I am feeling so bloody irritable!

Mollygo

WWM2
I wouldn’t have said low social status, but certainly low status and lack of prestige, (denoting something that arouses widespread respect or admiration) in the eyes of the government.

And sometimes generational thinking shows this too.

Sometimes though, people over analyse and read far more into somebody having a few low moments than is the reality. Knowing when to get off somebody’s case is a skill that can be learned by all ages.

'people are happy'. Not everyone is.

Oreo

So many older people, especially women say they feel helpless or frustrated about many aspects of life today.
It’s part of the ageing process as I bet they didn’t feel like that 30 or 40 years ago.

It is natural, but ...

I cared for my mother but sometimes I wonder if, in trying to do my best, I overrode her sense of agency, her feeling of being in control.

For those who care about us, and for us caring for others, it can be a dichotomy. It can be for governments too, I suppose.

Kate1949

'people are happy'. Not everyone is.

Where did that quote come from, Kate1949. I can't see it.

It’s possible PN but we will all reach a stage in life when we do need others to help and even decide for us.Am sure you did all possible for your Mum out of love, I know that I will do that for my own when and if the time comes.
Accepting the ageing process can be hard but has to be done.

Kandinsky

Exactly Dorrain

The world is no worse than it’s ever been - it’s just now we get so much information that people can talk about it all day long on social media ( if they choose to )

I too believe this. So much more information , so easily available . I’m not saying there are not awful things happening but the media do enjoy hyping things up.
I listen to the head lines and basic facts but try not to dwell on them.
My adage is, if I can do something about it, do it . If not get on with life and try to do small things good deeds when I can.
Life is too short for us not to not make the best we can of it.

Casdon

Sometimes though, people over analyse and read far more into somebody having a few low moments than is the reality. Knowing when to get off somebody’s case is a skill that can be learned by all ages.

Clearly not everyone😄😄.

PN From Norah yesterday 23.07.

whitewavemark2
Starting a thread doesn’t mean all the comments around a subject will be about you.
The subject in itself is an interesting one.

PoliticsNerd

When people look at the life of a business or the life of a career, they often use three well-known stages to describe where they are.

The stages are generalised as "striving, thriving and surviving". Other words are sometimes used but they basically mean the same thing.

We are here, on this particular forum, because of the stage of life we are at. That stage - old enough to be a grandparent - also means the majority are old enough to be in the "survive" stage of life. At this stage we are much more aware of the attacks on our health, wealth and happiness. For some all those will seem okay at the moment. For some they will seem not too bad. They may feel under a lot of pressure in one area, or under less pressure but on two or three of those areas. And, just for a few, all areas will seem dire. Even if things seem better now than they did in the past we are all aware of possible up and coming problems.

I believe that this thread reflects not how the world is - our ancestors knew far worse - but the older person's perspective that, compared with middle-aged adults, they are seen as having lower social status in the sense of power, wealth, respect, influence, and prestige.

This is, I believe, why so many see the world in such a negative light. The world hasn't changed overall but we have. We could however, choose differently. It's not easy but it can be done.

Sorry, but I disagree. I do not think most of us see the world in such a negative light just because we are old.

I am generally one of life's cock-eyed optimists, always have been, always will be, but, I know that through out life there have been peaks of events when one has looked at life in despair.

The Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, The horrors of the Balkan War, were peak events that just come to mind with a moments thought , but there are others. On each occasion one has the sense of bleak despair we have at the moment. The only hope we have is that, as in previous periods of time, the problems will resolve themselves, no matter how unsatisfactorily and make a noise like a hoop, and roll away.

Currently with Ukraine, the Middle East, Trump as President, to name but three events, we are hitting another peak and inevitably, with the passage of time, we are more fearful that this time, whatever it may be, may not roll away, that our childrens and grandchildrens lives will be blasted before they get going. We remember those who were in the way and were rolled over and squashed by the hoop; The Vietnamese Boat people, the massacres and the genocide of the Balkan Wars, and now the people of Gaza.

We see, in this country as well, disruption, political violence, economic uncertainity and the most incompetent politicians in all parties than this country has ever experienced before accompanied by disengagment from the political process by so many. Total voter turnout in the last years election was barely 60%, In some 30 constituencies it was less than 50%.

Yes, things look very bleak at the moment, and the fault lies with the world as it is at present not with us.

PoliticsNerd

Oreo

So many older people, especially women say they feel helpless or frustrated about many aspects of life today.
It’s part of the ageing process as I bet they didn’t feel like that 30 or 40 years ago.

It is natural, but ...

