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Hysterical Nonsense

Entry 2250, on 2022-11-24 at 21:25:57 (Rating 3, News)

A recent survey of "young adults" in New Zealand revealed significant amounts of stress and anxiety, with 40% of 18 to 30 year olds having seriously considered suicide. While suicide is a major problem in modern society, it seems unlikely that a number that high really indicates the proportion who have considered it seriously, but I still think the more general issue of distress regarding aspects of modern society is real.

When asked which problems most worry them, they cite climate change, wealth inequality, difficulty of home ownership, high rents, income inequality, and the cost of living in general.

Additionally it has been suggested that other trendy societal issues, such the COVID pandemic, discrimination against minorities, and the alleged corrupt patriarchy are also significant factors in increasing distress amongst the young.

There is no doubt that in the current economic situation most of the world currently finds itself in, especially with increasing inflation becoming difficult to control, there are real problems that everyone should be concerned about. But those problems have always existed and didn't illicit such an extreme response in the past.

And the more symbolic issues, which don't necessarily affect many people directly - such as wealth and income inequality, discrimination, the patriarchy, and especially climate change - really shouldn't be such a cause for the angst we commonly see.

The fact is that we live in a time which is amongst the best in history. Sure, the pandemic has been a problem, and continues to be to some extent, but pandemics of the past were far worse and lead to much greater rates of death and disability.

And climate change is also a problem, but not to the extent suggested by climate activists. There is no existential climate crisis, despite that phrase being commonly seen in the media. There is a problem that we need to be aware of, and find ways to minimise and mitigate, but it is not something worth getting concerned about to the extent that people would consider suicide or not having children, to avoid them being born into a doomed world.

The world will survive just fine, and so will the human race. There will be a need to adjust society to fit in with the new climate, but bigger changes have been successful in the past, so why worry so much?

A similar argument applies to the other more silly causes for modern anxiety: the patriarchy, discriminatory attitudes against some minorities, and inequality.

The patriarchy, to whatever extent it existed in the past, shouldn't be a major concern to anyone; minorities (such as minority races, sexual orientations, etc) are more accepted than ever; and while wealth inequality is increasing, the poorest in society are richer than ever.

So is there really much of a problem to get so concerned about? No. I don't think so, which makes me ask, why so much hysteria?

I think there are several causes for this...

First, global politics goes through cycles, and in the 1970s and 1980s many countries swung significantly to the "right" economically. In fact, it was really a change to more libertarian, free market principles which happened, which might or might not be considered right depending on your definition. Now a "correction" is happening, where more left oriented policies have returned, leading to the concern over inequality.

Second, people do have quite comfortable lives today and because of that they might feel rather bored and be more susceptible to false causes for concern, just to give them a reason to feel like they are making some sacrifice to right the wrongs of modern society.

Third, universities and the media have become home to Marxist ideals which are utterly in opposition to the free market changes I mentioned in point one. Young people are easily influenced by these sources of "misinformation" and an overreaction to the situation is the result.

So it is leftist ideology which is the cause of the hysteria, not the evil influences of the right. To be clear, I'm not saying that all of the issues I mentioned above are completely fake, they are just blown out of proportion and emphasised far too much to create a healthy social environment for anyone, especially young people who are easily lead astray.

It is difficult to get reliable figures globally, but there is little doubt that suicide is a far bigger problem than climate change here in New Zealand.

So it seems that the media and education institutions aren't doing anyone a favour by emphasising the wrong things. It is almost criminally unfair and dishonest to create such an environment of fear amongst the more easily influenced parts of the population.

All of those alarmist catchphrases must be having an effect: the climate crisis will lead to the destruction of the world, wear a mask and stay at home or you will die from COVID, the patriarchy is manipulating and repressing you, white supremacists are destroying other ethnic groups' lives! It's all BS, and it's all harmful.

Hysteria is defined as "exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement" which seems to fit the mood amongst many young people today. Many of their concerns are based on emotion rather than facts, and their response is one of exaggerated and uncontrollable excitement (in a negative way).

I'm not totally against acknowledging that there are real problems to deal with, and that there is room for improvement in many areas, but we need to get some perspective. We live in one of the best times in human history and we got here by following a certain path. Yet many people believe the opposite, that racism, bigotry, and capitalist excess are as bad as they ever were, and maybe worse.

Living in an unrealistic fantasy world might seem harmless enough, but it isn't. When enough people start believing hysterical nonsense then governments and other instituions start feeling like they must act on it.

I'm not against change either; it is important to continue to try to improve, but we must be careful that change creates better outcomes, not worse. Despite its faults, the systems we have in place in the "developed" world - democracy, secularism, capitalism - have produced good results overall.

We need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water, and we definitely should be avoiding hysterical nonsense.

Comment 1 (7342) by Ken Spall on 2022-11-25 at 12:53:00:

I think there has always been a tendency for the media to dwell disproportionately on doom and gloom issues, plus with the explosion of social media sites these issues become even more magnified. Even more need now to question everything.

Comment 2 (7343) by OJB on 2022-11-25 at 15:58:53:

That's a good point. The phrase "If it bleeds, it leads" isn't new. I get the impression that it has got worse, but maybe I need to try to find some stats to support that. Social media is also to blame, but at least I see some balance there, although how reliable the material is should always be considered (even more so than with MSM). Maybe it is the governments, some big corporations, and universities and schools which have made it worse recently.

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