Their glee must be almost unbounded since three came along in rapid succession:

• Economic collapse – latest chapter here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1862

• Paramageddon, AKA Swine Flu: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1756

• Ongoing war - now in Afghanistan, and anywhere where a few radical Muslims are likely to be

Not to mention ongoing “climate change”, social collapse and other more domestic problems.

There are times when I feel I am living in some sci-fi future. Those hacks in the media must be truly excited by all of this. The only two kinds of people making money at the moment must be journalists and those who make red ink to print SALE signs.

The rest of us are looking forward to a future of illness, poverty, war, crime and slow migration to the poles to escape the oncoming desert acting out a media-lead script.

It is beginning to feel rather like the start of Revelation, isn't it?

As long as there are people thinking, like yourself, we have hope. We must remain ready to engage when we need to, and to disengage when it makes sense to hang back (like with watching the news just to be made fearful).

I think it's made worse by the media insisting on a negative spin to even good stories.

Case in point...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8155057.stm

The story is that retailers are giving out almost 50% fewer plastic bags now than they were a couple of years ago. They almost hit their target, but the story is spun as a failure.

Bad news sells, obviously.

I don’t see it as a failure though. A 2% miss when the volumes are so high may make for big numbers, but compare that big number with the even bigger number of bags that were not handed out.

For people of my generation we ARE living in a dystopian "Sci Fi" future . I've rambled on about this in the "Financial meltdown" thread, but in essence we seem to be moving towards one of those 'Gibsonian' "1984" + "Brave New World" + "Bladerunner" futures where the masses scrabble around the periphery of a high-tech world inhabited by the rich few.... Nasty

That's what I meant. Retailers missed their target by 2%, so the whole thing was a failure, according to the headline writer. The story itself goes on to explain that it's actually a good news story.

My dream come true! I can live in filth and squalor, with an incongruous car. To complete the picture, I shall make may way to may parent’s house to rescue my bow and arrows.