State of affairs appears to be getting worse

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I feel the state of society is getting worse and the end is very near. I say this as a young person. I just feel like I want to cry and go away to heaven or just oblivion nothingness right now because it will all go away. That’s how I feel in my heart sometimes. It seems like God arbitrarily allowed me to be born “too late” and knew things were going to happen in society by my 20s.

I don’t know if these people are just cynical or being on to something. I am confused by everything I’d say. I have read groups of people who for one thing, believe that America will become a communist/left-wing Hell pretty soon, and I admit that it doesn’t seem that big of a leap. Not saying that the right can’t also be bad sometimes, but I won’t lie I wish I was born and grew up in America earlier.

I will explain myself more later on. I just don’t want to be laughed at, though.
 
I heard people say that the older times were just as bad. I don’t think that’ll help much.
 
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The only thing really unique about society today is that the crazy fringe voices that were always among us can now blast their ideas all over the world via social media.

Out in the real world, I think most people are just trying to live their life and do their thing, just like humans always have.
 
You sound very down. Do you have a mental health professional helping you
 
I do have a counselor for stuff, but she doesn’t call herself the appropriate person to these kind of issues involving spirituality or faith.
 
Do you have professional medical help for your depression. Not just a counsellor who listens but does not diagnose and suggest medication etc
 
Tails said:
I feel the state of society is getting worse
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@Tails , I’m sure every generation has felt that .

Does the following sound familiar ? - - - - - - - - - -

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers . "

It was attributed to SOCRATES by Plato .
 
When I was a young teenager, in 1968, it seemed that the world, or at least the United States, was falling apart. First the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and then Sen. Robert Kennedy–these were terrible events that left me and my family in tears. There were race riots in Chicago that spread across the nation. A few years later in Hollywood, the Sharon Tate murders left everyone terrified, and when it turned out that a cult leader named Charles Manson was responsible, we all wondered how many more cults and scary leaders were out there .

And there was the Sexual Revolution, where people proudly announced that they were having sex outside of marriage. “IF it feels good, do it.”

And the drugs–everyone was getting high, and certain musical groups and individuals performed songs that glorified drugs. Also, several of these stars died of overdoses.

And there was the Viet Nam War hanging over everything and shown on television every night during the news. Colleges became battlegrounds with the protests shutting down buildings, and inevitably, students were killed (Kent State)–people were horrified that their young people could be killed at college, and equally horrified that the college students had the power to close down their colleges and threaten the National Guard!

I remember during those race riots (we lived close to Chicago), my parents whispering together and saying, “It’s the end of the world.”

But it wasn’t.

And many of us remember 9/11–I remember all of us at work (hospital) spending as much of the day as possible in our break room staring at the TV. And after work, my husband and I drove to a gas station–we were afraid that it might be our last tank of gas ever and that our country would be attacked repeatedly. It seemed like the end of the world.

But it wasn’t.

My mother had 3 brothers in WWII, and her family thought it was the end of the world with so many countries involvedt.

But it wasn’t.

My dad told me about the depression when his father lost most of his farm land. There was no money, little food, and my dad was too young to join the CCC. They thought it was the end of the world.

But it wasn’t.

There’s an old gospel song, “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.” God does have the world in His Hands, and it won’t end until it is God’s Will. He won’t accidentally drop the world. His Hands are strong!

I agree with others–please get help from professionals–medical and spiritual. You sound like someone who feels things very deeply and has a melancholy (Glass Half Empty) outlook on life–and that’s OK as long as you don’t slide into despair and hopelessness (it sounds like this is happening now in your life). People with your outlook and temperament, who are more sober and thoughtful, are needed to bring about much good on this earth… But you need to be able to balance pessimism and optimism, and you need to be able to trust the Lord God. Let professionals help you with this.

Reading the Psalms might help you–King David and the other Psalmists (song writers) experienced a lot of the same despair that you are feeling now.
 
Trust in God. Keep bringing to your prayer the FACT that Jesus has already won the battle. Don’t be afraid, He tells us; I have overcome the world. Tune out media completely, get to know and love the people around you who are all beloved by God, and keep your eyes focused on Jesus. If anything, the spiritual battle now is not hidden but before our eyes. Nevertheless, if God chooses to come tomorrow or in another million years, He’s already conquered and ALL IS WELL.
Faith, hope, and charity are what is needed.
 
It is very common for a young sensitive person of any time period to feel that way.

Get some life experience and a bit of protective cynicism and you’ll be fine
 
I hear ya. Although i disagree with the people here, I do not think everypne needs therapy. That is ovdrkill. Unless of course you want therapists to make a loot of money. Therapists do not have all the answers.
 
Tails said:
…
It seems like God arbitrarily allowed me to be born “too late” and knew things were going to happen in society by my 20s.
…
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God is omniscient
Life can be very difficult.

Matthew 10
28 And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.
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Mark 10
29 Jesus answering, said: Amen I say to you, there is no man who hath left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 Who shall not receive an hundred times as much, now in this time; houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions : and in the world to come life everlasting.
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I used to think like that.

Now I just give things to the Lord, and try my best to be the best person I can be, and give back as much as I can to my community. 🌷

Like my mother says: You have to have faith. Without faith, yes it seems all to be doomed probably, but with faith you start seeing little works and so much love, and help.

