related ballots

VOTE

serious : choices : philosophy : LET GO OF THE GLOOM PART II

[+] serious ballot by patch22us
ACTIVE Sun Nov 08, 09 - Mon Nov 23, 09

Since, as is often the case here, my last ballot on this topic was hijacked and twisted, I'm going to do it one more time.

The Church we attend used to be headed by a Minster by the name of Norman Vincent Peale. His message was based upon the notion of positive thinking. Reading some of his words, I came to the realization that positive thinking alone is often not enough.

One of his quotes that I like is:
"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. "

This resonated with me for a few reasons and one of the biggest was that the world seems gripped in fear and negativity. Reading up on this phenomena, it seems that most historians and sociologists believe that this sense of gloom and doom, while always present to some level, has taken on a whole life of its own and because of instant communications, this doom and gloom can now be spread without limitation.

A great many people have been de-motivated to make a positive impact on the world. Some charities are seeing an upswing in volunteers, but overall, they report seeing a decline in people taking acttion to help. From a psychological perspective, one has to ask if all the negativity and the spreading of gloom is partly to blame.

The idea behind this is that there seems to be an element of people who take delight in spreading bad news, no matter how false that news is and they revel in creating false fear (fear mongering) and in causing stress and disharmony. In a sense, they're the killers of hope. :) While bad things have alwasy happened, now people are not content dealing with the ills of the world, so they need to create a whole new set of disasters that could befall us all.

My ORIGINAL question was: do you find that things are much worse today than in your day, or are the ills of the world much the same, but now people are just more aware of them due to 24/7 TV news and the internet. Also, do you find that people are in a heightened state of paranoia and stress becuase of all the doom and gloom being spread around?

[+] Things are no worse today than yesterday, but we're more aware
[+] Things are worse now than before
[+] This is the worst time in history
[+] Things are better today to some degree
[+] Yes, all the doom and gloom is creating undue stress

Ballot #135179 : SEE RESULTS

Comment:

v 1.5

BALLOTS ABOUT :

[c]

SOME RECENT BALLOTS:
135284. Is the news media at all trustworthy? [9 votes]
135282. What are your feelings about SPCA? [1 votes]
135280. Wired or wireless internet? [7 votes]
135273. Hunters: Food for Family or Murderers? [12 votes]
135271. Why Did Sarah Palin Say Katie Couric's Questions were Biased? [6 votes]
135256. "Two thousand and ten" or "twenty ten"? [7 votes]
135223. Las Vegas Show Girls Or The New York City Rockettes ? [4 votes:pix]
135218. There's A "No Fly" List, Why Isin't There A "No Buy" List ? [7 votes:pix]
135213. How much do you trust pharmeceutical companies? [8 votes]
135192. The following is a true incident. What do you make of it? [6 votes]

MOST RECENT VOTES:
15019. How Many Sex Partners Should A Woman Have Before Marrige? [133 votes]
17482. Which COUNTRY has the most BEAUTIFUL women in the world? [3235 votes]
15035. Which country has the ugliest women? [1419 votes]
7975. Who is the most famous retard of all time? [222 votes]
73544. Is Walmart an American corporation or a Chinese corporation? [29 votes]
73088. What is the perfect breast size?? [1681 votes]
135284. Is the news media at all trustworthy? [9 votes]
48621. If you could be the ruler of any country in the world what country would you pick? [213 votes]
38307. How many sexual partners have you had?? [236 votes]
73733. What Country has the best Navy in the World? [4615 votes]