What do you think the 5 most troublesome issues facing us are?

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The sanctity or otherwise of life
The nature of consciousness
When children should be treated as adults by the law
The nature of free will and responsibility
Reconciling people's religious beliefs with a secular state
I think about these things all the time and no one has any decent answers.

― Nick, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You're going to get loads of facetious answers Nick and probably get annoyed. Several of your issues overlap too.

The #1 thing that troubles me is reconciling a belief in democracy with a growing feeling that democracy can only lead to short-termism.

Also there's the problem of finding human happiness in a hypermediated and hypersexualised society which gives every indication of worsening.

― Tom, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom Ewing's pockets. Graham's hair. Lixi's Public Speaking. Sinker's book. Where will I drink tonight?

― Pete, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We've solved the fifth one Pete, surely.

― Tom, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one flippant and one heartfelt:

the nature of large corporations versus social democracy versus career politicians versus the media versus grass-roots public need
proportion of cheese/salsa on cinema nachos

Now which is which?

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The #1 thing that troubles me is reconciling a belief in democracy with a growing feeling that democracy can only lead to short-termism.

You mean as in 5 year term parliamentary democracies doing things to get elected the next time around? Funnily enough, that doesn't bother me that much. And I guess there are democratic models that lessen its effects (maybe the American one, with its Senate/Congress/President split?)

― Nick, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, it's more to do with the worry I have that large scale global trends - particularly environmental trends and political issues raised by global inequality - require more long-term action than elected governments are willing to take. This is partly because elected governments are in hock to business interests, which is another issue and one that doesn't vex me so much because I know what I think about it. But it's also partly I suspect because solutions to these problems may require a reduced standard of living in Western countries and no government is ever going to be voted for if it promises that, i.e. the extent to which you feel you "make a difference" with your vote is not great enough to make a majority vote altruistically. And even if a government got voted in and acted unilaterally to do this, it would then be voted out again. Actually it's not really democracy I worry about with regard to this, it's "the system" of capitalist individualism which imposes a short term growth-based view.

But on the other hand I think the democratic principle is immensely important and I want to believe that the progress of science and technology will find solutions and I love dearly a lot of aspects of capitalist individualism and find most of the potential alternatives anti-human. And I'm selfish and like my own standard of living a lot.

(This is why I dont contribute so much to political threads because I'm deeply confused about the whole thing.)

― Tom, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

in no particular order: pollution and how to get rid of it, famine, war, racial and sexual prejudice and how'm i gonna get home from romford tonight?

― katie, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Katie - get a taxi and pick me up at Trafalgar Square as you pass through! No. 2 in an ongoing series of Great Cab Journeys.

― Mark C, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Get an N25 to Oxford Circus, or if it's not that late an 86 to Stratford Station and then a 25 to Oxford Circus.

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In Knox-patch over Thanksgiving a good old friend went through his Jungian interpretation of this war we find our militaries fighting. He says that the destruction of the World Trade Towers is a mythic event, and that as such, people's reactions to it have more to do with their psychology (and childhood) than any political or military history does. He says the left has lost thousands of people for not recognizing this basic psychological component (incl. Todd Gitlin who has apparently hung an American flag from his balcony??). He thinks that people, at least in this country, have had a lot of fear and anxiety about the future which has been tamped down and suppressed by a lot of distractions and "good news" (bull market), and this mythic event has, he thinks, released this fear and anxiety into a free- floating miasma of insecurity. "I'm going to leave you with one last thing to chew on," he says. "People value security more than they value freedom."

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My particular order of Nick's top 5: 4(it takes more much part of my cerebral activity than any of the other 4) 2(kinda linked with 4) 1 3-5(I don't think so much about either of them) I would take pollution out of Katie's proposal. The going back home usually makes me feel overanxious, but if i could afford as many taxis as possible that would be sorted out,being realistic. My own:national identity, people waving flags histerically, balcanization, state vs 'people', Kurds and the like.

― Laetitia, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Investigate what you think is a troublesome issue and you'll often find it's a false dichotomy imagined by ideologues with a vested interest one way or the other.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

War drugs polution poverty starvation. Gale

― Gale Deslongchamps, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

that's *6*, the *6* most troublesome issues facing us are war drugs pollution poverty starvation and Gale…

― no one expects the spanish inquisition, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

1) Secular Humanism vs Religous Conseratisvm
2) Imposed Morailty ( ie the war on drugs)
3) Tribalism
4) WTO/IMF/The Haves Controlling the Have Nots 5) Disease/the lack of ready food and clean h20

― anthony, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Reconciling people's religious beliefs with a secular state

I seem to have stopped thinking about this very much. I wonder why I was thinking about it so much in November 2001.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 22 March 2003 01:58 (twenty-three years ago)

1. Bobby Brown hasn't had a hit in years.
2. Same with Keith Sweat
3. Where in the world is Johnny Gill?
4. Stevie B. is dead.
5. Teddy Pendergrass is paralysed

― Chris V. (Chris V), Saturday, 22 March 2003 02:04 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

I seem to have stopped thinking about this very much. I wonder why I was thinking about it so much in November 2001.

I guess it's back.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 16 February 2006 10:39 (twenty years ago)

1. Continued and generally increased turbulence and intolerance between both culturally and racially different groups.
2. The effect of this on secularism.
3. Pollution and the roliferation and saturation of non-degradable materials.
4. The fragility of life magnified through the enhanced media lens.
5. Coldplay splitting up.
5183. ILX trolls.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Thursday, 16 February 2006 13:18 (twenty years ago)

-lack of education
-lack of tolerance
-lack of burritos

― Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 16 February 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

I didn't really mean problems facing society, though, jody. I meant questions that are hard to find an answer to.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 16 February 2006 19:37 (twenty years ago)

reconciling people's religious beliefs with a secular state

right now, and in november 2001, this is, or was, a very live issue; perhaps the reason for the thoughts

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 16 February 2006 19:50 (twenty years ago)

Near complete lack of trust in the media
Near complete lack of trust in the government

(Maybe I should have just combined those two into "public institutions")

― Mitya (mitya), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:04 (twenty years ago)

better that than trust in institutions that don't deserve it

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Whether one ought to try to change the way human societies are organised.
If yes, the amount of effort one ought to expend and the most effective contribution one could make to that end.
If Human Rights can exist in any meta-cultural sense.
Why not live utterly selfishly?

― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

1. gas
2. iran
3. debt
4. god
5. ilx

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:29 (twenty years ago)

how can intelligent humans achieve happiness in a hypermediated and hypersexualised environment which shows every sign of worsening?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

1-5, obv

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 16 February 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

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