From the Pope’s address during last year’s Holy Mass of the Feast of the Epiphany:

https://w2.vatican.va/content/franc.../papa-francesco_20170106_omelia-epifania.html
A holy longing for God wells up in the heart of believers because they know that the Gospel is not an event of the past but of the present. A holy longing for God helps us keep alert in the face of every attempt to reduce and impoverish our life. A holy longing for God is the memory of faith, which rebels before all prophets of doom. That longing keeps hope alive in the community of believers, which from week to week continues to plead: “Come, Lord Jesus”.
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I have similar thoughts so I know what you mean. However it is important not to overestimate how good things were in the past. There is nothing new under the sun. People have been doing awful things to each other since the beginning. I mean Cain killed his brother out of jealousy.

Having said that different times can be better or worse than others. Society, which is people as a group, can be improving or growing worse. The thing is it usually isn’t across the board. So society could improve in some ways while worsening in others. This makes it hard to judge society as a whole.

However, I tend to think society is much worse than it has ever been. Widespread abortion (murder) is awful. Widespread homosexuality is awful. Same sex marriage is awful. The same is true for divorce and a host of other things.

But, even if society is at its worse that is no reason to despair. Society isn’t you. You live your own moral life. God chose to put you in this time and place. You are to be a light to others in this dark time. Living a virtuous life in difficult times is even more virtuous than in times when society was more moral. That is what you are called and chosen to do.

Finally, don’t focus so much on things far away. The US is too big. It is nearly three hundred million people. It is unlikely you can influence that many people. Focus on what goes on in your immediate environment i.e. your family, home, parish, city. Do what you can to influence those people. Measure your success against that. Those are places where you can see a difference.
 
fin said:
I hear ya. Although i disagree with the people here, I do not think everypne needs therapy. That is ovdrkill. Unless of course you want therapists to make a loot of money. Therapists do not have all the answers.
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When people start talking about wanting to cry and go to oblivion, then that’s a concern that warrants talking to a therapist. Feeling down and anxious is normal. Wanting oblivion isn’t, and this isn’t the first time either that OP has made a thread despairing about what’s going on in the modern world.
 
Tails said:
I have read groups of people who for one thing, believe that America will become a communist/left-wing Hell pretty soon
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I’ve passed the half century mark. When I was a girl we were certain that the Communists were coming to America. They would make Christianity illegal and take away all of the Bibles.

Because of this, both adults and children committed lengthy Scripture passages to memory. It was not unheard of for someone to have memorized the entire New Testament. This way, when the Bibles were taken away we would still have the memorized word of God.

Madelyn Murray O’Hare was the Antichrist as she was a vocal atheist. She was after kids, public schools were unsafe because she was running them. Christians homeschooled their kids for fear of Ms O’Hare.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Be not afraid.
 
I really like to read Walter Carroll’s books on the history of Christendom because then I can see that in every generation, things were awful and on the edge of completely falling apart. The early Christians were actively persecuted, they had to send their children to pagan schools, etc.

Then they had to worry about invasions and illnesses, then the Moslems, then plagues and periodic scandals in the Church (yes, as bad as today’s 😞), and then the Protestant movement and subsequent dismantling of aid to the poor and wars, and people moving to the New World, and the Industrial Revolution, and so on up until now, when it’s pretty much all falling apart still.

My parents worried about rock and roll and tv’s effect on their children, our grandparents worried about swing and comic books, and in the 1800s, parents worried about waltzing and “French novels” (romance fiction).

Treat all your concerns as crosses and offer them up to Our Lord, and thank Him for placing you in the time best suited to your holiness.
 
Tails said:
I feel the state of society is getting worse and the end is very near. I say this as a young person. I just feel like I want to cry and go away to heaven or just oblivion nothingness right now because it will all go away.
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I definitely empathize with your sentiment here. Society is turning away from God and as a result, the culture is more and more hostile to God’s law and the Christian faith. However, I would take comfort in this: We aren’t seeing anything today that the Church has not already been through. When you read the Pauline and general epistles, you will see that the Roman society into which Christianity was born had values that ran completely contrary to what the Church taught. They were a society that reveled in violence, sexual license, corruption in the government, and at times outright hostility to Christianity. However, the Holy Spirit saw us through these times, and they included some very dark days when you look at the third century persecution. I would suggest you take some time to read the First Epistle of Peter. This letter was written to a Church that was under persecution. They were suffering for their faith. But Peter opens this letter focusing on the hope that we have in Christ and urging the Church to be a witness to the world, and by doing so, even under persecution, we will accomplish God’s will for us. It is a tremendously hopeful letter that I think becomes more and more relevant to the Church today than at any other time in my lifetime.
 
Tails said:
I feel the state of society is getting worse and the end is very near. I say this as a young person. I just feel like I want to cry and go away to heaven or just oblivion nothingness right now because it will all go away. That’s how I feel in my heart sometimes. It seems like God arbitrarily allowed me to be born “too late” and knew things were going to happen in society by my 20s.

I don’t know if these people are just cynical or being on to something. I am confused by everything I’d say. I have read groups of people who for one thing, believe that America will become a communist/left-wing Hell pretty soon, and I admit that it doesn’t seem that big of a leap. Not saying that the right can’t also be bad sometimes, but I won’t lie I wish I was born and grew up in America earlier.

I will explain myself more later on. I just don’t want to be laughed at, though.
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If “Death of a Nation” is playing in a movie theater near you, may I suggest go see it before it leaves.
 
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