I thought I would like to try to find an antidote to a lot of the unsettling stuff in the news over the past few weeks (eg Coronavirus), and have been harking back to past decades which had their own exceptional troubles and hardships. Though I am not in any way intending to trivialise present-day issues in any way, I have been wondering myself over the past few days how much present-day society (and I don't just mean young people) would have coped, back in say, the seventies, when we (reportedly) had crisis after crisis after crisis, but on the upside (IMO) were all accompanied by a complete absence of the Internet, let alone social media, during that period.

Although I was born towards the end of said decade (in 1977), I have read up on quite a few of the difficult issues that the UK in particular faced during that period. Such as (in no particular order);

A. The rapid growth of IRA terrorism within mainland Britain (that also continued through the eighties and well into the nineties).
B. The oil crisis of 1973-74, the power cuts and the resulting economic crisis.
C. Shortages of certain materials.
D. Mass industrial unrest and people downing tools willy-nilly, often over seemingly trivial issues.
E. Mounting racial tensions, the growth of the NF, etc, and various inner city riots, as the decade wore on.
F. Increasingly widespread football hooliganism.
G. The height of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation by the former Soviet Union.
H. The start of mass unemployment.
I. The 'Winter Of Discontent' in late 1978-early 1979 with mass strikes left, right and centre, especially bin-bags and the like cluttering up the streets of major cities, due to council workers having downed tools for weeks on end.
J. Far worse winter weather than what we seem to have today.
K. Brutal treatments from authority figures, eg, police officers, school headteachers and even childrens' own parents were more commonplace.

Although I admit I may not be absolutely correct in all the things from the I have listed above and of course some of the above still remain threats today, I am trying to point out that every era has its problems, though some more than others, of course. Also that many things probably seem worse today than ever before, due to the advent of not just the Internet and social media but also 24/7 TV and radio, plus of course rolling news channels with wall-to-wall coverage of specific events, which would have previously been limited to conventional printed newspapers and bulletins on TV and radio at set times throughout the day.

Unlike today of course, where the slightest thing from anywhere in the world is constantly beamed into our faces no matter where we are.

Take care.