"Messi looked like a possesed dwarf with the face of the devil"

Society is at its all time best time just each generation glorifies its own heydays similar to millennials glorifying the 90s (a bland decade compared to the previous ones). The frustrations of today, people had their own frustrations with their own concepts in their own generations.

That being said Id have killed to live in 50s America, 70s & 80s etc in terms of modern eras.

That being said, Bill is right as Messi and Ronaldo are both in irrelevant leagues and its time to move on past the discussion of them by now its a bit redundant

Who is that in your avatar?

I always though that was Henchoz but upon closer inspection looks like a young Klopp.

Its Kloppoooooooo

Vibe wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:

Vibe wrote:I actually meant life in general, sorry for not being more specific.

Two decades

70s - for fun loving times in my 20’s
96 - 2006 - my swan song in my career

What did you do for a living, Bill? I guess you're well into retirement now.

I was a Banking executive in technology. Been retired since 2007.

Arquitecto wrote:Society is at its all time best time just each generation glorifies its own heydays similar to millennials glorifying the 90s (a bland decade compared to the previous ones). The frustrations of today, people had their own frustrations with their own concepts in their own generations.

That being said Id have killed to live in 50s America, 70s & 80s etc in terms of modern eras.

I do agree that millennials, like myself, tend to glorify the 90s. I will say, though, the economic situation of the world seemed to be at it's peak during the late 90s, early 00s. When I was in college, I remember reading in our largest, online newspaper that we were the only country in the world that had no people below the poverty line.

Nowadays, that's not quite true. Poverty may be minuscule and not noticeable for most people here, but our charity organizations, like soup kitchens and the red cross have reported over the past few years that requests for various types of financial and material aid has exploded. We're experiencing inflation these days, like a lot of countries are, and the Norwegian currency is incredibly weak. Over the past decade or so, countries like, Greece and Iceland have gone bankrupt, and it seems to me that we're moving past a global peak financially.

Teenagers here are referred to in the media as "generation performance" because they're overachieving academically. They've been very glorified in the media here for their academic excellence, especially during Covid and online classes.

On the flip side, they are the social media generation, and it's been revealed more recently that the depression and suicide rates among them is at an all time high. Record numbers of students aim to become surgeons, lawyers and other "high status jobs".

I suspect many of them pursue those careers for the sake of gaining clout on social media, so it's not surprising to me that they end up with depression when they realize that they're working their asses off for the sake of looking good to others.

The late 90s was quite edgy and emo, but the depression statistics back then weren't even close to what they are now. It was just cool to look the part back then I might be gradually turning into a grumpy middle-ager as I'm approaching 40, but that outlook on life seems like a very negative development to me. Humility has always been the most archetypal, Scandinavian value that I'm aware of, but it seems like we're gradually turning into Americans culturally. I don't know if this phenomenon is common in other countries.

futbol_bill wrote:

Vibe wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:

Two decades

70s - for fun loving times in my 20’s
96 - 2006 - my swan song in my career

What did you do for a living, Bill? I guess you're well into retirement now.

I was a Banking executive in technology. Been retired since 2007.

You are a legend Bill.

El Gunner wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:

Vibe wrote:

What did you do for a living, Bill? I guess you're well into retirement now.

I was a Banking executive in technology. Been retired since 2007.

sounds like a good life, Bill

what's retirement mostly been like?
in terms, what have you been up to?
how does it feel? are you bored more often? do you miss working?

We travel a lot. Do I miss it, hell no. For 5 years after I retired they tried to get me to come back to handle some mergers in SA. I repeatedly said no, I was too busy to go back. I keep active, go to the gym 4 to 5 times a week at both of our homes. Never bored.

Interesting to hear about that Thimmy... the old world is going away even for u guys in the 'best' country region traditionally regards as I guess... its in large part due to money, together with ppl having been lucky enough to grow up in such a great environment they want it to continue their whole lives, but there can only be so many high paid jobs n economical n wealth growth for so long? Im not sure but maybe due to global competition n slowing down of the worldwide economy, etc., a lot of ppl are realizing their lives wont be as good as they hope as a result n will need to adapt to just being average n relatively 'poor' like many more ppl are becoming?

I don't think Norway will be anywhere close to poor in my lifetime. We're still among the wealthiest countries in the world thanks to oil and an insane, sovereign wealth fund that went a little above 2 trillion dollars last year, before it went down by 400 billion or so this year due to dropping investments. It's an intentionally sustainable fund that the government uses to invest in various markets all over the world, and it will likely last for a while after the oil runs out or the world shifts towards a different energy source. But that fund also depends on the economical prosperity, or lack thereof, in the world.

