Why is Everyone Miserable?

[Patrick S]

This morning I was in a really good mood. Got up early. 4:30am. Had some coffee. Went to the gym in my basement and did a bunch of kettlebell swings and push-ups. Played a little guitar. Felt like I had 'Crazy Mama' and 'Hand of Fate' by The Stones down pretty good. My eight year old got up early for school and came down and hung out before breakfast. Had a nice chat with my wife before she put him on the bus. I drove my 12 year old to school at 7 for his daily, before class pick-up basketball game. My kids are good. I'm feeling good. And low and behold, for the first time a week, the SUN comes up! No clouds. An actual sunrise.

So, I took the long way into work, put on my Keith Richards playlist (Take It So Hard, All About You, Thru and Tru, You Don't Have to Mean It), and looked forward to a good, quiet day at work with only two meetings! And then some guy nearly drove up my ass. I was going just over 40 in a 35. He brighted me. Honked his horn continuously. Then he sped around me, narrowly avoided a head-on collision, cut me off, then FLIPPED me off. Then he had to slam on his breaks at a light. I was right behind him shaking my head. He flipped me off in the rearview and ran the light, still flipping me off.

Okay. I wasn't going to let him get to me. Back to the music...."You know that we do take-away! We deliver tooooooooo..." Driving. Sunshine. A guy runs a stop sign and I nearly broad side him. He honks his horn and runs another stop sign. Almost gets t-boned again. I continue on, determined to remain upbeat.

I pull into my lot. It's an assigned spot. It has a sign that says, "RESERVED FOR THE CIO". A rusted out truck is parked in it. Sideways. Taking up two other spots. I park in a spot I that I know is not being used by anyone. No big deal.

I walk to the crosswalk. I cross with the light, when I'm supposed to. A woman nudges her car into the crosswalk about two feet me, annoyed that I exist and am crossing the street, slowing her down. The guy behind her lays on his horn. I jog out of the way and almost get his by another car as it rolls through the intersection to turn right on red. But, hey. This stuff happens most days. Why let it piss me off?

I walk up to little drug store to grab giant can of zero calorie Arnold Palmer. Always peps me up and I figure that will get me back on track. Until someone asks me for ten dollars. I tell him the truth. I don't have any cash on me. He replies without emotion, "I should have known you were a racist."

I go in to the store. Grab my drink. Attempt to pay but someone cuts to the front of the line to complain that the store doesn't sell cigarettes. This goes on for a few minutes before he turns and yells, "Mother#uckers!" I walk outside. It's cold but sunny. The air is brisk and fresh. A woman is yelling obscenities into her cell phone. A guy takes a bag of fast foot trash and throws out of his car window. It lands in the street.

I felt like pulling a Chuck Heston from Planet of the Apes and screaming, "It's a MADHOUSE! A MADHOUSE!" But I didn't.

Anyway....what in the hell is wrong with people?

[Steadmund Brand]

Nothing.. just happy people piss us normal folks off!!!

Just kidding...I noticed this as well... if people aren't "grumpy" to put it mildly they just sit there with their heads down...but this has been going on for a few years now... I think ever since we have become a "technology driven society" people forgot how to interact to other humans....and those younger have no idea.. not their fault, just how it is....plus you watch "news" now and it is all designed to aggravate you, no matter your "political" leaning....you watch FOX.. you are just shown negative things about the Dems and you get pissed, you watch MSNBC and you get nothing but negative things about Republicans and you get pissed... news isn't news anymore, it's opinion and preaching to an audience.. after all... it's no longer about information but affirmation.. so it makes people angry.....that and people spend far more time working now without the disposable income to enjoy life.. all work no play.. so they say.... remember just a generation ago, a man could work in a factory and support a wife and kids, have a home, put the kids thru college and afford a family vacation every year....now.. that same factory worker, if he is lucky has a partner with a second income, to make ends meet, if not, they live in a small apartment without savings and recreation.....something happened in America over the last 30 years to really dishearten many people....

