What will be seen as acceptable in 200 years time?

[Fingerprint]

I've just finished reading an article on the slave trade and it made me realise how slavery was seen as perfectly acceptable and universally beneficial only 200 or so year ago. Even many of the slaves themselves viewed slavery as part of the natural order.

It made me wonder if there are any aspects to our society that are seen as perfectly normal and acceptable today, which will be looked upon with horror in 200 years time?

Also how and why do sensabilities change? What does that say about humanity? Is there anything which is permanant or are all our views contextual? Is it possible therefore for something like slavery to ever be seen as acceptable again?

Personally I have quite a controversial opinion, I think one day it will dawn on mankind that imprisonment is an ineffective and expensive method of punishment , as well as being a totally inappropriate one for rehabilitation of offenders.

[curlyloxx]

slavery is still very much alive today. Slavery is the trade (for goods or money) of one human being to be owned by another. It is remembered in Great Britain, USA and the countries that slaves were traded from because of landmark decisions.

Slavery occurs but we call it different things - human traffiking is one term. I listen to a lot of American 'Gangsta' hip hop. Not because it's great, but because it's a statement about a place where a group of people trade. They trade insults, they trade drugs, they trade women. It is now less an issue of colour, as it very much was 200 years ago. 50 Cent and his G unit 'pimp' women. Those women are Black women. White Russian traffickers traffic white women. Chinese slave chinese... It hasn't ended, the dynamics have changed slightly. Interestingly, it's still often men who lead the slavery, and women who are majority victims of slavery.

Imprisonment is a different issue altogether. As a method to change a individual's behaviour there is evidence to show it doesn't work. The problem is that it balances the tension between public need to see criminals punished and the politicians need to be seen to tackle crime.

[WaldoMcFroog]

We'd better sort the environment out rather quicker than that if there's to be enough for us to exist in to deplore our current attitudes.

If we survive long enough, all of the world's major religions will naturally decrease and fall by the wayside in light of people understanding the fundamental flaws, contradictions and scientific impossibilities underpinning them.

[Carol Anne]

I wonder Fingrerprint,have you ever experienced a prison environment? As a nurse I was seconded to prison from time to time. I agree it's no an ideal answer to the problem of crime. But when you look closely at the population of degenerate morons it keeps of the streets then I would say, as every society has done since history began, very neccesary. By the way,
I take it that you haven't had a loved one senselessly slain by some worthless junkie for a few quid, or your home ransacked and trashed by mindless scum ?

[Loosehead]

Go Carol!

Ok Fingerprint what are we gonna do with the criminals then? Get a job lot of "Naughty Chairs" ?

[Fingerprint]

Well I'm not necessarily saying I have a better alternative than prison I'm saying that in 200 years time I think that we will have, and that we will see the reality of todays prison system.

Yes I have been a victim of crime, and yes I have worked in prisons. One of my findings was that the prison service is a massive dumping ground for people with mental health problems and people from deprived backgrounds. I don't have the statistics to hand but just do some research into the percentage of prisoners who are illiterate or who have low IQ's and you will be shocked.

I have a different perspective to you Carol because you are referring to people as worthless, scum and morons - I see them as humans. Nobody chooses to get addicted to drugs and the fact is if you had been given a less fortunate start in life then you could easily be in their shoes.

Anyway I don't want to focus too much on one issue, what else do you think will be seen as wrong in 200 years time.

[Loosehead]

I think in 200 years time we will look back in amazement at how we take 1 ton of steel to transport one person and 3 empty seats everywhere!. I don't know the answer but Like you on the prison subject I hope mankind would have come up with something by then! I also think that people in the future will find it amazing that anyone would want to filter hundreds of poisonous chemicals through their lungs and smell like an ashtray into the bargain!

[heathfield]

The way things are going we'll have CCTV in every room in the house linked to some kind of Civic Control Centre

[Carol Anne]

Yes, no bleeding hearts here Fingerprint, lets face it, you'll never make a silk purse from a sows ear. Whether it's 200 or 2000 years from now there will always be offenders who have to be contained.

[chitchat]

Fingerprint - anyone who takes drugs is a moron. They have a choice to take the drugs and it is not just the lower classes who take them either.

I expect in 200 years there wont be much left of the world after all the wars, terrorist attacks and damage to the environment etc. And I am glad I wont be here to see it. All the changes I have seen in my lifetime have not all been to the good. Mankind is killing itself by greed and depleting the world of its assets.

[Llamatron]

I agree with chitchat. The idiots in charge will have got us all killed long before another two centuries are up.

But if we do make it I'd like to think that the human race will have grown up and figured out that religion is all superstitious nonsense born of fear and ignorance.
Kids grow out of Father Christmas and hopefully mankind will grow out of religion.

We'll look back and laugh at how gullible we all were.

[brionon]

What will be Unacceptable ? Our treatment of our fellow creatures.

[jump79]

I think people will probably look at our era, more with awe than horror as although pollution/wastage is at an all time high right now, there won't be much of an environment left in another 50-100 years at this rate.

And we are probably going to be a lot, lot healthier than the people in the future because though medical advances will continue to improve life expectancy etc, the pollution and global warming will result in widespread diseases that will be harder to control, alongside increasing scarcity of resources (esp. water) ......... probably resulting in hostilities, even wars among various countries

[vehelpfulguy]

I think there are quite a few things that will seem amazing in 200 years time that we accept now.

1) The way we pander to the car. Building roads and motorways all over the place just to allow people to drive further and further distances, but just finish up in queues.

2) The way we allow unlimited and uncontrolled human births. The world population is growing and the planet cannot cope yet we continue to allow anybody and everybody to continue to have as many children as they want.

3) The way we treat other species. We hold human life sacrosanct yet in the UK alone we kill 800 MILLION chickens a year to eat.

And some idiots still think it is clever to blast birds out the sky with guns. Morons.

4) That people still died from cancer.

I think the world will be an AWFUL place to live in 200 years time, rather like that portrayed in the film Soylent Green.

We are already seeing the breakdown of society in the UK with the amount of stabbings and shootngs going on.

Uncontrolled immigration can only make it worse.

[littleone85]

I with Mani Hussain on this one, i think tolerance of abortion is going to be looked on with horror in 200 years, probably even less than that actually.

[NJOK]

I think drugs will be legal, regulated and widely used whereas booze will be used a lot less. Alcohol will be the new smoking.

I disagree with the abortion comments. I think if anything it will be more common, as will designer babies.

I half-agree with Fingerprint. I think that prisons will still exist but will be used only for certain types of crimes and criminals. Other, more appropriate forms of punishment and rehabilitation will be introduced for many, possibly the majority of, crimes. The idea of chucking all types of criminals into prison and leaving them there - then wondering why they all reoffend - will be seen as incredibly primitive. Imprisonment will be retained for some offences though.

I think we'll see a return to the Renaissance-style body shape where the ideal woman is far from skinny.

I think right wing politics will be dominant and will have led to an every-man-for-himself way of life. The idea of community will have all but gone.

And food will be taken in pill form and we'll fire laser guns and wear silver spandex etc etc etc