I cared for my mother but sometimes I wonder if, in trying to do my best, I overrode her sense of agency, her feeling of being in control.

For those who care about us, and for us caring for others, it can be a dichotomy. It can be for governments too, I suppose.

So did I and can remember her saying that she'd never expected that I'd have to care for her rather than her caring for me. She was frustrated at her helplessness.

But tbh I haven’t reached nearly the ancient age of 80 and not know the difference between anxiety or depression and being cheesed off and irritated by the way the world is going.

Thinking about that, Whitewave, having reached the same age, I've realised that whatever I think or do is hardly going to make a dent in what is happening in the wider world.

We can live in a bubble and ignore it all or worry ourselves constantly, but we can't change things. I worry for my DC and DGC but I still can't change anything.

We can make ourselves feel better by supporting charities, doing whatever we can to help those who are suffering, but then risk being accused of 'virtue signalling'!!
(I was once on GN when I posted about a charity I was supporting. It didn't deter me.)

Kate1949

PN From Norah yesterday 23.07.

Thank you!

There's no doubt the world is in chaos with global warming very worrying. All man made problems.

When I step out each day and see the Welsh hills near where I live and the trees and the river nearby I know that the earth is still beautiful and let nature wash away for a while all the tragic things that are happening but I know sometimes I feel futile as I can't do much to change things and the people who can don't.

For you, Whitewave:

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40, 000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

Kate1949

'people are happy'. Not everyone is.

Apologies. Most people are happy, see good all round.

I've a happy optimistic person, however I don't watch the news, TV on is background noise. I read The Economist, typically not unpleasant.

Brilliant Allira

GrannyGravy13

Brilliant Allira

If we went out for a meal with DH's Astronomy Club, they sang this 😀
It makes you realise just how insignificant we are. I sometimes wonder what a peaceful alien, looking down on Earth, would think.

"What a stupid lot, given that beautiful planet in the Goldilocks Zone, and there they are, intent on destroying it and each other".

Sorry, back to gloom and doom!

Thanks Allira

I think I could cope with all of the bad things happening if it wasn’t for global warming, something that a lot of people want us to ignore because net zero doesn’t seem to fit in with their agenda ( added to which there is an American president who has no interest in the environment and would be drilling for oil everywhere if allowed to). I’ve worried about things happening in the world at certain times, things that I felt there would never be an end to…IRA mainland bombing, AIDS but realised that these things did come to an end ( or the danger was mitigated thanks to science…another thing that Trump has no time for) and me worrying about it made no difference. But, when it comes to global warming that is when I worry for my grandchildren, because we can see it happening all around us and if nothing is done now it will be they that will suffer, not me because I’ll be long gone. For those why say young people don’t bother with politics well, Alastair Campbell has been visiting schools and talking to young people. He says they are frustrated by the way that older people ignore such things and are far more clued up than we give them credit for. He has written a book called, I think, So What Can I Do, which imo all young people should have access to.So I’m hoping that giving 16 year olds the vote will make politicians look more to the future, not just trying to get elected on current issues eg lowering tax. Awful as it is in many ways I do think that China are doing a lot of research environment wise ( I need to find out more about that though) even though they also contribute greatly to global warming ( and have never been made to pay for unleashing covid into the world ).

Oreo

So many older people, especially women say they feel helpless or frustrated about many aspects of life today.
It’s part of the ageing process as I bet they didn’t feel like that 30 or 40 years ago.

NO, it has nothing to do with the ageing process, certainly not in my case, and I guess not in WvMk2 either.

I think it's down to being old enough to see so many mistakes being made and no one learning from them. It etches away at any optimism one has when young...

MayBee70

I think it's down to being old enough to see so many mistakes being made and no one learning from them. It etches away at any optimism one has when young...

Probably this.

And when we were young perhaps we trusted "Our Olders and Betters" until we found out they were younger and no better.

sassenach512

Me too WW we seem to be living under a dark cloud. Every time we turn on the news it's something else horrible and depressing going on in the world, there's no end to it

Out of interest. Mine perhaps.

If we didnt turn on the news, if we didnt switch on our keyboards,
what is our own life like?
better or worse than previously[not counting health woes, being a widow etc].

Mine is essentially same as always.

That is my first point.
Totally accept that may not be same as for others, fair enough.

2nd point -
World news - and here I may be wrong
I remember NI being on the news constantly when I was growing up. Starvation in Africa. Seemed like planes carshing freuquently, volcanoes erupting[barely remember the last volcano to have made the news], major earthquakes in several places, etc.
To my mind[could be wrong], not sure the world feels worse than it did then?