Why the increase in teenage suicides?

Former Member

Dude, we had a whole thread on whether lack of religion was to blame for a degrading society.

Former Member

Originally posted by Fiend_85
Dude, we had a whole thread on whether lack of religion was to blame for a degrading society.

I think I missed that one. It's a perennial debate though. Were there any interesting conclusions?

Former Member

I don't remember, so don't quote me on it. But I think most people went away agreeing that to be acountable is important but that to be a 'good' person you don't have to be a member of any particular religion, though being religious doesn't always hurt.

Former Member

i think religion is a factor in suicide, although not necesarily society in general...

see, my older, religious relatives, believed life was a gift, and that it was not yours to take away. the idea of suicide was abhorrent to them, even when they went through things people these days couldn't even imagine. and on top of all that, they truly, honestly believe that if they had faith, god would help them out.

as for there being more pressure on kids these days - does anyone really believe that? you think doing more exams, or media pressure is any worse than being called up at 18 years old and sent off to fight (usually to the death) for your country? or being sent to work 14 hour days in a factory at the age of 8/9/10? i don't think so. life is tough, but it always has been tough. and i think we are softer these days. we give up more easily. and instead of trying to overcome whatever demons we have, we just say it's an illness, and we can't help it. we don't try as hard anymore.

Former Member

Originally posted by MoonRat
Personally I think we're evolving too slow and society is evolving too fast for us to cope.

Society has changed, there is no community anymore.

Humans are inherently pack animals, it's how we survived. We can't run fast, we can't fight well, we don't have good armour, we basically relied on safety in numbers.

People need people. Today's society is compartmentalised, nobody knows their neighbours, the world is owned by two or three hyper-millionaires instead of the local tyrant, travel is so easy it is hard to keep family. All my family lived within two mile sof each otehr, for most people that's unheard of now.

We're not evolving too slowly, our bodies and our minds are telling us that how we are being forced to live is bad for our wellbeing.

Former Member

Originally posted by morrocan roll
when i was a kid most of our lives were spent outdoors ...in the streets. every mother in those streets were mum to every kid in the streets.
people didn't fitted carpets or anything of real value ...if they did ...they were in a locked cabinet ...in the front room ...out of bounds.
kids were in and out of each others houses day and night ...as were the mums ...all the dads being at work night and day.
grannies and aunts and cousins etc all lived nearby.
that was real comunity where if a man fell ill ...the whole street knew about it and the kids were taken in by various families to give the bloke a rest.
babies were born at home and delivered by the midwife who lived localy or one of the nieghbours.
that kind of comunity doesn't exist anymore.
no i'm not saying it was somwe kind of golden age ...
there were polio epidemics and other such shit to deal with but ...everyone was mostly in the same boat financialy and every other way.
it meant kids always had someone to turn to ...somewhere to go ...divorce was none existant for the working classes.
the very best of support networks existed but no one thought of them as such at the time.
then came mass slum clearance and tower blocks ...huge roads slicing comunities in half ...populations of generations scattered far and wide ...the car ...enabling people to move ...travel further to work.
then came books about how to be happy ...how to be a good parent ...how to enjoy sex ...all totaly unescessary but turned into essential reading.
then came the telly etc etc ...the world of old was litteraly swept aside in the 60's.
this new world we now inhabit is not geared toward human needs ...it's geared toward money and appearances etc.
for all our cleverness i don't think we are designed to live like this.

You're right society at the moment isn't natural at all . So I don't understand why we put up with it

I think we are living in one of those ages common in history, where society goes wrong, is all debauched and messed up, then s/t comes along and reverts it back to some normality. (hopefully)