kind and caring post.

__________________________________________________________

In this thread I've been referred to as being negative, seeing the glass as half empty, not having hope, etc.

I see no point in maintaining a happy face, no matter what.
When bad things happen, it's okay to see and say what is true.
That's how I roll.

I credit my years in psychoanalysis.
Prior to that I depended on self defense mechanisms like hope, denial, rose colored glasses, and 'put on a happy face', etc.
In analysis I finally learned how to face the horrors of my childhood, uncover and tell the truth about them, and process them sorta like the stages of grief after the death of a loved one.

I no longer need or want rose colored glasses.
Glasses are to correct vision to clearly see what is true, be it good or bad.

Finally, it's not me that's negative.
What's happening is negative, which is reflected in the poll results.

This thread is about the mostly-unmentionable elephant smack dab in the middle of Pricescope's living room.

 

[missy]

i must agree in that im appaled at societies general behavour since the pandemic, its like people have forgotten manners and decency

During 9/11 (I worked two blocks from the World Trade towers and was there that day) everyone was so wonderful. For a few days. That was it. Then business back to normal and so quickly. Meaning many people reverted back to their miserable behavior. So you might hear oh people were so amazing during that catastrophe etc. But NO. I see how people behave and when they show me who they are I pay attention you can bet on it. And right before a storm people show their true colors. I remember one storm people in Costco were fighting over portable generators. Pathetic. Disgusting behavior. IMO. Maybe hundreds of years ago man had to evolve to be this way for survival but what is the excuse now? I see it all and I am thoroughly disgusted. I have seen how group think (the masses are asses) is dangerous and how facts get twisted all the time. Truly 2024 was eye opening for me and I will never forget. It does not make me bitter. It makes me wiser and more savvy and I keep people who are kind in my life and remove all the toxicity. And I do not miss it. At all.

I see no point in maintaining a happy face, no matter what.
When bad things happen, it's okay to see and say what is true.

I no longer need or want rose colored glasses.
Glasses are to correct vision to clearly see what is true, be it good or bad.

Finally, it's not me that's negative.
What's happening is negative.

100% agree Kenny.