Quote Originally Posted by MyNameIsTerry View Post
I agree. As Vee said, first world problems. And the more people have grown up having the more they will resent not having them. As Blue points out it is a sweeping generalisation, every generation has complainers, but a big % of today's world are growing up used to luxury. If you grow up in a poor nation naturally a greater number of people are more used to hardship and will wonder what we are complaining about. Our parents and grandparents understand that as despite the ramblings of certain newspapers who think it's worse today our parents remember the days of no central heating and hand-me-down make do & mend culture. Those living in our countries in poverty just want food as opposed to an iPhone. They understand hardship. Many of all ages do a life has reminded them of it's fragility whether you are 50 getting cancer or a 12 year carer for your parent.

Facebook crashes for a day. Mass hysteria. Service restored and they all have something new to discuss. Somewhere in a poor nation your village well pump stops working. Walk miles to another? Die?

First world problems. How lucky we are.

The lockdown hits some harder than others but doesn't life? Suicide rises because of a new reason but someone vulnerable would face the same due to death in the family, relationship breakups, redundancy, etc. The pandemic is not special in this respect and quite frankly I'll put up with of this of years of grief from losing a loved one.

It has been pointed out that substance misusers are struggling. That's nothing to do with a pandemic. It's stress. See above. The problem is the lack of support and perhaps removal of a crutch? But again, see above. Good luck getting support for losing your wife like Pamplemousse has, you go into the mental health queue like us all. If you are an addict, it's another problem.

I've seen it said on here how the sudden isolation affects substance misusers. Just like us. If your work is a crutch, that's not a good thing. I made that mistake and learned from it when the work obsession, or rather me avoiding confronting what was lurking beneath, got to the point I went of work. Then came more spiralling.

Manage the fallout, don't try to avoid it by sacrificing another vulnerable group.
You're dead right Terry!!

Without trivialising this pandemic in any way, most of the social problems within today's society were already there in some form or another well before this year, and this pandemic is probably the latest in a long line of 'scapegoats', as before it was Brexit, Trump, (Tory) austerity measures, the GFC, ISIS/AQ, chavs/hoodies, asylum seekers, benefit cheats, you name it.

Every decade has had its plusses and minuses. For instance, many people of my generation (Gen X) often get nostalgic about the 90s. Yes we were younger and more carefree back then and life seemed simpler and less restrictive generally but there were still plenty of problems both in the UK and the rest of the world during that particular decade, most of which are now disowned and largely forgotten about, unlike the 2000s and 2010s which seem to be remembered more for their problems rather that their often-overlooked strengths, which I suppose could well be a combo of both significant technological advances over the past 20 years (especially with mass communication technologies) and confirmation bias.

Back on topic, Boris's announcements for England's forthcoming restrictions yesterday afternoon blatantly reiterated that they are NOT a second full-on nationwide lockdown, but according to a '3-level' of severity system, medium, high and very high.