My first foray into the blogosphere will be something of a rant. If successful, I will rant again... and again.
I have two current beefs. One is the lack of politeness in society. Is it asking too much of one's fellow human beings that they say "please" and "thank you" to shop assistants, bus drivers, waiters, people who hold doors open and people who let others out into traffic? Have we really become a nation of such self-important, time-poor, narcissists that we consider "please" and "thank you" to be beneath us?
I have lost count of the number of people who would rather push past others, than say "excuse me". Have we become so paranoid that we believe that "excuse me" will bring out "manner rage" in others? Will they pull out their Uzis, flick knives, dirty bombs or weapons that they are hiding on behalf of the Iranian regime to blow us away?
"You infidel motherf***er! How dare you say 'excuse me' to me? Do you know who I am? Huh? Well, eat weapons grade plutonium, you over mannered ****".
Oh, and another thing while we are at it. I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO YOUR MOBILE PHONE CONVERSATION. EVER. UNLESS IT'S A 999 CALL AND I CAN USE IT AS A TOPIC OF DINNER CHIT CHAT.
On a more positive note, nice people really make my day. I always remember those people who hold doors open or say, "after you" when it comes to getting on the train. It makes my day a little more bearable.
The other beef I have is violence and aggression. Why do we as a society put up with it and then spend far too much money on jailing aggressive people, whilst the rest of us work until February (or something) to pay for them? I'm not advocating the death penalty, as one innocent person is one too many. However, what about placing the long-term, persisently violent offenders on a large island somewhere? We drop basic resources into them, let them receive letters and do what they want to each other on the island. They can become lords of their fiefdom and get out their latent anger on one another. Perhaps we could call it Celebrity Death Island and get a weapons manufacturer to sponsor it.
Just for the record, I would add persistent tailgaters and rude people to the island. Why just keep it for the mainly underclass criminals when we can throw in all the aggressive sales people, bullying managers and other assorted arseholes?
I have two current beefs. One is the lack of politeness in society. Is it asking too much of one's fellow human beings that they say "please" and "thank you" to shop assistants, bus drivers, waiters, people who hold doors open and people who let others out into traffic? Have we really become a nation of such self-important, time-poor, narcissists that we consider "please" and "thank you" to be beneath us?
I have lost count of the number of people who would rather push past others, than say "excuse me". Have we become so paranoid that we believe that "excuse me" will bring out "manner rage" in others? Will they pull out their Uzis, flick knives, dirty bombs or weapons that they are hiding on behalf of the Iranian regime to blow us away?
"You infidel motherf***er! How dare you say 'excuse me' to me? Do you know who I am? Huh? Well, eat weapons grade plutonium, you over mannered ****".
Oh, and another thing while we are at it. I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO YOUR MOBILE PHONE CONVERSATION. EVER. UNLESS IT'S A 999 CALL AND I CAN USE IT AS A TOPIC OF DINNER CHIT CHAT.
On a more positive note, nice people really make my day. I always remember those people who hold doors open or say, "after you" when it comes to getting on the train. It makes my day a little more bearable.
The other beef I have is violence and aggression. Why do we as a society put up with it and then spend far too much money on jailing aggressive people, whilst the rest of us work until February (or something) to pay for them? I'm not advocating the death penalty, as one innocent person is one too many. However, what about placing the long-term, persisently violent offenders on a large island somewhere? We drop basic resources into them, let them receive letters and do what they want to each other on the island. They can become lords of their fiefdom and get out their latent anger on one another. Perhaps we could call it Celebrity Death Island and get a weapons manufacturer to sponsor it.
Just for the record, I would add persistent tailgaters and rude people to the island. Why just keep it for the mainly underclass criminals when we can throw in all the aggressive sales people, bullying managers and other assorted arseholes?
3 comments:
The lack of politeness in our society manifests itself most obviously to me on the tube. When I first moved to London, in 1990, everybody on the platform unfailingly waited for all passengers to get off the train before jumping on. THese days the doors open and immediately people start trying to push their way in. I make a point of shoulder-charging those that do, which I suspect will get me punched one day, but I find it unbelievably rude. It's also stupid. All the jostling and barging mean that the trains just take longer to leave the station.
I couldn't agree more. The stupidity of people trying to get on, as others try to get off, is staggering. Funnily enough, Miss Gomezcat and I were talking about this today. We agreed that that this attitude, and the lack of space, will one day drive us out of London. I worry, one day, that I will snap and attack someone who tries to push past me.
BTW, everyone with an interest in crime fiction should visit material witness's blog. It is a great read!
We should force all English to get to the football and take out their rage there!
Nothing quite blows off the steam like a good shouting of, "You scouse bastards!"
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