As for me... I can't complain... I am listening to old Van Der Graaf Generator albums, working and getting along....but even at my job, which at one time would have been considered quite white collar...I hardly scrape by, without a wife or kids or house.. so I understand the misery, but, I try to stay positive.. too many things to make me happy.... good music, a good cigar, my cat, good old films.....the simple things in life.... that's what people need more of!!

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Patrick, why don't you start the day with some nice relaxing Victorian era TV theme music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS_YoJfEmzs

[Patrick S]

Nothing.. just happy people piss us normal folks off!!!

Just kidding...I noticed this as well... if people aren't "grumpy" to put it mildly they just sit there with their heads down...but this has been going on for a few years now... I think ever since we have become a "technology driven society" people forgot how to interact to other humans....and those younger have no idea.. not their fault, just how it is....plus you watch "news" now and it is all designed to aggravate you, no matter your "political" leaning....you watch FOX.. you are just shown negative things about the Dems and you get pissed, you watch MSNBC and you get nothing but negative things about Republicans and you get pissed... news isn't news anymore, it's opinion and preaching to an audience.. after all... it's no longer about information but affirmation.. so it makes people angry.....that and people spend far more time working now without the disposable income to enjoy life.. all work no play.. so they say.... remember just a generation ago, a man could work in a factory and support a wife and kids, have a home, put the kids thru college and afford a family vacation every year....now.. that same factory worker, if he is lucky has a partner with a second income, to make ends meet, if not, they live in a small apartment without savings and recreation.....something happened in America over the last 30 years to really dishearten many people....

As for me... I can't complain... I am listening to old Van Der Graaf Generator albums, working and getting along....but even at my job, which at one time would have been considered quite white collar...I hardly scrape by, without a wife or kids or house.. so I understand the misery, but, I try to stay positive.. too many things to make me happy.... good music, a good cigar, my cat, good old films.....the simple things in life.... that's what people need more of!!

Steadmund Brand

Seems like people don't even appreciate the simple things as they're happening. But I agree. Sometimes I think it's because people eat crappy food, don't take care of themselves, they feel awful, so they just can't be happy. Who knows. Technology. Bad news. Bad food. Broke. Hungover. Everyone treats everyone like hell. Its getting old.

[Pcdunn]

Yeah, all of those things are true. But then there's the young woman who hurried to help me up yesterday when I took a tumble in my office doorway, and even gave up her studying time to walk me to the campus clinic.

Some people care, still.

[Patrick S]

Yeah, all of those things are true. But then there's the young woman who hurried to help me up yesterday when I took a tumble in my office doorway, and even gave up her studying time to walk me to the campus clinic.

Some people care, still.

That's encouraging. Hope you're ok!

[Pcdunn]

That's encouraging. Hope you're ok!

Thanks, Patrick. I get to go to the clinic my employer uses for work-injury incidents this afternoon to make sure. For now, I'm sore, but guessing it's only some pulled muscles.

[GUT]

To me there are a few issues...


1. We live in an age that is all about "me, me and me", and there is apart of me that thinks it starts from birth where children have been, probably since WWII, taught that nothing is more important than them.

I wonder if in part that's a result of inexpensive technology, mum can pop a load of washing on and then jump to bugs every command, rather than spend a few hours over a boiling copper.

2. We are far to busy, rush, rush. Rush rush, and most of the things in the opening post are caused by you slowing down their rush. And that in part can also be attributed to that inexpensive technology, if we want, let's say a cake, we don't need to chap wood, mix the batter wait for the cake to cook. We either duck to the shop (no longer a half hour walk, but 5 minutes in the car that every household now seems to have an abundance of) or grab a packet out of the cupboard and pop it in the over, or god forbid the microwave. If we want entertainment right there in tap, TV, the net etc. so we have become conditioned that everything is instant.

3. We no longer know the people around us, so why would we care about them. Why has this happened, see above, rush rush, you don't matter only me, don't need to go in and borrow cup of sugar, or even use their phone.

