bombus wrote:
Just one thing though to those who say that people have changed in the last 20 or 30 years. Does this mean that the people who used to have "OK" attitudes and behaviour now no longer do (including, presumably, yourselves!), or does it just mean that the upstarts who have replaced them in terms of age are the ones with problematic attitudes and behaviour?.
Crikey, thats a wide ranging question mate.
There is a lot about society today that is much, much better than it was in, say, the 60's or 70's. Casual racism was rife - just do a google search for the TV show 'Love They neighbour'
- , we still had an obvious class system and people in general enjoyed a much worse standard of living than they do today. Life took place at a much slower pace than it does today meaning there was less pressure on us, and there was less traffic which meant simple journeys did not quickly break down into marathon jam-sitting sessions.
But, today, we expect more from life even if we don't earn or deserve it and think we have a right to throw a wobbler if we don't get it. We desire so much more and, probably on the whole, work hard to achieve it even though this leaves less time for each other, our families and our social responsibilities.
I don't recall seeing people snarling at one another over things like parking spaces and places in the queue, or experiencing such gratuitous rudeness as playing loud music regardless of the effect it has on those around us.
Young people today are much more 'streetwise' than I ever was but, in my experience working with them as recruits to the RAF, are much less emotionally mature. They do not accept crticism readily and have difficulty living with one another and petty differences soon become major problems.
I think us older adults have difficulty accepting that the world around us is changing and that we either change too or face a struggle against an unstoppable tide. Taking the tightening up in domestic rubbish collection as an example, we used to just throw whatever we wanted into the bin and it conveniently disappeared once a week. Nowadays there is a desire to reduce and control the amount of personal waste we produce and, as a result, this is beginning to introduce restrictions and inconvenience where previously there was none. Folks want to carry on as before and so some resist and complain blaming it all on the council and their petty rules.
And, as a final offering, we often hear the cry 'why not just use common sense' bandied around. Well, if the case of the lass killed on the quad bike, and poor little Madelaine McCann are anything to go by, common sense amongst those we hope would possess it in spades, appears to be in increasingly short supply
Note to potential respondants: The above is written AS A WHOLE in order to convey my general perceptions of what is right and wrong about todays society. Please resist slicing it up in order to tackle the individual examples I have used, I hope you can all see that they are just examples and not meant to be over-analysed.