[auscanman]

The other day someone posted a message here from a news article in 1956 which predicted that by 1970 everyone in America would be able to work less than 30 hours per week, poverty would be virtually non-existant and that things would just keep getting better.

Reading that article got me thinking about the complete lack of such articles there's been in the mainstream media over the past few years. I don't think I've read one article trying to convince people of how fabulously they'll live in the future over the past 5 years. There was still a real sense of optimism for the future as recently as the late 90s. I recall reading an article in 1998 claiming that by 2010 we'd all have a personal robot servant, that meals would be prepared mechanically, etc. Although such articles were usually far-fetched I believe they gave a sense of society's underlying sense of hope for the future.

This leads me to ask myself why such articles aren't printed in mainstream media anymore, and if a general sense of hope has been lost.

Behind it all, TPTB have probably decided that it would be dangerous to give the masses the slightest sense of optimism for the grim future that awaits them: part of the process of preparing people for a gradually eroding standard of living.

A sense of hope has been lost. When the vast compare how they live today with how they did 10 years ago, they realize their current standard of living is lower.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

[mekrob]

Because all of the optimists are all writing about how The Dick only shot one friend in the face with a shotgun.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'B')ecause all of the optimists are all writing about how The Dick only shot one friend in the face with a shotgun.

[Lokutus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('auscanman', 'T')he other day someone posted a message here from a news article in 1956 which predicted that by 1970 everyone in America would be able to work less than 30 hours per week, poverty would be virtually non-existant and that things would just keep getting better.

[mekrob]

I think the good news was that WE weren't being shot by Dick Cheney...in the FACE.