Just in my opinion the main three.

[GUT]

But as Dunny says there is good too, have a fall, people come running, get tipped out of my wheelchair, people come running.

[GUT]

Ri also think that our busy life's contribute to the heads down in your "device" because you need to squeeze it in where and when you can, and you don't notice me unless I make you probably by slowing you down.

[Mayerling]

Let's see, I was nearly ripped off by a con artist passing a dud check for a huge sum of money recently, causing me to make all kinds of changes to my accounts and various agencies. I have problems walking, but I still get out. I voted for a woman I really loathed for President, but she lost (despite a popular vote majority) to a creep who is now President (and whom I think is wrecking my country and the world). I've discovered several people I knew (including the husband of a cousin) have passed away, and another one went bankrupt. In total there is much on my plate (real or just emotional) causing me to be unhappy. I even felt bad for my friend GUT because our idiot President misused a phone call to his Prime Minister reading him the riot act (although the Prime Minister behaved perfectly denying anything was wrong). However, to be truthful, I have found things to do to keep me busy, and I'm not in the worst personal mood. I've been in deeper depression. I think most of us find a balance somehow. Otherwise we go nuts!'

Jeff

[Patrick S]

To me there are a few issues...


1. We live in an age that is all about "me, me and me", and there is apart of me that thinks it starts from birth where children have been, probably since WWII, taught that nothing is more important than them.

I wonder if in part that's a result of inexpensive technology, mum can pop a load of washing on and then jump to bugs every command, rather than spend a few hours over a boiling copper.

2. We are far to busy, rush, rush. Rush rush, and most of the things in the opening post are caused by you slowing down their rush. And that in part can also be attributed to that inexpensive technology, if we want, let's say a cake, we don't need to chap wood, mix the batter wait for the cake to cook. We either duck to the shop (no longer a half hour walk, but 5 minutes in the car that every household now seems to have an abundance of) or grab a packet out of the cupboard and pop it in the over, or god forbid the microwave. If we want entertainment right there in tap, TV, the net etc. so we have become conditioned that everything is instant.

3. We no longer know the people around us, so why would we care about them. Why has this happened, see above, rush rush, you don't matter only me, don't need to go in and borrow cup of sugar, or even use their phone.

Just in my opinion the main three.

I think you're right on all fronts. I used to be in a rush most of the time. Although, I like to believe that my parents taught me to show common courtesy and that my right get somewhere quickly doesn't supersede the person in the crosswalk's right to exist. In the end, I think it took a series of events to wake me up and help me realize that, in the end, there really are only a handful of things that matter.

[Patrick S]

Let's see, I was nearly ripped off by a con artist passing a dud check for a huge sum of money recently, causing me to make all kinds of changes to my accounts and various agencies. I have problems walking, but I still get out. I voted for a woman I really loathed for President, but she lost (despite a popular vote majority) to a creep who is now President (and whom I think is wrecking my country and the world). I've discovered several people I knew (including the husband of a cousin) have passed away, and another one went bankrupt. In total there is much on my plate (real or just emotional) causing me to be unhappy. I even felt bad for my friend GUT because our idiot President misused a phone call to his Prime Minister reading him the riot act (although the Prime Minister behaved perfectly denying anything was wrong). However, to be truthful, I have found things to do to keep me busy, and I'm not in the worst personal mood. I've been in deeper depression. I think most of us find a balance somehow. Otherwise we go nuts!'

Jeff

If you're getting upset about Trump, watch college basketball or movies on Netflix. That's what I do. Stop reading about RealClearPolitics, or DailyKos, or HuffPo, or Yahoo!, or whatever your brand is. If I didn't have people telling me how miserable I should be because of Trump (and Obama before him, and Bush before him, and Clinton before him), I'd probably forget to be miserable and realize my life's pretty much the same as it was, what, thirteen days ago?

[Patrick S]

Screw it. I'm starting a thread about being happy.

[Sam Flynn]

Screw it. I'm starting a thread about being happy.

Don't spoil the vibe!