What hasn't changed for the longest time?

They've been around for thousands of years, and I never know if I'm supposed to pay at the table or at the counter. At least in Europe.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how crazy it is that schools are still the way they are. I used to refrain from talking about this because I felt too biased as someone who quit school at 13, but really, aren't there much better ways to help kids develop? I'm not saying school shouldn't exist but at least let's make it drastically different.

I'm not saying we should make any drastic changes here. I don't have a strong opinion on this. I'm just observing that the Western world has had closely related types of democratic governments for a while (with some awful dictatorships here and there).

Okay I do have an opinion on this particular type of government. Also not a strong opinion because I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'll say this: I hope Belgium collapses. I realize how privileged I am to be from one of the wealthiest and probably safest countries in the world. I'm certainly not complaining. That being said, I think this country is ridiculous and makes no sense. It's always so hard to form a government because the Flemish and the Walloons don't agree with each other (which however doesn't mean that the country can't function), and both parts are drastically different politically, culturally, and economically. Let's just implode, guys.

It's been normalized as a social drug for a long time. Several people here on NotePD have touched upon this topic.

They may be fairly recent compared to the entirety of human history (the 1600s, I think?), but nation-states have been the norm for a while now. Some say they won't be around for much longer anymore. I don't know.

I don't know what prison should be like. While part of me thinks society should be tough on crime (I'm not particularly knowledgeable on this but it seems to me that many European cities are struggling with crime and dangerous areas and I've heard that, at least in Belgium, it's very hard to actually put people in jail), I can also imagine that prisons, as they are in most of the world, are probably not a great way to rehabilitate people. People say good things about the prison system in Norway. I don't know.

Also, I was watching Your Honor (I loooooved season 1, just started season 2), and there was a prison rodeo. I told my mom "Surely that can't be a real thing?" and she said "It could be; Americans can be pretty crazy." Sure enough, PRISON RODEOS ARE A REAL THING.

For those who are not familiar: It's crazier than it sounds.

Bureaucracy is known for being a complicated mess in many countries. It seems everyone says so about their own country or the country they moved to. Italy. Spain. Belgium. Argentina. France. I've heard this about many countries. Why is it like that? Is it so the government can give people jobs even though they're pointless? Is it because lawmakers feel like they need to come up with more rules because that's their job? Why does everything need to be so complicated?