I do suspect that we are transitioning away from our best times economically, and it seems like most of the world are heading in the same direction to some extent. The day when we do dig into our wealth fund in order to sustain the country, will obviously be the day when we can no longer rely on oil, which is what made the country wealthy in the first place.

I don't want to be like the people who grow older and start to constantly complain about generational changes in culture and entertainment, but I do think my future children won't grow up with the same standards of living that I grew up with due to various factors, and economical uncertainty being one of those factors. 15 years ago, I would have told you that the future seems to have even better things in store for the younger generations, but everything was pointing in that direction back then. I will hopefully retire in my 60s and travel a lot, like my dad does and my grandparents did, but I don't think my kids will be as privileged. I might not even be able to retire in my 60s due to the wave of elderly people.

The evolution of "Messi looked like a possessed dwarf" thread has been impressive

Thimmy wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:Society is at its all time best time just each generation glorifies its own heydays similar to millennials glorifying the 90s (a bland decade compared to the previous ones). The frustrations of today, people had their own frustrations with their own concepts in their own generations.

That being said Id have killed to live in 50s America, 70s & 80s etc in terms of modern eras.

I do agree that millennials, like myself, tend to glorify the 90s. I will say, though, the economic situation of the world seemed to be at it's peak during the late 90s, early 00s. When I was in college, I remember reading in our largest, online newspaper that we were the only country in the world that had no people below the poverty line.

Nowadays, that's not quite true. Poverty may be minuscule and not noticeable for most people here, but our charity organizations, like soup kitchens and the red cross have reported over the past few years that requests for various types of financial and material aid has exploded. We're experiencing inflation these days, like a lot of countries are, and the Norwegian currency is incredibly weak. Over the past decade or so, countries like, Greece and Iceland have gone bankrupt, and it seems to me that we're moving past a global peak financially.

Teenagers here are referred to in the media as "generation performance" because they're overachieving academically. They've been very glorified in the media here for their academic excellence, especially during Covid and online classes.

On the flip side, they are the social media generation, and it's been revealed more recently that the depression and suicide rates among them is at an all time high. Record numbers of students aim to become surgeons, lawyers and other "high status jobs".

I suspect many of them pursue those careers for the sake of gaining clout on social media, so it's not surprising to me that they end up with depression when they realize that they're working their asses off for the sake of looking good to others.

The late 90s was quite edgy and emo, but the depression statistics back then weren't even close to what they are now. It was just cool to look the part back then I might be gradually turning into a grumpy middle-ager as I'm approaching 40, but that outlook on life seems like a very negative development to me. Humility has always been the most archetypal, Scandinavian value that I'm aware of, but it seems like we're gradually turning into Americans culturally. I don't know if this phenomenon is common in other countries.

It's any generation of the past not just millennials but millennials are a special brand of holding onto the past and forcing their refusal to let go of their childhood, to the new generation.

As for depression its just documented more now why its that much higher along with a higher sample size of documentees due to the obvious (increased population).

The real loss to mourn is the loss of culture, to which simply hasn't truly formed as a result of globalism and the shift and mosaic of so many cultures melting into one another but that isnt really a tangible element to glorify, as much as I miss it.

And yes the Americanisation of all else outside of the USA is very much real and will continue to bleed into other continents. And to me thats the real possessed dwarf with the face of evil, not Messi's fat ass

80s were incredible (my teenage years).  The 90s were good too but in a different way.  It wasn't bland at all...  just changed.  Culture fit the music as electronic, hip hop and grunge rock eras started.

I had a great time.  Everyone was a lot more real than today.  There was no internet to speak of and no mobile phones.  So you had to meet and interact with people face to face.  You couldn't shop online so you had to go to stores.  You couldn't research online so you had to go to different libraries.  There was no youtube/netflix so TV (and cable TV in the 90s) was key.  Everyone spent a lot of time going to the movies (I went to see a movie every weekend almost).  I had a huge library of books.  I went to the record store to discover and listen to music.  No text messaging so you spoke on the phone (we had pagers in the 90s though).  No GPS so you had to learn the city and use maps.  Etc.

Mobile phones, streaming media, social media, and the internet changed everything completely.  Night and day.

An analog world. 99% of kids today couldn't survive in an analog world.

To be honest each time I see those videos of high school kids in the 80s and early to mid 90s it absolutely sends me over the fact that I was not there to experience such a time.
Growing up and making my bones in the world of business I always wanted to do deals like they did in Scorsese films cocktail napkins over dinner tables but the fact is its barely there now and half the world is now vaulted into the online world.

Thereby less presence in the world off screen now.